Super Mario Run (Mobile - Yes Mobile)

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scotland
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Super Mario Run (Mobile - Yes Mobile)

Postby scotland » September 8th, 2016, 9:23 am

Well, its 2016 and its finally come. Mario - the Mario, Mario Mario, brother of Luigi Mario - who is the very model of a modern major mascot - the very symbol of Nintendo is on mobile devices, beginning with Apple.

Yup. Not just any ol' Nintendo character, but Mario is on Mobile device. The M on his hat stands for MOBILE.


Since the NES, if you wanted to play Mario, you did it on Mario, I mean, on Nintendo hardware. Not any more.

Image

It looks like a classic Mario game - Mario endlessly runs to the right, and you control him *like Flappy Bird* by tapping to make him jump higher. You remember Flappy Bird - the game made by 1 person not that long ago, derided as 'cheap mobile crap'.

I enjoy some mobile games, and have sometimes defended against the 'cheap mobile crap' label. There are definitely genres that work well on mobile, and I like portables and mobile devices for gaming in general. However, platformers were often a counter example of what would not work well on mobile devices - that you needed the precision of a button or a dpad. Well, an endless runner gets rid of any dpad concerns, and all you need to do to play Flappy Bird, I mean Super Mario Run, is tap.

You can see a video here:
http://kotaku.com/official-new-mario-game-announced-for-ios-1786329332

Is this a good thing? A bad thing? A necessary thing? Is this desperation, or brilliance? How well will this do? Given that we expect news of the NX, was this good timing? Will this bring young kids into Mario awareness and then into the NX?

This is a community who knows Nintendo, likes Nintendo, but are not such fanboys they feel the need to go into apologetics for everything Nintendo does. So, what do you think?

eneuman96
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Re: Super Mario Run (Mobile - Yes Mobile)

Postby eneuman96 » September 8th, 2016, 11:11 am

This has already elicited a lot of knee-jerk overreactions on other sites, so I figure I should throw in my two cents on this.

No, Nintendo is not doomed as many people are quick to say, nor has that statement ever been true. They aren't sellouts just because they realize that making a few mobile games alongside their console offerings will help them gain street cred with both kids and casual gamers alike. In fact, I've noticed that many people who criticize this decision of theirs tend to be the same people that have derided Nintendo in the past for not adapting to the game industry of today as quickly as other companies.

I get it, mobile games tend to be rush jobs with shallow gameplay. However, there are two major things Nintendo's first one(not counting Miitomo, which isn't a game per se, and Pokemon Go, which was developed by Niantic) has going for it.

One, it genuinely does look like it maintains the spirit of Mario, at least as much as an auto-runner mobile game can. The gameplay looks pretty much the same as a New Super Mario Bros title if it were programmed to make Mario run forward automatically. I'm glad Nintendo didn't try to shoehorn in an awkward interface with touchscreen buttons, because those are a nightmare.

Two, it's not a pay-to-win game. From what I know, there will be a free demo, but the full game will be a set price with no microtransactions. This is a good example of Nintendo understanding a major flaw with many mobile games and attempting to remedy it in order to avoid alienating their fans.

Nintendo's console experiences that we know and love aren't going anywhere. This is simply an attempt by them to stay relevant to everyone who plays games, not just their dedicated fans. Will it succeed? No one can say for sure yet. But there's no sense criticizing them for the sole reason that mobile games aren't your thing.

TL;DR: to quote a comic that's been making the rounds on social media lately, let people enjoy things.

Sut
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Re: Super Mario Run (Mobile - Yes Mobile)

Postby Sut » September 8th, 2016, 2:20 pm

SegaT head must be exploding would love to have heard his thoughts on his beloved Nintendo going mobile.

The game is going to be no better or worse than Sonic Dash/Temple Run/Pitfall and the myriad of other mobile endless runners and if it creates or recovers brand awareness for Nintendo it perhaps isn't a bad thing. Just don't expect it to a great Mario game, just another casual time wasting mobile game. But if there are no microtransactions and it isn't blighted with adverts like Sega does with it's mobile offerings then kudos to Nintendo.

