When will Mario come out on iPhone: what is Super Mario Run's release date? How much will Super Mario Run cost, and which iPhones (and iPads) will be able to run it? And how can I download and play Mario and other Nintendo games on iPhone?
Mario is coming to iPhone! At Apple's iPhone 7 launch event on 7 September, most of the hardware announcements had been leaked in advance. But the company had at least one big surprise up its sleeve: Nintendo's gaming icon, Mario, will appear on iPhone in the form of an auto-runner game called Mario Run.
Who has iPhone 7 in stock? Find out where to order an iPhone 7 today. Click here.
Up until now, Nintendo has kept Mario off mobile devices, with the exception of its own handheld consoles, so this is a major coup. Apple even got Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary games designer behind Mario (and Zelda, and plenty of other classics) to appear on stage and announce the game in understandably halting English.
But when will Super Mario Run for iPhone be released in the UK, and how much will it cost?
Updated, 21 October, to talk about Super Mario Run on iPad; on 14 October 2016, to talk about Tim Cook's visit to Nintendo in Japan to try a pre-release version of Super Mario Run; and on 30 Sept to discuss the reasons why Super Mario Run will come to iPhone first and Android next year.
Super Mario Run is launching on the iPhone in December 2016.
At the launch event Nintendo only said that Mario Run is "coming soon" to iOS, but in a press release afterwards clarified that it will appear on the App Store in December. Further than this, the company has said that Super Mario Run will launch by the 'holiday' period - which we understand to mean Christmas? - at the latest, so we're expect it in the first 20 days or so of December.
We'll update this article as soon as we hear the precise day on which Super Mario Run will launch. But if you head over to Super Mario Run's entry on the App Store, you can cut out the middleman (boo!) and sign up to be notified when it's ready for launch.
In the meantime, it certainly looks like the game is nearly ready. Apple boss Tim Cook has been over to Japan and popped in on Nintendo while he was there - and got to play a build of Super Mario Run, the lucky beggar.
Cook tweeted a photo of himself on 12 October, alongside Shigeru Miyamoto and other Nintendo staff, getting stuck into the one-handed platformer. You can't see the screen, though, so he might be terrible at it. Or playing something else entirely, for all we know.
Super Mario Run will come out on iPad at the same time as iPhone. It's a Universal app - one app will work on all compatible iOS devices, so once you download it for iPhone it will become available for download on iPad. (Not that this makes a huge difference, since the game is free.) We assume that in-app purchases made on one device will be transferable to other devices using the same Apple ID, although this hasn't been confirmed yet.
Super Mario Run looks essentially the same on the iPad as on the iPhone - it's played in portrait mode there too - although the concept of one-handed play presumably won't work so well. Except possibly on iPad mini.
Mario Run is coming to iOS first, but will be a platform exclusive only initially, with an Android launch on the cards some time afterwards. (Nintendo told Kotaku: "We do intend to release the game on Android devices at some point in the future.")
It's being widely reported that Super Mario Run will launch on Android in 2017, but we've not seen an official Nintendo source anyway saying this. It's not a particularly specific prediction in any case. We'll be sure to update this as soon as we hear more.
As we discuss in our iPhone vs Android article, major games often come to iOS first and Android later because iOS users tend to be more willing to spend cash on software. But in this case there may be more to the decision that money. Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Miyamoto said: "One of the reasons we focused on iPhone first was the stability of the platform and being able to get the level of response that we want out of the games.
"That's not to say that Android devices don't have the same level of responsiveness. But because there are so many Android devices, trying to engineer the game to work across them all requires quite a lot of time."
Super Mario Run for iPhone release date | Super Mario Run price: Price
Mario Run will be free - as an initial download. There will be in-app purchases, though.
But don't worry! We're fairly sure it's not 'pay to win' or crammed with adverts or any of the other things you get in the shabbier free games. (For free games that don't resort to such tricks, see our roundups of the best free iPhone games and best free iPad games.) Instead, that initial download will give you access to only a limited portion of the game, and you will have to pay to unlock the rest of the game - a one-off, set-price payment too, so there's none of the usual chipping away with a paid-for continue here and a paid-for power-up there.
Nintendo hasn't yet announced how much this one-off in-app purchase will cost but, as before, we'll update this article with the information as soon as we have it.
Super Mario Run for iPhone release date | Super Mario Run price: Which iPhones and iPads can run Super Mario Run?
As mentioned above, Super Mario Run is designed for both iPad and iPhone. According to its (pre-release) entry on the App Store, Super Mario Run requires iOS 8.0 or later, and can be run on the iPhone 5s or later, the iPad Air or later, the iPad mini 3 or later, any of the iPad Pro models, or the sixth-gen iPod touch.
