Forty years of Mario's influence and Nintendo's latest patent stirs debate | Week in Views
The games industry moves quickly and while stories may come and go there are some that we just can't let go of…
So, to give those particularly thorny topics a further going over we've created a weekly digest where the members of the PocketGamer.biz team share their thoughts and go that little bit deeper on some of the more interesting things that have happened in mobile gaming in the past week.
Craig Chapple
Four decades of Mario: What the industry has learned from one of gaming's most iconic characters
For Mario’s 40th anniversary, we asked the Mavens for their views on one of gaming’s most iconic characters and if it had influenced their careers.
For me, I grew up with an Atari and a NES. On the latter, I had Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt together on a single cartridge - cementing my early love for games.
Super Mario 64 blew my mind of what’s possible, leading me to regularly purchase N64 magazine and Nintendo Official Magazine each month (thanks mum!). I’ve since played games throughout my life as my primary entertainment medium, seeing Mario evolve over decades - but always in innovative and stylish new games.
It's through iconic characters and treasured games like many in the Mario series that ultimately even shaped my career. I possibly wouldn’t be writing about games without these experiences!
It’s not all Mario and Nintendo, of course - I’ve played many, many games over the decades. But I’m grateful that every entry in the main platforming series continues to be a delight. (It’s a shame about Super Mario Run, though!).
Paige Cook
Nintendo secures a new patent for summoning sub-characters in games
This week, Nintendo registered a new patent, and when I first read it I couldn’t help but think, “Doesn’t this already exist in various other games?” The mechanic is related to summoning a secondary character, and this ‘sub character’ can then be sent out in a direction and participate in battles - so basically think Pokémon.
Of course, with patents, they’re often more complex than they first appear. Usually, the steps and rules listed need to be matched exactly for there to be an issue. However, the idea of accidentally using someone else's patent, especially one filed by Nintendo with serious legal backing, is a daunting thought.
While I don't think every game where you summon a companion to help you in battle is in danger, it’s understandable why this has confused many and raised some concerns. While legal teams may be able to make sense of it all and guide developers in the right direction, not every developer has a team of lawyers.
I can’t help but mention that this is all happening while Nintendo is still involved in a legal case against Palworld developer PocketPair. Although this new patent is apparently not tied to those events, it’s hard not to think otherwise.
It also wasn’t too long ago that reports surfaced that Nintendo had adjusted the wording of one of its existing patents regarding the mounting of beasts, mid-lawsuit, which raises the question of how developers can follow rules when the wording of said rules can be changed at any time.
Obviously, having the ability to protect original ideas with the likes of copyright laws and patents is needed. But this story highlights the complexity of issues surrounding patents for games, in that it doesn't really matter who does something first, it's just who files a patent for it first and in this case, should it have been granted at all?
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