Super Mario's iPhone surprise fuels hopes for Nintendo

Nintendo Co's surprise announcement that its popular game franchise Super Mario Bros would debut on Apple Inc's new iPhone propelled its shares sharply higher on Thursday on hopes the firm had at last embraced mobile gaming.

Investors are betting the new game, Super Mario Run, will be another mobile hit for the Japanese company akin to the wildly popular Pokemon GO, as it moves away from its console-focused strategy and embraces on-the-go gaming.

"Launching a well-known Nintendo character on the globally penetrated iPhone is one of the best scenarios that investors have hoped for," Tomoaki Kawasaki, an analyst at Iwai Cosmo Securities, said.

Nintendo said it would launch the game initially on Apple's App Store in December. The Kyoto-based firm with a market capitalisation of $39 billion did not say when it would be available for Android devices.