The age rating is a super family-friendly 4+.
Super Mario Run for iPhone release date | Super Mario Run price: Gameplay
Mario Run is an entirely new Mario game and adapts the accustomed platform style of gameplay to suit the mobile touchscreen experience. It doesn't seem to have been cut down too drastically, fortunately.
Essentially a two-button game has been turned into a one-button game, by making Mario run automatically from left to right: you just control the timing and power of his jumps.
Here's an excerpt from the gameplay description on the App Store:
"In this game, you constantly move forward through the courses while using a variety of jumps to navigate. Your character will behave differently depending on the timing of your taps, so it's up to you to show off particularly smooth moves, gather coins, and reach the goal."
Super Mario Run game modes
There are three modes: a first, standard mode in which you try your best to finish the various levels/courses; a second mode in which you compete against the play data of other people's completed courses; and a third mode in which you create your own Mushroom Kingdom using coins collected in the course of playing the first two modes. The last of the three modes remains a bit of a mystery, since we've not seen much of it yet.
"We have created Super Mario Run to be perfect for playing on your iPhone," said Miyamoto. Super Mario has evolved whenever he has encountered a new platform, and for the first time ever, players will be able to enjoy a full-fledged Super Mario game with just one hand, giving them the freedom to play while riding the subway or my favourite, eating a hamburger."
It looks quite good, really:Super Mario Run for iPhone release date | Super Mario Run price: Stickers
We've still got a while to wait before Super Mario Run launches on iPhone, but in the meantime you can do a load of free advertising for the game amuse your friends with the free Super Mario Run sticker pack for Messages in iOS 10.
For more of this kind of thing, take a look at our roundup of the best Messages apps, games and stickers. And to read about the new features in Messages in iOS 10, including stickers, read How to use Messages in iOS 10.How to download and play other Nintendo games on iPhone
Gamers desperate to play Nintendo games like Pokémon and Mario on the iPhone were excited to find out what the first official Nintendo mobile game would be after the Japanese video games giant stated its intention to develop apps for iOS and Android earlier this year, but we now know that it's called Miitomo and looks utterly disappointing. Find out when you can expect to get other Nintendo games on your iPhone by reading on.
What other Nintendo games are coming to iPhone?
As of 29 October, we now know what the first of Nintendo's official mobile games is, but it's not the Mario, Zelda or Pokemon we'd been hoping for. Instead, Nintendo has created a game called Miitomo, which is a sort of avatar-based life simulator game that, in all honesty, doesn't look very exciting. Details are limited right now so we'll have to hold of judgement until it arrives in March next year, but it's going to be free-to-play with in-app purchases that presumably allow you to buy new clothes and accessories for your Miis.
But don't lose hope, Nintendo fans. There are still four games to come before April 2017, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that the next one to be unveiled will be more exciting.
Nintendo isn't going to be making iOS games itself – instead the games will be made by a Nintendo partner company called DeNA. While fans may feel a bit dispirited that Nintendo itself isn't doing the game development, this makes sense, as Japanese games company DeNA is experienced with iOS development. It's already made Marvel Mighty Heroes, Godus, Transformers Legends, Star Wars: Galactic Defense and more.
It does, however, suggest that the Nintendo games for iOS will be original games, rather than recreations of Nintendo classics.
DeNA has confirmed that there will be a total of five titles by April 2017 as part of the partnership, but we still don't know what the other four games will be. We'll update this article when we find out more.No information has been provided regarding pricing, but DeNA tends to follow the freemium model (where games are free to download and play, but they display ads or you can pay for extra features).
In this interview with Time, then Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata, who sadly died on 11 July, said: "I understand that, unlike the package model for dedicated game systems, the free-to-start type of business model is more widely adopted for games on smart devices, and the free-to-start model will naturally be an option for us to consider. On the other hand, Nintendo does not intend to choose payment methods that may hurt Nintendo's brand image or our IP, which parents feel comfortable letting their children play with."
Mario is coming to iPhone! At Apple's iPhone 7 launch event on 7 September, most of the hardware announcements had been leaked in advance. But the company had at least one big surprise up its sleeve: Nintendo's gaming icon, Mario, will appear on iPhone in the form of an auto-runner game called Mario Run.
Who has iPhone 7 in stock? Find out where to order an iPhone 7 today. Click here.
Up until now, Nintendo has kept Mario off mobile devices, with the exception of its own handheld consoles, so this is a major coup. Apple even got Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary games designer behind Mario (and Zelda, and plenty of other classics) to appear on stage and announce the game in understandably halting English.
But when will Super Mario Run for iPhone be released in the UK, and how much will it cost?
