Super Mario Run

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I've given this game a lot of thought over the course of yesterday and I'm not a fan. I can see why Nintendo did it. I can understand them. But as a fan, not a shareholder, I'm not happy about this game.

For any of you, who haven't heard about this yet, Super Mario Run was a surprise announcement during the Apple Keynote that happened two days ago. It will launch as a timed exclusive in IOS in December 2016 and it won't be a Free to Play title. The Concept is pretty easy. Mario runs automatically through levels and you can make him jump with a tap of the screen. Nintendo even boasted that they developed the game with the fact in mind that you'd only use one hand to play.

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So the stock market and analysts have, predictably, been going crazy about this announcement. Nintendos stock climbed upwards across the board and everyone with financial ties to the company has received this info very well. So let's talk about the good and bad aspects of Super Mario Run.

The logical conclusion:

From the moment Nintendo announced their mobile venture it was set in Stone that Mario would make an appearance. In fact many analysts were disappointed when their first mobile game Miitomo wasn't using the Mario Ip. Also this Mario Runner concept isn't all too surprising. In fact several Nintendo Fansites used this concept as their Apirl Fools Joke. So in that regard this game had to be expected.

Especially after the success of Pokemon Go, which also increased the sales of the Pokemon Games for the 3DS, we need to look at Super Mario Run in that regard. Nintendos hope is to funnel many new gamers towards their systems. If they like Super Mario Run they will like Super Mario Bros. U and maybe even try Super Mario Maker or Super Mario 3D World. This is the thought process behind releasing Super Mario Run. They hope to get into this huge untapped market.

Also it will probably make tons of money. The Mario name still is a huge draw, even with non gamers. And as opposed with Pokemon Go Nintendo will keep the profits for themselves with this game.

A dangerous future:

During several interviews Miyamoto revealed that they used experienced key members of the Mario development team to make Super Mario Run. Shigeru Miyamoto himself acts as Producer while series veteran Takashi Tezuka serves as the games director. Now Super Mario Run is only a small project, but it diverts their attention from bigger Mario Project. As someone, who has no interest in Smart Phone games, I'm not to happy about that. Of course with only a couple of games in development for Smart Phones this only poses a small danger, but if they increase their output, and if they are successful they will, this could impact the quality of big games negatively.

Also I'm not sure if the funneling of casual gamers towards their dedicated gaming platforms will work with this title. Pokemon Go was such a huge success because of Pokemon. The core concept of that franchise is something that every human can relate to. Capturing and collecting are some of the most basic urges we have.

Mario on the other hand clearly feels like a Video Game. Pokemon can reach people who have no interest in video games, while Mario can't.

Also the Smart Phone crowd is a fickle one. Nintendo needs to be very careful not to chase every small trend and whim of the market there. They need to draw a distinct line between their Smart Device games and their games for console and handheld. None should interfere with the other.

There is a real danger of Nintendo oversimplifying their console games to keep the Smart Phone Crowd engaged.

In the end Super Mario Run was an expected announcement. I'm still not happy about it, but I accept it. What are your thoughts about it? Positive? Negative? Let me know about it in the comments.

And as always

thanks for reading.