Back in September, Visibrain did some analysis of Twitter reactions to Apple’s keynote. The big talking points were the iPhone 7, the death of the headphone jack, the Apple Watch Series 2 and Super Mario Run.
Super Mario Run – Nintendo’s first big product on iOS – attracted more interest than Pokémon Go on the Apple Watch, but it’s perhaps telling that both third-party products created a significant buzz on Apple’s big day. Well now Super Mario Run has a release date – 15 December 2016 – and a price: $10 (£8).
That’s pretty steep for a mobile-game price, but if there’s any company that can pull it off, it’s Nintendo. A Nintendo badge on a gaming product is about as close to the gold standard as you can get (even if its most recent console has floundered), and it’s hard not to see the company making back its investment here. The markets seem to agree to: Nintendo shares jumped 5% at the news.
So, what is Super Mario Run? Well, Nintendo has wisely decided against taking us back to the days of awkward onscreen gamepad controls and instead stuck to the platform’s strengths: simple one-tap controls. What you’re looking at here is an endless runner in the vein of Temple Run and Rayman Jungle Run. There’s a run-to-the-flag mode that features traditional Mario levels and pinpoint jump timing, and a battle mode called “Toad Rally”: which pitches opponents against each other until the time runs out.
“You can even play it one-handed, while you’re holding onto the handle on the subway, while eating a hamburger, or even an apple,” Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto famously said during the keynote. And if that doesn’t sell it to you, I don’t know what will.
He’s not wrong about the burger, either. Here’s proof, oh yea-of-little-faith.
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