Super Mario Run 2017
Mario Run, a one-handed feast of a game that’ll have you playing for hours. The premise is simple. Starting
as Mario, you take on a number of levels in Tour mode using one finger to jump – and perform a number of other moves – in order to get to Bowser and rescue Princess Peach. Yes, it’s all very familiar but, like every Mario game, it works so well. There are six worlds in total, each with four levels. At the end of each, you’re faced with a rather easy-to-defeat boss – just three hits will send him flying. Conquering the levels is the easy part of Super Mario Run – you can do it in a couple of hours. Just hurdle a few koopas, avoid a few shells, avoid Lakitu, solve a few Boo-based puzzles and you’re there. Yes, all of your favourite meanies are here. But where the game really shines is in the extras – ie the challenges you need to complete to truly ‘finish’ the game. In each level, there are three sets of coins to collect – pink, purple and black. You can only collect the purple coins after the pink, and the black after the purple, so you’ll have to re-run the levels more than a few times to collect them all. Each level subtly changes as well, offering a new challenge as you try to pick up five elusive coins on each run. And, of course, coins are a massive part of this game. Collecting more enables you to buy more items to furnish your Toad kingdom. But some of these items are only available as you add more Toads to your kingdom. How, you may ask? Well, by challenging other ‘Mario runners’ to run different levels in Rally mode and collecting as many coins as you can.
The more coins you get and the more ‘tricks’ (such as backward jumping and so on) you do, the more Toads you’ll be awarded. The more Toads you collect, the more secrets and characters you’ll be able to unlock. So even once you’ve got all the coins in Tour mode, there are lots to come back for – even if it’s just unlocking Luigi. And yes, there are other characters you can unlock: Princess Peach, Toad, Toadette and Yoshi, as well as the green plumber. You may wince a little at the BELOW You can unlock new characters, such as Yoshi, by collecting more Toads in Rally mode `663 in-app-purchase price, but you’ll soon realise it’s well worth it. This is a game with real longevity. Sure, Tour mode may be a little short and not offer many challenges to complete in its basic form, but if you want to collect all the items, it’ll take you a fair while to master. And building your Toad kingdom certainly won’t set your world on fire, but the expectation of what unlocks are around the corner will keep you plugging away. Super Mario Run on iPhone doesn’t disappoint. It’s a great-looking, hugely fun one-hander.
