In just a few, short hours we will be given our first glimpse of Nintendo’s first game for mobile devices. At this point last year, the thought of Nintendo publishing a game on these platforms was almost blasphemy, as Iwata and the company’s top brass were still insisting that Nintendo wouldn’t create them. Flash forward, and we’ve got the likely reveal (and potential release) of the first of many Nintendo mobile games coming in mere hours. There are so many questions surrounding this game: will Nintendo use an established franchise? What genre of game will it be? What type of payment model will it use? Will Nintendo troll us by releasing Metroid: Zero Mission for mobile only?

I’ve decided to take a stab at what this game could possibly end up being. I came up with five possible game ideas that this title could be, based on established Nintendo franchises, what types of games have been successful on mobile devices so far, and some strategies that Nintendo has incorporated in some of its games in the last few years. Keep in mind that this is all baseless speculation, and I have zero knowledge of what Nintendo and DeNA could be cooking up.

#1 – Super Mario Runner

Let’s get the obvious, and least interesting, idea out of the way first. There are tons of endless runners on mobile devices. Even Mario’s former rival and current fellow Olympics competitor, Sonic the Hedgehog, has gotten in on the fun. If Nintendo wants to start with something simple and easy as its first foray into the mobile world, an endless runner starring Mario and Luigi is a safe guess. That, however, is exactly why I don’t expect it to happen. Nintendo, hopefully, wants to make its first mobile game count, and doing something so un-original and derivative would ultimately be a disappointment. However, I can’t rule out the possibility entirely, so there it is.

#2 – Pushmobile

Pushmo has enjoyed a reasonable amount of success on the eShop, and I think it is a good contender as the franchise that could be represented in a mobile game. Pushmo’s simple, but deep, puzzle mechanics and the ability to create and share your own levels would have players hooked for longer than just a few days. And Nintendo could even release new level packs and modes as paid expansions to keep the fun going even longer. Like many other puzzle games on mobile platforms, there would likely be a limit to how many “tries” the player gets to complete a level before they either have to wait for a set amount of time or pay a few bucks to get more lives. This free-to-play style is something that another Nintendo franchise, Pokémon, has already tried on mobile with the recently released title Pokémon Shuffle, and one that the Pushmo series is also familiar with, as recent 3DS eShop release Stretchmo also went with a free-to-start model.

#3 – Advance Wars/Fire Emblem

Games like Clash of Clans have been very successful in the mobile market, in part because they are social in many aspects. Forming a “clan” with your friends that you take turns to manage, gather resources for, and battle other clans is a fun way to waste time, but also something that generates conversation among your circle of friends. It’s entirely possible that Nintendo could want this type of game to be their first on mobile devices, simply because it would get large circles of people talking about a Nintendo game. Advance Wars or Fire Emblem could easily fit into this model, giving players an army of soldiers to train, build up, and make alliances with other players so that they can claim new territory and fight for their nation. In terms of payment models, this is one where microtransactions could definitely be in play… upgrading weapons and leveling up could take a lot of time, but if you pay $1, you could level up Marth right now! This gets into the pay-to-win territory, but it’s a model that has a track record of success on the app store.

#4 – Mario Kart Mobile

I initially thought about putting F-Zero here, but I figured Mario Kart would have a wider appeal. A stripped down version of the Mario Kart experience is a good candidate for mobile devices. There are some decent racing-type games out there already, but nothing as fun as a mobile Mario Kart game could be. Given Mario Kart’s sales success on a platform like Wii U, which has only 10 million users, can you imagine how successful this series could be on a platform with hundreds of millions of users? The danger here for Nintendo, however, is to make sure that this title directs players to their Mario Kart games on other consoles, so it would be necessary to make this experience a limited one.

#5 – Metroid

Okay, this is really just a joke, but can you imagine the fan reaction to this announcement? The Internet would probably explode.

Those are some of my predictions for the upcoming announcement. What are some of yours? Zelda? StarTropics? Duck Hunt? We’ve only got a few more hours until we find out! I’m hoping to be pleasantly surprised.