I'm a pretty big Fire Emblem fan. That used to be a small group, but it's gotten to be quite large of late based on the success of the recent Nintendo 3DS releases. I know some fans aren't happy with the changes in the series that brought about that success, but I'm thrilled because I don't have to worry that Nintendo is going to smuggle it away to whatever closet or crawlspace they've locked Advance Wars up in. Fire Emblem Awakening was basically the last chance for the series, and was designed to be an epic last hurrah if things came to that. As I sit here today several years later, Fire Emblem is bigger than ever. So big, in fact, that Nintendo selected it to be one of their first mobile ventures. You really never know.
Of course, I doubt they chose it simply based on popularity. As successful as Fire Emblem is of late, Nintendo does have bigger guns in its arsenal. No, I suspect Fire Emblem was chosen because it is a good fit for the mobile market in several ways. As a turn-based simulation RPG, switching to touch-only controls wouldn't hurt the gameplay very much. But more than that, its nuts and bolts are well-suited for application to the hottest style of game in Japan right now: the social RPG. There are tons of characters spanning 15 games and 25 years of art design. One of the core gameplay elements involves recruiting new characters for your team and choosing your favorites to field. With only a few exceptions, the games all involve fighting a series of battles w...