Super Mario Run Review
Today is the day I’ve been longing for, Super Mario Run is finally available from the App Store! – Today’s release is a historic moment for the entire gaming industry; this is the first time that Nintendo has brought a classic Nintendo property to a non-Nintendo platform. I’ve always said that Nintendo and Apple could be brothers, they both like building the entire experience and since I grew up with SMB, having an all new version specifically written for iOS is magical in my eyes.
Let’s start with the game play, it uses a pretty standard auto running side scroll layout. It’s not necessarily a bad thing but it has been done before… that being said, it’s a lot of fun! The game is very fast and fluent and I have not so far experienced any stuttering. Since Mario is constantly running, you can tap the screen and it’ll make Mario jump. Now there are special blocks that pause Mario, these are kind of like check points. Mario automatically jumps whenever near an obstacle and automatically jump over enemies. I like this aspect as a basic game but I would like a little more control over these elements. For example I tend to miss the “?” Blocks because I cant slow down and jump under them. Other than that it is really fun! There are also special purple coins you can collect though it’s not very clear as to what those actually do.
The graphics look really good, it feels like an iOS application but at the same time Super Mario Run adapts a lot of Nintendo’s user interface style and I feel it’s like the perfect blend. The app’s UI just looks fun, it is really approachable and the simplistic game play lets anyone play without feeling intimidated. – The only disappointment I have with this game is that it’s only optimized for iPhone. It’ll of course run on iPad but it will just be an upscaled phone game. I’d also love to see this come to Apple TV. Nintendo wouldn’t have to change their game play style because they could adapt Siri Remote controls but I feel this would not happen as Nintendo just wants to keep Mario for TVs exclusive to their console which is perfectly understandable.
Let’s talk price vs what you get. Super Mario Run is free to download and play but, if you want to unlock everything in one full swoop for $9.99. It is nice that it can be played for free but I have a feeling that most players will pay the $9.99. I really hope Nintendo makes a decent profit on this because this is the first time they’ve done a Nintendo classic on iOS, I’d like them to bring over more classics spurred on from the success of todays release.
Though Nintendo didn’t make Pokémon Go, I’ve seen reports that they still made more off the game than they did from their hardware business. Pokémon Go is a niche market compared to Mario and that makes me think that this will instantly become the most popular game on the App Store ever. I even expect some App Store outages later today because of it. If you don’t want to pay $10 to Nintendo that’s fine. Think of it this way, that $10 you’re paying will help fund more Nintendo properties to come to iOS and I think that’s well worth it. Let’s be honest, if Zelda came to iOS, productivity world wide would just plummet!
Contemplating on downloading Super Mario Run, well that’s your call but personally I think it’s a fantastic game and I can’t wait to switch off my Mac and jump straight onto it.