‘Super Mario’ gives the plumber a hand
By Brittany Vincent | Shacknews.com
The first ever “Mario” game for iOS devices has finally arrived. Does it live up to the massive amounts of hype? Our review.
Ever since “Super Mario Run” was announced in September, Nintendo fans and mobile gamers across the globe have been waiting somewhat impatiently for the title to make its debut on the App Store. It’s a landmark release, considering this is the first “proper” “Mario” game (and Nintendo property aside from “Miitomo”) to grace mobile devices.
The concept? Distill “Mario” games to their simplest elements while melding them with ideas culled from one of the most popular mobile games out there: endless runners. Now that the game’s out in the wild, is it a breath of fresh air or is it on life support at the onset?
RUN FOR YOUR LIFE
“Super Mario Run” takes everything you know about Mario games and simplifies it in a way that everyone can understand. The biggest caveat is that Mario, inspired by the speed-runners of the world according to Shigeru Miyamoto, is always running from left to right across the screen. You’ll need to tap the screen to make Mario jump, and hold your tap longer to get him to jump higher. He can vault over enemies or stomp on them just like in the games, and can even wall jump, utilize special blocks to pause the action, get boosts of speed, or even reverse in some situations.
You do all this with but one finger, utilizing shorter and longer taps with finesse as Mario vaults over the heads of Goombas, Koopa Troopas, and various other enemies from the “Mario” universe. It’s truly hypnotizing watching Mario move in such a way that paints him as even more of an athletic character than usual. Watching him scramble up the edge of a well-placed question blog or somersaulting in the air is just plain fun to see. Watching him pull off these moves and knowing you were responsible for it by your button presses feels great — better than, say, even how “New Super Mario Bros.” feels on the Nintendo 3DS.
RUNNING AROUND THE (MARIO) WORLD
Everything about “Super Mario Run” feels classic, yet with new mechanics to keep things fresh. You’re running after Princess Toadstool, who has (of course) been kidnapped again.
As you venture across the six main worlds with four levels apiece, you get a sampling of the various areas that generally comprise Mario platformers: Deserts, haunted houses replete with sneaky Boos, platform-heavy cloud locales, and Lakitu even makes an appearance to make things more difficult for you. There’s a good variety when it comes to different vistas, even if they do feel a bit samey compared to what we’ve seen in the past.
The fact that different philosophies are present in the various worlds is a boon for the game, however. There are puzzle-solving elements in the Boo levels where you’ll need to make use of running in different directions or use trial and error to figure out which door you’ll need to open to advance. In the cloud levels you’ll need to stop the action for a moment via special pause blocks so you can calculate the best trajectory for your jump. Mario will stick a landing right in the front of moving platforms to give you the best possible advantage you can get when it comes to these areas, which is more than the regular series ever did for you.
A POWERED-UP RUNNER
“Super Mario Run” can be looked at in two different ways: a mobile game that’s inspired by all of the rest of the endless runners out there, and a Mario title. As a Mario title, it’s obviously going to be less of an engaging adventure than normal since it’s so stripped-down. As a mobile game, it’s excellent, save for its extremely short playtime and $9.99 price tag that will undoubtedly scare some users away. However, it’s an extremely polished speed-runner’s dream, and an absolutely fantastic first mobile release for Nintendo. It’s a great way to introduce newbies to Mario or gaming in general, and while it’s a bit short on content for now, I can see a series of updates making it even better as we head into 2017.