To be honest I was going to descend into a anti-Nintendo rant but eneuman's balanced post raised some interesting points and made me think twice.

Voor
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Re: Super Mario Run (Mobile - Yes Mobile)

Postby Voor » September 8th, 2016, 7:07 pm

Sometimes the phone D pad works well. Try mega man 2 on iPhone--it plays better than you'd expect. Other games I've tried have been a disaster.

I wish they'd made a mobile version of Mario RPG or paper Mario--that probably would have worked really well

Voor
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Re: Super Mario Run (Mobile - Yes Mobile)

Postby Voor » September 8th, 2016, 7:13 pm

Just watched the demo. Honestly, it looks fun and much more varied than the Flappy Bird reference. If there's some kind of time trail or leaderboard or way to try to top other player's times, I can picture it being a big hit. It already has the Nintendo credibility going for it.

Looking forward to trying it out.

Tron
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Re: Super Mario Run (Mobile - Yes Mobile)

Postby Tron » September 11th, 2016, 1:57 am

It cheapens the brand. Sure it gives Mario some exposure to potential fans that he'd likely never meet, but then again how good is this game gonna be? Likely it will be just another mobile game amongst thousands more. I think Nintendo dropped the ball on mobile gaming 5+ years ago. They shoulda came out strong and created a marketplace. Now Mario is just a small fish in a big pond. I think it would've created more interest if Nintendo had made a new IP that was just for mobile gaming.

Voor
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Re: Super Mario Run (Mobile - Yes Mobile)

Postby Voor » September 11th, 2016, 8:04 am

Disagree. If Nintendo didn't release something for mobile devices, they would start getting branded as "irrelevant" and old school. Mobile gaming, despite its extreme limitations, is a huge market, and you can't blame any company for wanting to get in the mix.

Like I said, it seems to be of higher quality than most "runners", so if that is the case, it'll be a good move for Nintendo.

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scotland
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Re: Super Mario Run (Mobile - Yes Mobile)

Postby scotland » September 11th, 2016, 9:30 am

Voor wrote:it seems to be of higher quality than most "runners".


Which is a pretty low bar. Its like a company in the 1970s making the very best Pong game.

Nintendo has long competed by not competing. By saying we are different. If you like this kind of product, buy Nintendo hardware to play your Nintendo games. Pay a premium price, but not for latest GPU or super duper online killfest, but because our brand of family friendly creativity and adventure is worth it.Its worth it.

Is mobile worth pursuing? You betcha. Yet Mario is well enough known that everyone knows Mario already - he just closed out the Olympics, he is everywhere for Halloween costumes, etc. So its not promoting Mario the character.

Whats left is Mario the gameplay. A runner is close enough to Mario gameplay to convince people this is what Mario gameplay is, and you can play it on your mobile phone. I saw an Angry Birds game for the 3Ds, and thought, why would I buy a mobile game for my 3DS? Maybe its totally different, but the connection is already made. Angry birds is a mobile game. Is Mario going to have the same connection? Why buy Mario on the NX...its a mobile game.

Its a gamble. Why buy an NX if you take Mario out of the equation? Yes, lots of IPs, but Mario is the symbol of Nintendo. Mario is special. Why didn't they make a runner out of another character?

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SpaceGuitarist
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Re: Super Mario Run (Mobile - Yes Mobile)

Postby SpaceGuitarist » September 11th, 2016, 10:18 am

I think I've seen Mario in any shape and form by now. Of course on Nintendo platforms, but I've seen it on arcade games, bad educational PC games, CD-i games, pinball machines, pachinko slots, portable LCD devices...I also saw it on kid's backpacks, keychains, notebooks, plushes, shirts, wallets, even food.
I have never thought Super Mario was an holy cow since the brand has been used and abused in all possible ways. The only thing they haven't used it on seem to be rat poison. So a mobile game is not the end of the world, is it?!

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astrodomekid
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Re: Super Mario Run (Mobile - Yes Mobile)

Postby astrodomekid » September 11th, 2016, 10:19 am

I would say "I'll stick with Sonic Runners, thank you very much", but unfortunately that game was shut down and now I can't play it anymore! :(


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