Fire Emblem Heroes

Fire Emblem Heroes was Nintendo's first major entry into mobile tactics and managed to stay recognizable to series fans while remaining accessible to newcomers who had no prior experience with tactical RPGs. The battlefield shrank to a grid measuring eight by six squares, turns are faster and simpler for the clarity of a touchscreen, but the series' core pillar – that a fallen unit is lost for good in the classic mode – remained intact for those who want genuine risk instead of the safe Casual mode. Controls are purely touch-based: tap a unit, tap a target square, no complicated extra gesture, so the game can be played one-handed, say, on the subway.

The game works as a crossover of characters from every entry in the series, so a single team can bring together heroes from games that never crossed paths in the story – a marketing-savvy move that turned Fire Emblem Heroes into a showcase for older, lesser-known entries that never found a wider audience in the West. New characters arrive in regular banner events, and the game has run as a live service with regular events since its 2017 release, placing it alongside other Nintendo mobile experiments like Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp or Mario Kart Tour.

Monetization runs on a gacha system: characters are drawn using in-game gems called Orbs, which can also be purchased, with the strongest and most sought-after heroes having a low chance of being pulled and often tied to limited-time events. The base campaign and a good deal of content, however, are playable for free without any major restriction on progress.

Why play it: For Fire Emblem fans who appreciate turn-based tactics in pocket form and don't mind collecting favorite characters through gacha banners.