Super Mario Run is the first mobile game released by Nintendo that used one of their well-known existing intellectual properties. In this case, it was Mario, which was a big deal at the time of release. It did use a monetization method that was rare for its time, being that while it was free to download, only the first three levels were playable for free. After that, you must pay US$10 or its equivalent in your local currency, to unlock the rest of the game. At a time when mobile games were, and currently still is, dominated by free-to-play models, this coupled with the high price, and the game underperformed.
Ignoring that aspect, this is an auto runner. It is designed to emulate what speedrunning a normal Mario game would feel like. In this respect, it achieves its purpose and the game works extremely well as a result. The animation of Mario jumping and flipping around looks amazing, like that first time you’ve played Assassin’s Creed and the parkour just works. As expected, the game is simple to play and simple to control. It is designed to be played with the screen in a vertical orientation. It is playable with one hand and Mario will automatically run. You tap the screen to jump, holding it for a higher jump. Mario will automatically climb over small obstacles and enemies, but if you time it correctly, you’ll be able to jump on top of enemies for extra height and coins.
Coins are scattered throughout the level to collect, and they act as your high score, encouraging you to replay the same level. Timing your jump is important given that you cannot move backwards and that can be annoying especially since each level has five pink coins to collect. Collecting all five in a single attempt will unlock another five purple coins in different positions. Getting those will unlock five black coins in new positions yet again. This is a simple yet addictive element that strongly encourages you to replay the same level.
Despite the auto running, each level is designed quite well in that there are hidden secrets here and there. It obviously incorporates staples of Mario games such as its enemies, the blocks for bonuses, and general gameplay elements. Yet the game puts its own spin on things including blocks where it pauses Mario and the timer to allow you to decide where to go next. The game can get challenging and soon after the first world, cleverer elements come into play where timing is crucial to get the perfect, or near perfect, run.
Each level is short, designed to be completed within a few minutes, usually less than two minutes. Unfortunately, the game only has six worlds of four levels each, meaning there is only a total of 24 levels. Each world has a boss battle to finish it off and these sections make it feel very similar to a normal Mario game despite the auto running. Each level has a timer and if you die, either by an enemy or falling into a bottomless pit, then you can respawn a limited number of times via a bubble. Run out of those bubbles that revive you and you’ll be forced to restart the level. there is an easy mode where it gives you unlimited time and unlimited bubbles (i.e. retries).
The story mode, known as Tour, is supported by a simple yet traditional story. Basically, Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach and Mario needs to catch up to him to save her. After completing the original 24 levels, World-Star is unlocked, which has nine new levels. The twist is that each level remains locked and has a specific requirement to unlock. These involve challenges within some of the main game’s levels and they can be tough.
There is another mode called Toad Rally where you play against the ghosts of other players to gain more coins. It can be fun, but this mode is tied to the kingdom building aspect of the game. You will need to keep winning in Toad Rally to advance and gain more toads for your kingdom. This will in turn unlock more buildings and decorations to put into the home screen of the game. Every time you beat a ghost player, it will match you up with harder and harder ones. It seems to scale up quickly, but at least losing doesn’t cause you to lose that many toads, but it is still a setback.
Finally, there is Remix 10 mode where you consecutively play ten very short levels. Basically, these are just small sections of the existing levels. The background of this mode is to find Princess Daisy and playing the mode will give you more buildings and other decorations. Each mini level has at least three purple coins to collect, and dying in one will force you move onto the next level, losing all the coins you had collected from that level. This mode, along with Toad Rally, is gated by tickets that you earn by playing through the Tour Mode.
You can unlock other characters to play, who each control a little bit differently such as Toad who runs faster, or Yoshi who can float a bit during his jumps. Annoyingly, the game requires a persistent internet connection. Even a single drop off will disconnect the game. Due to this, the game constantly loads between screens and levels, which is frustrating. There are times where the game will randomly disconnect from the servers, even when your internet connection is strong and there are no issues with other apps.
Overall, Super Mario Run is a nice interpretation and translation of Super Mario into a simpler format for mobile phones. The animations are smooth, and the controls are simple, yet the levels present just enough challenge to keep it interesting. Each level is a bit too short, but even considering that, it can be annoying restarting a whole level since Mario can only ever go forwards. You can’t really afford to make a mistake and must retry the whole level instead. With its short length, it is a bit too expensive to pay the asking price for the full game, while the free levels are too small a part of the game. Still, it has good production values and is a fun game.
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