Hands-On With Nintendo's New Super Mario Run Game

[MacRumors]

Nintendo today released its highly anticipated Mario-themed game, Super Mario Run. Super Mario Run offers simple one-handed gameplay in the form of a traditional runner crossed with platform game, but it adds complexity through coin-based score goals, competitions with friends, and a world building component.

While Super Mario Run is free to download, it costs $9.99 to unlock the complete game, which is pricy for an iOS title. We went hands-on with Super Mario Run so you can find out just what you get for that $10 investment before you shell out the cash.

The free component of Super Mario Run lets you try three levels of the standard Tour mode, which is a collection of Super Mario levels where the goal is to collect as many coins as possible. New and more difficult content goals are unlocked by collecting pink, purple, and black coins.

For $9.99, you unlock all six worlds, each of which features three standard levels and then a boss level, for a total of 24 levels. That price tag also gives you 3,000 coins and 20 Rally tickets.

Rally tickets are used for the Rally gameplay mode that lets you compete with other players to win Toad villagers. Rally mode is similar to Tour mode, but the goal is to get more coins and more applause than your opponents by doing tricks, defeating enemies, and grabbing bonuses.

Toad villagers and coins are both used to build out your Kingdom, adding decorations and little mini games to play. Mini games are small add-on games that give you coins and Rally tickets to put towards expanding your kingdom.

Super Mario Run is not a freemium game and does require the $9.99 investment to play the full game, but for Mario fans, the purchase is a no-brainer. It's a fun little iOS title that has a surprising amount of depth. [Direct Link]

Article Link: Hands-On With Nintendo's New Super Mario Run Game

 

[AppleFan91]

It's actually much better than I expected. I really thought it would be a temple run, but side scrolling. It's not, it feels and plays like a Mario game once you get past the always-running component.

 

[Zirel]

The game has actually some variety, and some challenge after the paywall.

But with only 6 worlds, seems a bit short and it's too easy.

Already beaten the game

Spoiler

 

[Quu]

I thought the game was quite disappointing. I was also shocked at the poor quality of the opening sequences where it made me choose which country I was in. Not only is it silly to ask that when they have geolocation API's like ipinfo.io available but also I downloaded it from the UK store where again they could check what store is available to my account and finally the window to choose the country has no search field and scrolling it makes all these noises and clicks as you scroll like really Nintendo? This is really poor.

The game itself .. I didn't find it fun. Not being able to control Mario completely like on 20 year old consoles just made it feel bland and like I was watching a video of someone playing Mario. I also don't like that you need to be online all the time to play or how many menus and things there was for what should be a very simple game.

And before someone replies, yes I know it's called Super Mario Run and the whole point is to only be able to control his jumping. I am saying the whole concept is meh.

For me, not great and I really do love Mario and the other Mario games.

 

[Small White Car]

I've only put in 15 minutes but I already love it.

They made a game you can play one-handed and where you can be distracted for a second or two and probably not die because of it.

It's not just a Mario game, it's a really solid mobile device game.

 

[iapplelove]

I really wanted to love it. I was ready to pay the $9.99. But after 15 minutes I deleted it.

 

[pradeepbabloo]

want to play, but no time! But I will buy the full version and try in the weekend!

 

[6836838]

Depth? It's a one-touch game!

 

[Born Again]

do you guys play games when you go poop?

 

[Ovedius]

do you guys play games when you go poop?

I ask you, when else do you have time to play games?
It is simply the perfect time to do so.

"Daddy needs to take a ****. Whatever you need, ask mommy for the next one and a half hour"


Zen

 

[sinsin07]

do you guys play games when you go poop?

Sounds like you need a different hobby.

 

[miknos]

do you guys play games when you go poop?

Not really. I prefer to stay as little as possible sitting in the throne. And its not cool to have brown marks on the screen.

 

[jerry16]

do you guys play games when you go poop?

No, I prefer to MacRumors when I poop.

