Earlier this year we reported that Nintendo would finally break into the mobile market, although not exactly in the way that we thought. The company announced their plans to create mobile apps, not games, which would be based around the company’s existing franchise. This is a bit of a bummer for gamers since mobile Nintendo games would be awesome.
Putting that aside, the first mobile app that Nintendo will be launching is an app called Mario Kart TV. This app will coincide with the launch of Mario Kart 8 which will be seeing a release on the 30th of May. The app will allow gamers to watch and share gameplay footage, screenshots (both official and user-generated), as well as view rankings and get some official tips from Nintendo themselves.
If anything it sounds like Mario Kart TV is more of a companion app of sorts, which we guess for some gamers would be a pretty cool thing to have. Unfortunately it looks like the app will be targeting Japan, at least at the start. Nintendo did not explicitly mention when the app might make its way stateside, although we reckon there might be some localizing to do if it does.
According to Nintendo’s president, Satoru Iwata, “This ‘Mario Kart TV’ (temp.) web service is available even for players without NNIDs, but by logging into the service with an NNID, they will be able to easily find their rankings, videos that their friends have shared, videos of tournaments in which they have participated, and it will be convenient to access this service through smart devices even when they are not at home.”
It sounds like an interesting idea, although the lack of support for western markets does seem like a bit of a let down. The “app” itself is more of a web app and can be viewed on a number of devices, like the PC, smartphones, and tablets.
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