Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Nintendo To Bring Pokemon To iOS And Android This Summer

Hey You, Pokdork!

The every-geek’s guilty-pleasure license is coming to iOS and Android. Surprise! Nintendo has — quite understandably, really — avoided building games or apps for iOS or Android, focusing all of their portable efforts on their own DS platform.

Alas, there’s a catch. Prep yourself for a bit of bubble-bursting, then join us behind the jump.

The catch: while Pokemon Say Tap? might feature a number of your favorite pocket monsters, it’s nothing like the classic Pokemon games as you know it. It’s part card game, part rhythm game, but no parts roaming-around-in-tall-grass-and-capturing-things. Sadly, there’s no indication that this game will see the light of day outside of Japan.

Also sad: after news of the iOS game breaking in Japan sent Nintendo stock rocketing up by nearly 5%, a Nintendo rep reiterated that they do not intend to focus much effort into iOS/Android development, and that their strategy “hasn’t changed and won’t change.” My dreams of a gyroscope-powered Pokemon Snap have been crushed.

Fun Fact: The name “iOS” (well, IOS, with a capital i) was actually used by Nintendo long before Apple. Its the name of the operating system that runs on one of the Wii’s coprocessors. The More You Know!