When I first heard Nintendo was making Super Mario Run for iPhone and iPad, I was more than a little skeptical. Worried that that this Nintendo-made mobile game would be little more than a side-scrolling cash-in designed to appease shareholders; concerned it was merely a grudging nod to the power of iOS as a mobile gaming force. Not even the mighty Shigeru Miyamoto could ease my fears.
How wrong I was. Super Mario Run is so much more than some soulless, canned endless-running game. Super Mario Run is Nintendo’s next Mario game and it’s the next handheld Mario title you’ll want to play on any platform, including Nintendo’s own handheld consoles. I’ve had some early hands-on time with it.
Super Mario Run review: Gameplay
Just as with any Super Mario platformer, Super Mario Run tasks you with reaching the end of horizontally scrolling levels, grabbing coins as you go and squashing enemies in the process. In Super Mario Run, however, there are a couple of little differences. First, Mario does all the running for you, meaning all you need to focus on is jumping. Second, simply running to the goal isn’t your only objective in Super Mario Run: collecting the all-important coloured coins against the clock is how you make real progress.
Dyed-in-the-wool fans of our mustachioed hero may feel that Mario’s auto-run ability in Super Mario Run detracts from the Super Mario template, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, by freeing players from the shackles of controlling Mario’s movement, Nintendo has transformed Super Mario Run into a completely different game. Despite its simple one-tap play style, it’s deeply involving, and as challenging as any Super Mario title before it. This isn’t some watered-down mobile romp – this is Mario as you know him to be.
But that’s not to say it’s been produced solely for a dedicated set of hardcore Super Mario fans. Even if you’ve only had a passing interest in the Super Mario series before, this is a great place to start. It has all the hallmarks of past handheld and console titles and is flexible enough that anyone can play and enjoy themselves.
As I mentioned above, the main objective of each level is to collect a run of five coloured coins placed throughout the level. Doing so not only bags you more points, but also unlocks another set of harder-to-find coins. If that’s too tricky for you, or you’d rather work your way through levels for a bit of jumpy fun, you can do just that, collecting normal coins and crushing enemies underfoot as you work your way towards the end-of-level goal. Your efforts won’t be wasted either, as coins collected on standard runs contribute to your coin total and you can steadily work your way through the many levels on offer without ever picking up a coloured coin run.
Super Mario Run review: The princess you are looking for is in this castle
Nintendo might have irked some avid Super Mario fans by only releasing Super Mario Run for iOS, but all is not lost. An Android version is likely to be in production, although the details must be being kept heavily under wraps, and if the quality and care with which the game has been produced for iPad and iPhone users is anything to go by, it should be worth the wait.
Super Mario Run runs natively on iPad and iPhone, meaning iPad players won’t just be playing a blown-up iPhone game on a bigger screen. On the iPad there’s enough real estate to see what’s above, below or approaching, and the whole experience feels incredibly slick. This isn’t to say the iPhone experience is subpar, far from it, but it’s clear Nintendo has thought about what suits each device and how best to adapt the game to suit.
It’s in these moments of depth and thought, along with the flexible and accommodating nature of the Super Mario series, that Nintendo’s knowledge of the handheld gaming space shines through. Super Mario Run isn’t just Nintendo muscling in on the handheld games space to get some money; it’s the Japanese games giant showing the rest of the mobile games market how fun, fast, and simple games should be done. It’s content-rich, with not a single microtransaction in sight.
Of course, that sort of one-handed pleasure doesn’t come cheap. For the full-fat version of Super Mario Run, which comes with a lot of levels and a fair few features that we’ll talk more about in our upcoming full review, Nintendo is asking for £7.99. That may seem steep for a mobile game, but considering this could easily be packaged up and sold on 3DS for over twice the price and still seem like a bargain, it’s actually a good deal.
If forking out £7.99 isn’t your thing, you can opt for the free version of Super Mario Run. No, there are no in-app microtransactions here to make up for the price tag. Instead, Nintendo is releasing the first three worlds of Super Mario Run for nowt, so you can get a feel for the game before you buy. If you want more Mario time beyond that, you’ll need to cough up the money.
Even with my short hands-on time, it’s clear to see that Super Mario Run is well worth the asking price. It’s packed with all of that famous Nintendo charm, and even on the small screen that little Mushroom Kingdom plumber is bursting with personality. I can’t wait to spend more time falling into pits, missing ledges – which Mario now grabs, by the way – and crushing Goombas underfoot when Super Mario Run rolls out onto the App Store on 15 December.