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​Fire Emblem: Heroes headed to Android, iOS next month

Nintendo officially announces its newest mobile game, and this time around, Android and iOS will get a simultaneous launch.

Ashley Esqueda Senior Video Producer
Ashley Esqueda is an award-winning video producer and on-air talent based in Los Angeles. She has been playing video games since she was 3 years old, and loves the history of television. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband Jimi, son Wolfgang, and two very squirrely Italian Greyhounds.
Ashley Esqueda
2 min read
Watch this: Fire Emblem: Heroes trailer

The next mobile game from Nintendo is officially Fire Emblem: Heroes. Instead of a platform game a la Super Mario Run, FE:H is a turn-based tactical RPG featuring familiar faces and new friends.

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Nintendo

Nintendo's latest Direct event offered us a closer look at the game's art style, story and combat. This is a new chapter in the Fire Emblem series, with two kingdoms pitted against one another in an epic battle. You play a summoner from the kingdom of Askr, tasked with calling upon allies and heroes to fight beside you to save your people.

The trailer shows beautifully hand-drawn artwork, and the style of combat will be your typical turn-based strategy, but with some twists. Terrain will come into play on the maps, and it seems like certain characters will have specific movement limitations and abilities. Each map is on a simple grid, and individual fights occur in a cutscene-like popup window.

As for your party's heroes, you'll be able to collect orbs as you play and summon random heroes to your party that you can decide to make an ally. Or, of course, buy them via in-app purchases -- according to one screenshot, a pack of 35 orbs will cost about $20 (about £15 or AU$25), and three will set you back $1.99.

If you don't ask them to join up with you, they could show up on the opposing kingdom's lineup, so there does seem to be a bit of depth there in terms of picking your team. All the standard RPG mechanics are here, including leveling up your characters and raising their attributes, making them (and your team) more powerful as you play.

In a slight surprise, Nintendo announced an official release date for Android today, but not iOS. Super Mario Run is currently exclusive to Apple devices, and the Google Play Store page for the game still says the game is "coming soon," so seeing an official launch date already set is a bonus for Android users.

On a side note, for those Android users who've been waiting for Super Mario Run to come to the Google Play Store, Nintendo has an update that should make you happy.

Update, 10 p.m. PT: In a tweet posted after the Direct event, Nintendo announced the game would release simultaneously on both iOS and Android on February 2, 2017.

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