Pictonico! means Nintendo is making mobile games again. Why?

A new Nintendo game has arrived on smartphones. Pictonico! is a WarioWare-style microgame compilation that pulls faces from your photo library and leans into quick one-two-three gameplay; developer Intelligent Systems translates that rhythm cleanly, and the concept promises plenty of goofy delight.

Nintendo first turned to mobile as the Wii U faltered, and then-president Satoru Iwata was forced to climb down after initially swearing off smartphones. A partnership with DeNA produced Super Mario Run and Mario Kart Tour, alongside gacha titles such as Fire Emblem Heroes and Dragalia Lost, but when the Switch took off the company largely wound down its mobile efforts, shuttering some games and releasing nothing new for more than five years apart from Pikmin Bloom while refocusing on apps like Nintendo Music and Nintendo Today.

It turns out the lull was not permanent: last year Nintendo published Hello, Mario! and Fire Emblem Shadows, and with Pictonico! now on phones, that makes three mobile releases in nine months.

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