After ‘Animal Crossing’, Nintendo plans a ‘Zelda’ for mobile—report

A “Zelda” game for mobile could be the franchise’s next release after “Breath of the Wild”. Image: Nintendo/YouTube LLC via AFP Relaxnews

The latest “Legend of Zelda” is Nintendo’s biggest hit of the year, and the console company is working on a franchise entry made especially for mobile phones, according to a new report.

Nintendo is preparing a “Legend of Zelda” game for mobile devices, the Wall Street Journal reports.

A release during the second half of 2017 is suggested, barring the sort of scheduling alterations that saw a mobile “Animal Crossing” game moved into the second half of 2018, away from the Android debut of “Super Mario Run”.

Now in its 31st year, the “Legend of Zelda” series welcomed “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” onto Nintendo Wii and Nintendo Switch consoles in March.

It was published as a high-profile launch title for the Switch, arriving on the same day as the brand new home and portable hybrid.

Received as one of the best games in the storied franchise and, consequently, one of the best games of all time, a subsequent financial report revealed that the Switch version of the game had even outsold the console itself.

With the Switch heading towards its first end-of-year holiday season and “Breath of the Wild” remaining one of its essential titles, the timing is good for a “Zelda” game to become Nintendo’s fourth mobile excursion should its suggested release date hold.

Should it arrive after the “Animal Crossing” adaptation, “Zelda” for mobile is in line to become Nintendo’s sixth iOS and Android app.

Following decades of exclusivity to its own consoles, Nintendo stepped onto the mobile operating systems in March 2016 with its atypical social networking solution, Miitomo.

“Super Mario Run” adapted the company’s most well-known franchise, leaping onto iOS in September of the same year (March 2017 on Android), strategy adventure “Fire Emblem Heroes” followed in February 2017, and a parental controls app accompanied the Switch’s launch in March.

Location discovery game “Pokémon GO” was an enormous hit in 2016 but, despite strong associations with Nintendo’s handheld consoles, it was instead developed by The Pokémon Company and Google spin-off Niantic.

Neither Nintendo nor mobile development partner DeNA responded to the WSJ’s request for comment on the “Zelda” project. JB