 

[Analog Kid]

Any comment on how intrusive the internet connection requirement is? I'm still having trouble with that model. It's a bit like saying "we have a problem with shoplifting, so when you buy those jeans we'll need to fit you with an anklet first".

Punish the guilty, don't take it out on paying customers.

 

[ErikGrim]

SUPER MARIO RUN IS HERE—AND SHIGERU MIYAMOTO TOLD US 7 SURPRISING THINGS ABOUT IT

• Super Mario Run lets you control Nintendo’s iconic plumber with just one smartphone-friendly input; he runs automatically across the screen, and you’ve just got to jump.
  
  We caught up with Nintendo’s Creative Fellow Shigeru Miyamoto, who created Super Mario Bros. in 1985 and has remained intimately involved with the series. He shared a few surprising things about the latest entry in the storied series, and a bit about the upcoming Nintendo Switch and Universal Studios’ “Super Nintendo Land.”
  
  The one-button Mario started a decade ago with the Wii.
  Although this is the first Super Mario game in which the hero runs automatically, it’s not a new idea. “On Wii, we experimented specifically with a game where you only press the A button on the Wii Remote to make Mario jump,” Miyamoto says. It didn’t go anywhere, he says, because it wasn’t suited to the console. “We felt, well, we have a plus-control pad, and we have an analog stick, we don’t need to just force people to play with only one button,” he says. “Also, we looked at taking that idea and applying it in a rhythm-style music game where you try to have Mario jump in rhythm. We felt that, yeah, this could make a fun game, but there’s not really a need for it to be a Mario game.”
  
  The idea for Super Mario Run came from Mario speedruns on YouTube.
  “When you look at videos of super players who are very good Super Mario Bros. players, they tend to run all the way through the course without ever stopping,” Miyamoto says. “Our feeling was that by having this iPhone game in which Mario runs automatically and all you do is jump, we would actually have quite a bit of leeway to be able to create something that’s simple and easy for anyone to play, but still has some of that challenge and skill that super players desire.”
  
  Inexperienced Mario players often inch forward timidly. By forcing them to hustle along, Miyamoto hopes even beginners enjoy the feeling of an exhilarating speedrun with some wicked maneuvers. “We had the idea of layering in the ability to do different styles of jump, but having those styles of jump be controlled not through a combination of controls but through special blocks that enable Mario to do special jumps at certain times in the level,” he says. “By taking that approach, it would give even beginner players an opportunity to get a taste for what’s fun about the more skilled style of Marioplay.”
  
  Miyamoto hasn’t been so intimately involved in a Mario game since 2007.
  Although it’s been about five years since Miyamoto said he’s retiring, he continues working with the development team in a role he described as quite similar to director. “When we’re taking new steps like this—certainly withSuper Mario Galaxy, that was a new step, and this being our first step into mobile, this is also a new step—that I get more directly involved.” Super Mario Galaxy, a 2007 title for Wii, was the last Mario title in which he was involved “in terms of me actually directly looking at all of the level designs.”
  
  Don’t mistake Mario Run for a “small” game.
  Granted, Miyamoto’s definition of retiring simply meant stepping away from supervising blockbuster projects to focus on designing smaller, experimental ones. Clearly, that did not apply to Mario Run. “I’ve been involved from early on all the way through,” he says. “It’s actually become quite a big team.” Three development teams worked on the game’s three features in parallel: the main game, the multiplayer Toad Rally, and the Farmville-esque Kingdom Builder. “It’s turned into quite a big project,” Miyamoto says.
  
  Super Mario Run and the Universal Studios partnership with Nintendo share similar goals.
  Beyond its move into mobile and the forthcoming Nintendo Switch console, the company is slowly unveiling a partnership with Universal Studios to open Nintendo-themed attractions at all three Universal theme parks. “That’s a very big project in scope, and has a very large budget,” Miyamoto says. It’s part of an effort to attract a broader audience. He says the NES Classic and Pokemon Go highlights two markets the company is after: Adults who grew up playing Nintendo but haven’t bought a game system in ages, and kids who come to Nintendo through mobile devices. “We’re really looking at the opportunity to reach both of those audiences; reconnect with older ones and establish new connections with younger ones,” Miyamoto says.
  
