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7 questions that need answering about Super Mario Run

Plumbing the depths

7 questions that need answering about Super Mario Run
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| Super Mario Run

Apple held a big event last week, and the most noteworthy announcement was that Mario himself would be wall-jumping onto iPhone.

Sure, we're a mobile gaming website, so of course we're going to say that. But have you seen the iPhone 7 and App Watch Series 2? They're just like the old ones, only faster and with fewer sockets.

But Mario on mobile is something many of us never quite believed we'd ever see, regardless of Ninty's pre-announced mobile plans.

So what do we know about Super Mario Run? We know it's going to be a one-button auto-runner, that it's going to have a competitive multiplayer 'ghost' mode, and that you'll be able to use any points earned to build your own Mushroom Kingdom. We also know that it's going to be (praise be!) a premium game, and that it'll launch some time in December on iOS.

Here's what we don't know.

How much will it cost?

Shigeru Miyamoto made a lot of us happy and took a lot of ammunition away from the mobile game naysayers when he announced that Super Mario Run would be a premium game. There'll be no ads, and no freemium structure. You'll just pay an up-front fee for the entire game, like it used to be.

But how much will Super Mario Run cost, exactly? No one's letting on, and it's tough to get a handle on where Nintendo will pitch its first proper mobile game.

Will it take the approach of fellow major Japanese game developer Square Enix and charge a truly premium price of around £14.99 / $19.99, like Chaos Rings III? Or will it look to Ubisoft and Sega? The similarly themed Rayman Jungle Run and Sonic 4 sell for £2.29 / $2.99.

We also know there will be in-app purchases of some kind, but we're guessing these won't be for fundamental additions to the game, based on Miyamoto's comments.

How big will it be?

One of the things that will determine the price of Super Mario Run is its size. Just how much game will there be here?

It was impossible to tell from the presentation. Nintendo is evidently providing a crafted experience here, with designed levels that have a beginning and an end.

We also know that these levels will develop in complexity and challenge, with new blocks allowing Mario to stop and change direction. But how many of these levels will there be?

What are Nintendo's update plans?

Nintendo stands apart from the rest of the videogame industry in many ways. One of those is a traditional approach to shipping (for the most part) feature-complete games.

You tend pay for the complete experience with Nintendo. If you buy Super Mario 3D Land for the 3DS today, it'll play exactly the same as it did back in 2011.

Of course, there are exceptions, such as Splatoon for the Wii U (where Nintendo continued releasing fresh levels and weapons for months after release) and Mario Golf: World Tour (where you had to buy additional courses).

But you don't tend to get this with mainstream Mario platformers. So, will Nintendo stick with its natural instincts, or adopt the iOS App Store practice of frequent content updates?

How involved will the Mushroom Kingdom mode be?

Super Mario Run is primarily about the platforming, evidently. But Nintendo has mentioned that you'll be able to use the coins earned in the two main modes to build your own Mushroom Kingdom in a third mode.

We haven't seen anything of this third component. How involved will it be? Is it really a worthwhile mode in its own right, or will it be a pleasant but lightweight diversion from the main game?

Which iPhones will it run on?

It sounds like a fairly tedious question, but we need to emphasis that this is completely new territory for Nintendo.

When it comes to hardware, Nintendo was the original Apple, demanding full oversight of both hardware and software in order to create the optimal experience. Up to now, the company hasn't had to worry about optimising its games for multiple SKUs and testing for device compatibility.

We like to think that the thought of Super Mario Run exhibiting even the slightest signs of stutter would give Shigeru Miyamoto and his elite team of designers and programmers the cold sweats. Which begs the question: which iPhones will Super Mario Run be allowed to run on?

When is it coming to Android?

We know that Super Mario Run will be a timed exclusive, and that it will arrive on Android eventually. That's just good sense - there are far more Android phones out there than iPhones.

But when will this Android version arrive? We have to think that Apple has secured a generous exclusivity period, and there are a number of issues Nintendo will need to address on its end.

The aforementioned device optimisation process will be many times more problematic on Google's platform, with a far wider range of hardware configurations - not to mention the appalling state of Android software fragmentation.

Then there's Nintendo's promised premium price. Such games don't historically too well on Android, where the freemium model is even more prominent than it is on iOS.

Where's Luigi?

Seriously Nintendo, where? It's all very well giving Mario's bumbling brother a year of his own (though even that was a bit confused, spanning 2013 and 2014), but to leave him out of your first proper mobile game? That's cold.

Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.