The Pocket Gamer Podcast Episode 86 - Mario Kart Tour end of service, Square Enix mobile woes, and a possible Nintendo peripheral

Have you been a recent victim of one of your favourite mobile games shutting down and leaving you in the dust? How do you feel about a possible Nintendo peripheral you can attach to your phone GameBoy-style (patent pending)? Iwan and Will launch into an in-depth conversation about all things Nintendo in this week's (New and Improved!) Pocket Gamer Podcast, where they go from pondering an Apple Arcade-esque subscription service to throwing out a product proposal into the ether.

Will wastes no time diving into the heart of the matter with Mario Kart Tour shutting down in September, which means a lot of fans will soon have to look for other ways to feed their fandom before then. This leads Iwan to bring up his recent op-ed on Square Enix's own recent shutdowns on mobile, as he goes into the ins and outs of the studio's JRPGs and mobile ports through the years.

Will then sheds some light on Nintendo's strengths when it comes to retro adventures, and explains just how the e-shop and the company's online subscription work. It's all incredibly detailed, so if you've always been curious about the inner workings of the subscription, Will and Iwan both have you covered.

Inevitably, the discussion flows into how Japanese companies work, Xbox layoffs, Iwan's coverage of 2024's Tokyo Game Show, and a shoutout to his review of the GameSir Pocket Taco. All this talk gives birth to a novel idea about a new Nintendo peripheral, which they probably should patent while they can?

Suffice it to say, it's a fun little back-and-forth between the two, proving they don't really need me around! But if you're curious about where I've been, our coverage of TorchCon 2026 and Torchlight: Infinite's Afterlight season should give you an idea!

You can listen to the podcast below, through the Spotify embed, or head over to our Spotify Page. If you fancy giving us a follow, you'll actually get the new podcasts pushed to you as they're uploaded (which means you can give them a listen before we've even got the story live on the website). 

Plus, we've been teasing more ways of getting it to you for the past months, and now the time has finally come. You can catch us on Amazon Music or on Apple Podcasts too - because life is hard enough already, and we wouldn't want you to struggle with finding us!