Ondrej Holzman Gaming magazine Glixel brought a great interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, who made a significant contribution to the creation of legendary games such as Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda whether Donkey Kong. But now, in close cooperation with Apple, his Nintendo has ventured into the mobile market for the first time.
What was it like working with Apple? How the partnership came about Super Mario Run? They support it much more than they usually do for individual games.
The timing was truly fortunate for both parties. We at Nintendo had a lot of discussions about entering the mobile market, but we hadn't decided that we would make Mario for smartphones. As we talked about it, we started asking ourselves questions about what such a Mario would have to look like. So we experimented with some things and came up with a basic idea, and we ended up showing it to Apple.
Part of the reason we went with Apple was because I needed development support to make sure the game ran as we expected. Since Nintendo always tries to do something unique, we wanted to try something different from the business side as well. We didn't really want to make anything free (free-to-play), but to make sure we had a chance to do what we wanted, we had to talk to the people who were really running it.
The App Store people naturally told us at first that the free-to-play approach was good, but I always had the impression that Apple and Nintendo shared very similar philosophies. As we started working together, I confirmed that this was true and they welcomed trying something new.
Super Mario Run will arrive on iOS on Thursday, December 15, and will finally be free, but only as a taster. A one-time fee of 10 euros will be charged to unlock the entire game and all game modes. Still, the legendary Mario on iPhones and iPads can be expected to be a huge hit. It will be interesting to see if Apple shares any sales figures, since just a promotional campaign before the actual arrival Super Mario Run to the App Store is unprecedented.
It all started with a big launch of the new game at the September keynote. It has been ever since Super Mario Run already visible in the App Store, where you can activate notifications as soon as the game is released. At the same time, fans could play a demo version of the upcoming game with the Italian plumber in physical Apple Stores this week. The first ever mobile Mario gets a lot of publicity before it even comes out. Shigeru Miyamoto, who created Mario in 1981, has also contributed to this and has now embarked on a very intensive tour of the United States to also support the anticipated game.
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Miyamoto admitted that Nintendo's goal from the beginning was to make the first mobile Mario as simple as possible. “When we first created thirty years ago Super Mario Bros., a lot of people played it, and one of the reasons they liked it was that all you could do was run right and jump,” recalls Miyamoto, who wanted to return to a similar principle on iPhones. That's why it will be Super Mario Run the first Mario that can be controlled with one hand.
And that should work even today. Among the most popular game titles on iPhones are similar platformers and games that are usually not very difficult to control, but can be entertaining, for example, while waiting at a bus stop, because you immediately get into the action. For most players with iPhones and iPads, it will probably be necessary to visit the App Store on Thursday...