  Nintendo still envisions the Nintendo Switch as a family gaming machine.
  Watch the trailer for Switch, which lets you play the same games on a TV or a tablet, and you may get the impression Nintendo designed it for funemployed millennials who want to play Zelda in the park. Not so, Miyamoto says. “We have always felt that a Nintendo system is best designed to be enjoyed in the living room by the family in front of the TV,” Miyamoto says. Although Switch and Nintendo’s discovery of smartphone gaming represent a shift away from that ideal, it reflects an understanding that “the way that people use the television set has changed,” he says, and shouldn’t be considered an abandonment of the big screen.
  
  Sorry, but Miyamoto doesn’t want the original Super Mario Bros.on your phone.
  “Why doesn’t Nintendo just put the original Mario on my phone?” isn’t something I’d typically ask Miyamoto, but I hear it so often that I wanted to hear his reaction. He laughed, and said, “I don’t want to do anything that boring. We’ve been making Mario games for a long time, and Mario’s evolved with every new platform.
  
  “For me, it wouldn’t be interesting work to just take the existing Super Mario Bros. game, put it on an iPhone, (and) emulate a plus control pad. That’s not very fun creatively. We’re more interested in looking at how we can be creative with Mario, and design for iPhone in a way that takes advantage of the uniquenesses of that device and the uniquenesses of that input and the features that that device has. For us, that is much more rewarding creative work.”
  
  He’s got one more thing to say about that. “If we did put Super Mario Bros. on the iPhone, (people) would say, ‘Wow, this is well-done, but are you actually going to expect me to pay money for it? Why isn’t this free?’,” he says. “We try to create products that have value that people are willing to pay for.”

 

[oftheheavens]

I clash Royale when I poop. 1 game for a run of the mill poo and 2 for those mornings after endulging in going out to eat lol

 

[OutSpoken]

Not really. I prefer to stay as little as possible sitting in the throne. And its not cool to have brown marks on the screen.

"brown marks on the screen" sheesh id be scared to use your bathroom!

 

[ErikGrim]

So yeah, people are already complaining about having to pay for Super Mario Run, and that's why we won't see SMB or classic Nintendo games on iOS (controls aside). :/

 

[Justinb51]

I thought the game was quite disappointing. I was also shocked at the poor quality of the opening sequences where it made me choose which country I was in. Not only is it silly to ask that when they have geolocation API's like ipinfo.io available but also I downloaded it from the UK store where again they could check what store is available to my account and finally the window to choose the country has no search field and scrolling it makes all these noises and clicks as you scroll like really Nintendo? This is really poor.

The game itself .. I didn't find it fun. Not being able to control Mario completely like on 20 year old consoles just made it feel bland and like I was watching a video of someone playing Mario. I also don't like that you need to be online all the time to play or how many menus and things there was for what should be a very simple game.

And before someone replies, yes I know it's called Super Mario Run and the whole point is to only be able to control his jumping. I am saying the whole concept is meh.

For me, not great and I really do love Mario and the other Mario games.

You took the words right out of my mouth, was very excited for this game... now that it's here, very disappointed!

 

[OneMike]

Game is a big disappointment to me. Ok to mess around with but don't see myself paying as it's too basic.

 

[Kaibelf]

Well I finally realized that bubbles let you scroll back in the level. That actually added a dimension to it I didn't expect. It's more challenging than people are saying.

 

[douglasf13]

As someone who got the first Nintendo brand new when I was 8 years old, I think this game is pretty fun and suited for mobile.

 

[ghostface147]

It's fun, although I don't care for the automatic jumping.

 

[rtrueman]

Yeah, I would gladly pay $10 for the game for the family, but $50 (5 family members) isn't going to happen. Plus the always on connection is stupid. Nintendo is and always will be a ripoff. Keep Mario... I've got better stuff to play.

 

[hagemahal]

For $10? Not worth it.