Mario’s inaugural run onto mobile provides fun even in simplicity and brevity.
Super Mario Run alternates between the novel, well-worn mechanics of a modern Mario platformer and the frantic, high-score-chasing just-one-more go nature of arcade (and mobile) games. The result is a tempered success that provides a grand dose of fun but ultimately feels like a muted side story in the Mario canon.
The World Tour mode is what most closely resembles a Mario game, comprised of six worlds with four levels each. The worlds aren’t pinned down to represent specific elements, but throughout the 24 levels, classic Mario locales are shown off in the New Super Mario Bros. style. Exploration is a little lessened, especially since Mario always runs, but these levels shine in part due to the different colored coins you collect. In your first run, you’re after pink coins. Get all five of those, and you’ll unlock purple and then black coins. Each set encourages a different path through the level, and most level designs even feature a twist on the obstacles. A quick runthrough won’t take you long, but this mode has staying power because the purple and black coins become quite dastardly to snag.
World Tour doesn’t linger too long on one idea, and feels a lot like Nintendo’s original mobile vision of guiding players to play full-fledged Mario games come to life. It ends a little too quickly and the last world lacks the panache that has buoyed the finales of recent Mario platformers. I ended World Tour wanting more, and while the colored coins offer a fun post-game challenge, it still feels short.
The natural place to go after finishing World Tour is the Toad Rally mode, which might be the most important one in the game. It’s the focus of the more directly competitive element and the main method for earning Toads, which are tied to the unlockables and bonuses. You compete against the ghosts of other players to try to out-style them through modified levels pulled from select World Tour stages. Collecting coins, performing parkour, and stomping on enemies are the best method to proceed through each level. I intend to play more of Toad Rally once I can populate my friends list (we were limited in our ability to this pre-launch), but in the early goings, it seemed hard to find a balanced opponent. They were either pushovers or world destroyers. It’s fun to try to go for the win, but it’s very punitive if you lose. It’s a good thing Toad Rally isn’t a true PvP mode as rage-quitting would be rampant.
The Kingdom, so far, doesn’t seem too intriguing. I have a feeling it might deepen as the days go on and I learn more of its intricacies, but right now it’s just a fancy gateway for getting the unlockable characters and other bonuses. Before I settle on a final score, I plan on diving deeper into the Kingdom, because I hope and feel that there might be some secrets nestled in it that are worth uncovering.
Super Mario Run is fun and it seems to be perfectly representative of Nintendo’s mobile plans: provide a taste that potentially leads players to their consoles. This isn’t a grand, deep experience, but it has enough inventive twists on Mario platforming to remain fun for a few hours. We’ll check in next week and land on a score.
Source: Nintendo World Report Updates
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