[Review] Super Mario Run: Pricey but Fun

As of 16th December 2016, Apple and Nintendo finally released Super Mario Run for the iOS platform covering iPhone and iPad. This is one of the exceptionally rare few occasions that they’ve deigned to release a game featuring their star plumber, more so the fact they’ve done so on a non Nintendo platform to target mobile gamers. The strategy is working, by any indication as it’s climbing the charts to become one of the most downloaded apps on iOS with close to 2.8 million downloads on the day of its release and over 40 million downloads in total in the past four days. Not bad for a game that only needs one button and an always-on connection.

 

 

Gameplay

The gameplay behind Super Mario Run is akin to a host of other platformers like Sonic Runners or Rayman : Jungle Run where you have to proceed from left to right and hop onto platforms to gain items, perks and defeat enemies to reach the end point. Rather than optfor fiddly controls, Super mario Run is as simple as it gets: all you need is one button to make Mario jump. He’ll plod along like a suicidal lemming from left to right, never slowing down and
your main mode mode of interaction is to make him jump with the touch controls allowing you to make him jump with varying degrees of power. From there, you’ll take on the usual horde of Mario’s enemies and collect a ton of coins. It’s an intuitively simple simple that has a lot of nuances to master. Once you’ve completed a level, you will be rewarded with tickets to go on what they call a Toad Rally run where you compete against ghost players – images of faster, better performing players – worldwide via a Nintendo ID account. There’s also a mechanic of chasing after elusive and rare coins in the each level.

 

Graphics and Sound

The game is built on the Unity Mobile engine and it’s bright, vibrant a colourful in the usual fashion that Mario games are depicted in. There’s nary a jump in frames and it runs smoothly on the iPhone 7 with a mixture of aesthetics from Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros 3 on the NES and SNES platforms though it’s something only hardcore Mario fans will likely pick on. All the usual Mario jingles and sound effects are present and correct with a few remixes off the older Mario tunes from older platforms. Long-time fans will appreciate the hint of nostalgia while newcomers will nonetheless appreciate the cheery, bright music.

Building your own Mushroom Kingdom
While the auto-running levels form the crux of the gameplay along with the Toad Rally ghost-running missions, the game also sports an additional mini game of sorts where you have to build and manage your own Mushroom Kingdom by building it up from scratch and investing in it with coins that you collect. Barring cosmetic improvements, the main motivation in this game mode is to unlock alternative characters for use in the main game.

Summary and Conclusion
Overall it’s a smart move by Nintendo to expand its character franchise to the mobile scene which really brings joy to the players, old or new to the Mario games on the go. While it’s pricey, we believe that RM39.99 is worth it as an investment for one of the best platformers that we’ve seen in ages.  There may likely be more DLC or expansions in future as Nintendo finally begins to appreciate the gold mine that is mobile gaming and while it’s only for iOS platforms for the moment, Nintendo is slated to release it on Android sometime next year. Welcome back Mario, we missed you.

Platform : iOS (iPhone 5s and above or iPad)
Price : Free (for world 1) RM39.99 or 10USD for all 6 worlds

Review: Aaron Lim