Why Fire Emblem Heroes Is Nintendo’s Most Successful Mobile Game
Fire Emblem Heroes is Nintendo’s most successful mobile game by a wide margin. There’s a reason it’s seen such success over Mario and others.
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In 2016, Nintendo entered the mobile game with Miitomo, an app that where players create their own Mii and interact with friends. Four years later and Nintendo has seen phenomenal success on mobile with some of their biggest series. Yet, surprisingly, Fire Emblem Heroes is far and away the most successful, even above giants like Mario and Animal Crossing.
Sensor Tower’s store intelligence data reveals that Fire Emblem Heroes has had over $650 million spent in the game, with Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp a far second on $131 million. Keep in mind Pokemon Go isn’t included in those earnings as the series is owned by The Pokemon Company.
That’s a wide margin by any degree, and it’s especially surprising given that the series was almost at the end of its life until eight years ago when Fire Emblem Awakening launched, completely revitalizing it. Fire Emblem Heroes’ success is more than just a fluke, however.
What Fire Emblem Heroes Got Right
If there’s one thing Nintendo fans love, it’s characters. Just look at the Super Smash Bros. series, which collects iconic characters from across gaming. Fire Emblem Heroes is the one Nintendo mobile game that doubles down on popular characters and harnesses nostalgia for its success.
Gacha mechanics have become a major part of mobile gaming over the last decade, and it basically means adapting the idea of Gacha machines (toy-capsule machines) in Japan. By spending currency players have a chance of obtaining a specific character or item.
Fire Emblem’s long history plays into the idea of Gacha incredibly well, as fans want to collect their favorite characters from their favorite game. This is bolstered by the gameplay mechanics of Fire Emblem, which uses the weapon triangle to make certain units more effective against others. Because of that, players may want their favorite character not only because they like them, but because they’ll work into their sword-user army build well.
Fire Emblem Heroes has kept a constant stream of new events and new characters flowing in. Holiday events give heroes special outfits and weapons, new releases like Fire Emblem: Three Houses add brand new characters to the game, and community polls give the most popular heroes powerful new versions. Lyn, one of the most popular characters in Fire Emblem history, has six different versions in Fire Emblem Heroes.
Past just having tons of popular characters in the game, Nintendo took it one step further. Each and every character has unique art done by a host of talented artists from Japan, and each one also has unique voice acting. It’s a brilliant way to make every character feel vibrant and unique, even if they’re the same person. Spending real money is the quickest and easiest way to get these heroes, not to mention the money that can be spent to improve weapons and make characters stronger. Gacha mechanics are nothing new to mobile gaming, but it’s not every day there’s a series with decades of history use them.
What Nintendo’s Other Mobile Games Got Wrong
Many of Nintendo’s other mobile games have been successful, but the gap in success is so large because they simply don’t harness player’s nostalgia for the series the same way. Fire Emblem Heroes’ Gacha mechanics have a direct effect on gameplay as different characters give players different options and strengths.
Compare this to Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, which has microtransactions mostly based on aesthetics, like getting new items for a camp or new clothing. Gamers can earn enough variation in these elements through normal gameplay, so it simply doesn’t compare to trying to get your favorite character.
On the other hand, Dr. Mario World and Mario Kart Tour hamper their experiences with microtransactions. Dr. Mario encourages players to spend money to keep playing new levels, while Mario Kart Tour requires a monthly pass that gives players access to new aspects of the game. Fire Emblem Heroes also recently announced a monthly subscription pass, but until now players weren’t losing out on anything significant by not spending money. They could still get characters and play every map.
Fire Emblem Heroes has balanced its experience well by giving enough free content that most players will feel satisfied, while still allowing deeper spending money to really help. It’s a balance that Nintendo’s other mobile games have simply struggled to find.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/fire-emblem-heroes-nintendo-best-mobile-game-reason/