Mario Run

6 Feb, 2023

I’m not quite addicted to Mario Run, however in stating that upfront… Could it be considered a statement in denial? Before you ready the rotten tomatoes and eggs aimed squarely at my face please hear out a controversial - almost 6 year vintage-d opinion.

I actually think Mario Run isn’t just a competent Mario game, but a solid Mario platformer reinvented for mobile phones. Mario is controlled with a single screen press, performing the usual gambit of skills - Jump, Double Jump, Pirouettes (like in NSMB) and the Wall Jump.

There’s easily 60+ levels accessible in the Tour and all of them have additional challenges beyond just clearing the level, namely collecting Pink, Purple and Black coins. That’s before you even duck into Toad Rally - the main way to populate your kingdom with hundreds and thousands of Toads and unlock additional characters like Luigi, Toadette and miscellaneously coloured Yoshis.

These Toad Rally levels are based on the Tour levels - a “competitive” mode where you collect coins as well as perform double jumps, wall jumps and pirouettes to gain the approval of the adoring crowd of Toads against what I think is an AI controlled player with a person’s Tag listed. I’d put the concept of Toad Rally up against Mario 35 or Tetris 99… if it were executed at a PvP capacity.

Don’t even get me started on the Remix collection of levels, a rush of 10 micro-levels to collect not only Daisy but also furniture. I feel overwhelmed with content for what is just an App Store game reusing or remixing the exact same levels over and over again but it’s addictive. I want to see it out to its conclusion!

This goes against some of the chatter on release, people hated the payment scheme - a one off $10 payment, in comparison to the subscription service most commonly used today or the one off payments to maximise on people’s dopamine hits. I felt this was a super reasonable price, lacking any predatory behaviour. However, in context… Nintendo was losing out with the Wii U and under great financial strain before the Switch hit the shelves.

If you take it as a puzzle-platformer, Mario has a limited capacity for movement to perform what you could in any game with levels designed with a Super Mario Bros. 3 mindset of short and sweet, with a gimmick per stage.

It’s a great holdover which once no longer supported, will never be accessible again.