Super Mario Run: Apple and Nintendo Team Up for New Mobile Game

We’ve known for a while now that Nintendo was expanding into the mobile space, but besides the social app Miitomo we hadn’t seen the game company make any significant moves to that effect. But now Nintendo is bringing its biggest franchise into the mobile world.

At today’s Apple Special Event, creator of Super Mario Bros. Shigeru Miyamoto came on stage to announce Super Mario Run, an iOS-exclusive 2D Mario game.

Super Mario Run will be an auto-runner with players tapping the screen to have Mario jump onto enemies, over obstacles and into power-ups. There will also be special blocks that will change the direction Mario is running in, or stop him in his tracks.

Super Mario Run will also contain an asynchronous competitive mode, called “Toad Rally,” in which players can compete against each other for the best run through a level. The better you do, the more Toads you’ll impress enough to join your own Mushroom Kingdom, which you can then customize with the coins you earn during your runs.

While Nintendo hasn’t said anything about an Android release, the game was referred to as an “iOS-first” game, which seems to imply it’ll be out for Android sometime after the iOS release.

Although they showed off gameplay, Nintendo was more cagey with the pricing and release date for Super Mario Run. No definitive price has been given, but, according to a press release, a portion of the game will be free with a one-time cost to get the full version. There was no definitive release date given either, but Super Mario Run will release sometime in December.