3/5 ★ – RawMetal's review of Super Mario Run.

System: Mobile (iOS) Started: 2019 Ended: December 31, 2022 When I first heard about Nintendo going into the mobile gaming business, I was weary of the thought. I always think Mobile games are inferior versions of actual video games compared to games made for consoles and PC. In fact, I always blamed the Mobile Gaming market due to its relations to Microtransactions, Paywalls and Lootboxes that are being normalized today. It does however fit into the casual gaming environment to play for 2-5 minutes while waiting at a doctor’s office. So far for Nintendo, they released Animal Crossing Pocket Camp and Fire Emblem Fates for Mobile and now Super Mario Run. I did play the trial version just out of curiosity and months after, I decided to waste 10 bucks for this game. After playing it for so long, it's safe to say Super Mario Run is not that bad for a mobile game. Thankfully there are no microtransactions involved. What if you make a Super Mario Game by just pressing one button. Super Mario Run is the answer to that and by doing that, Mario has to run automatically and you press the touch screen to make Mario jump. And like every 2D Mario game is to take Mario all the way to the end of the level by avoiding enemies, hazards and pitfalls. I also noticed they used the same assets for New Super Mario Bros. I don’t know if there’s a budget thing but It's noticeable and tiresome they reused the assets from that same art style for over 10 years now. When you first boot up the game, you will notice the Mushroom Kingdom is a barren wasteland and I found out it's your typical dress-up-your-kingdom mechanic by collecting items that you earn in-game or shop. I find this mode to be the weakest since I’m not a huge fan of decorating your own kingdom, room or any place. Nobody is not willing to visit your Kingdom unless you screenshot it and post it on the internet for everyone to see. I say the true endgame on this is literally buying a Giant Cake. The Traditional Super Mario Endgame reward. And there are three modes for you to play and I’ll list them. Tour Mode is the campaign mode in this game as you go through these stages like every other 2D Mario game, Tour Mode is easy and pretty short if you skip the challenges. There is a Star Tour Mode but you have to earn the stages as you complete a specific challenge such as get 500 coins at a certain level in a single run, and then you unlock a Star Tour Level. If you finish all the levels and bosses, you can become a completionist and grab all the Pink, Purple and Black Coins. Try to get them all for every level and you will be able to play the Bonus Pipe Missions. The Bonus Pipe Missions are a lot more difficult than the default levels like the Black Coins Pipe Bonus Level and the sad part is there is no reward once you complete it except getting an extra level for Remix-10. Rally Mode is the multiplayer of Super Mario Run. Your objective is to perform tricks and collect coins to impress an audience of Toads. You either battle a bot or a human player in selected levels for you to choose from with their recorded ghost selves. The person who has the most coins gets to earn Toads that will reside in your kingdom and help you unlock items based on the requirements of Toad Counts and Character Unlocks. If you lose though, you only lose a bit of Toads in your Kingdom and your Toad Count decreases. It is challenging and it can be frustrating, especially when you lose during a close match and trying to get a number of Toads in order to unlock a certain item and characters making it a huge setback towards your goal in Rally Mode. Remix-10 is Endless run of going through 10 levels in accelerated mode. You collect those Special Coins so you can earn a Bonus Reward to unlock items for the Mushroom Kingdom. You start on Area 1 and you can complete a Set in order to go to the next Area as its infinity. Each Set has by average 3-4 of 10 Level-Runs. This could be optional to play, but you might have to play it to get exclusive items in this mode and it can be a chore at times. This is when I had to be a completionist to unlock everything and it gets really difficult when you almost have every item in the game. By then, Your luck has to be the equivalent in playing the Lottery. At least mode is perfect for me to listen to my music album catalog as I’m playing and Super Mario Run has a feature to listen to actual music while playing which is a neat feature. If you sign up with your MyNintendo account, you will get free content such as the character Toad and complete a daily challenge in this game to earn. I knew people would not play this game that much so Nintendo decided to add Platinum Points in order for people to still play this game. That is literally the only reason I kept playing this game so I can get physical MyNintendo Rewards. But the catch is you have to pay a shipping fee for Nintendo to mail the physical items to you which sucks. But it is reasonable if you don’t want the inventory for the physical merch you want and be sold out quickly. I complained that this game is short and easy only for Tour mode and the bonus pipe missions cranked up the difficulty level pretty high. As for trying to be a completionist for this game, Nintendo wants you to play this game for a long time since their random item generator is terrible as I had too much trouble getting the last few remaining items with its lottery style bonus game and the cost of getting the last item which is a tent is outrageous especially when grinding. You need 50,000 toads (and a lot of coins) to earn from Rally Mode and it will take forever to earn it. At least the MyNintendo Rewards was the main reason why I kept going back to this game so I can get some exclusive physical goods in the mail. Nintendo did a bold move to now have their games into the mobile games medium and the devs did their best with Super Mario Run. It's not really a bad game. At least Super Mario Run does have a trial version, but the later stages are locked until you pay the 10 bucks. I would only play this game if you are a Super Mario enthusiast or you just want easy platinum coins and get some physical MyNintendo goods. It won’t hurt that much unless you want to save 10 dollars for a new Nintendo game.