'Legend of Zelda' and 'Pokemon' mobile game versions following 'Animal Crossing' in 2018

Nintendo continues its move forward with two classic games reportedly hitting the mobile gaming sector soon. "Legend of Zelda" and "Pokemon" will allegedly follow "Animal Crossing," a game that the Japanese company plans to release before 2018.

DeNA will be the group tasked to work on the mobile version of "Legend of Zelda" while The Pokemon Company will be coming up with another card-based game, the Wall Street Journal reports. For those who have followed the moves of Nintendo, the announcement comes a bit of a surprise.

Prior to 2015, Nintendo said that it would not bring in mobile versions of their game titles. Seeing, however, that the trend has been going down that road, the landscape may have convinced them to reshuffle their outlook. Before word came out on plans for "Legend of Zelda" and "Pokemon," Nintendo released other familiar titles. The list includes "Mitomo," "Fire Emblem," "Heroes" and the popular "Super Mario Run."

How deep will "Legend of Zelda" be?

"Legend of Zelda" ranks among the best game titles of Nintendo, so it will be interesting how the mobile game version will be played. The same holds true on whether "Zelda" would require payment or follow the same route of "Super Mario Run," GameSpot reports.

"Super Mario Run" can be downloaded for free, though the game levels are limited to three. Folks need to shell out an addition US$10 (AU$13.48) to unlock the whole game. "Legend of Zelda" may possibly follow the same mechanics.

"Pokemon" card game, not "Pokemon Go"
With regards to "Pokemon," the same holds true on how the Pokemon Company will introduce the mobile version to mobile gamers. Developers will need to get a bit creative to make it stand out and draw some attention away from "Pokemon Go" and the Trading Card Game currently available from app stores.

Right now, the only thing certain is that "Legend of Zelda" and "Pokemon" will be offering a new mobile game version, probably by mid-2018 at the earliest. Progress will depend on when "Animal Crossing" whose release date has already been pushed back to next year.

Nintendo will equally have to be careful since mobile games have been struggling commercially. According to WSJ, mobile games have brought in only about US$176.4 million (AU$237 million) for the fiscal year which ended last March 30. Hence, Nintendo needs to make sure that both mobile game versions of "Legend of Zelda" and "Pokemon" don’t end up being flops.