Updated, 21 October, to talk about Super Mario Run on iPad; on 14 October 2016, to talk about Tim Cook's visit to Nintendo in Japan to try a pre-release version of Super Mario Run; and on 30 Sept to discuss the reasons why Super Mario Run will come to iPhone first and Android next year.
Super Mario Run is launching on the iPhone in December 2016.
At the launch event Nintendo only said that Mario Run is "coming soon" to iOS, but in a press release afterwards clarified that it will appear on the App Store in December. Further than this, the company has said that Super Mario Run will launch by the 'holiday' period - which we understand to mean Christmas? - at the latest, so we're expect it in the first 20 days or so of December.
We'll update this article as soon as we hear the precise day on which Super Mario Run will launch. But if you head over to Super Mario Run's entry on the App Store, you can cut out the middleman (boo!) and sign up to be notified when it's ready for launch.
In the meantime, it certainly looks like the game is nearly ready. Apple boss Tim Cook has been over to Japan and popped in on Nintendo while he was there - and got to play a build of Super Mario Run, the lucky beggar.
Cook tweeted a photo of himself on 12 October, alongside Shigeru Miyamoto and other Nintendo staff, getting stuck into the one-handed platformer. You can't see the screen, though, so he might be terrible at it. Or playing something else entirely, for all we know.
Super Mario Run will come out on iPad at the same time as iPhone. It's a Universal app - one app will work on all compatible iOS devices, so once you download it for iPhone it will become available for download on iPad. (Not that this makes a huge difference, since the game is free.) We assume that in-app purchases made on one device will be transferable to other devices using the same Apple ID, although this hasn't been confirmed yet.
Super Mario Run looks essentially the same on the iPad as on the iPhone - it's played in portrait mode there too - although the concept of one-handed play presumably won't work so well. Except possibly on iPad mini.
Mario Run is coming to iOS first, but will be a platform exclusive only initially, with an Android launch on the cards some time afterwards. (Nintendo told Kotaku: "We do intend to release the game on Android devices at some point in the future.")
It's being widely reported that Super Mario Run will launch on Android in 2017, but we've not seen an official Nintendo source anyway saying this. It's not a particularly specific prediction in any case. We'll be sure to update this as soon as we hear more.
As we discuss in our iPhone vs Android article, major games often come to iOS first and Android later because iOS users tend to be more willing to spend cash on software. But in this case there may be more to the decision that money. Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Miyamoto said: "One of the reasons we focused on iPhone first was the stability of the platform and being able to get the level of response that we want out of the games.
"That's not to say that Android devices don't have the same level of responsiveness. But because there are so many Android devices, trying to engineer the game to work across them all requires quite a lot of time."
Super Mario Run for iPhone release date | Super Mario Run price: Price
Mario Run will be free - as an initial download. There will be in-app purchases, though.
But don't worry! We're fairly sure it's not 'pay to win' or crammed with adverts or any of the other things you get in the shabbier free games. (For free games that don't resort to such tricks, see our roundups of the best free iPhone games and best free iPad games.) Instead, that initial download will give you access to only a limited portion of the game, and you will have to pay to unlock the rest of the game - a one-off, set-price payment too, so there's none of the usual chipping away with a paid-for continue here and a paid-for power-up there.
Nintendo hasn't yet announced how much this one-off in-app purchase will cost but, as before, we'll update this article with the information as soon as we have it.
Super Mario Run for iPhone release date | Super Mario Run price: Which iPhones and iPads can run Super Mario Run?
As mentioned above, Super Mario Run is designed for both iPad and iPhone. According to its (pre-release) entry on the App Store, Super Mario Run requires iOS 8.0 or later, and can be run on the iPhone 5s or later, the iPad Air or later, the iPad mini 3 or later, any of the iPad Pro models, or the sixth-gen iPod touch.
The age rating is a super family-friendly 4+.
Super Mario Run for iPhone release date | Super Mario Run price: Gameplay
Mario Run is an entirely new Mario game and adapts the accustomed platform style of gameplay to suit the mobile touchscreen experience. It doesn't seem to have been cut down too drastically, fortunately.
Essentially a two-button game has been turned into a one-button game, by making Mario run automatically from left to right: you just control the timing and power of his jumps.
Here's an excerpt from the gameplay description on the App Store:
"In this game, you constantly move forward through the courses while using a variety of jumps to navigate. Your character will behave differently depending on the timing of your taps, so it's up to you to show off particularly smooth moves, gather coins, and reach the goal."
Super Mario Run game modes
There are three modes: a first, standard mode in which you try your best to finish the various levels/courses; a second mode in which you compete against the play data of other people's completed courses; and a third mode in which you create your own Mushroom Kingdom using coins collected in the course of playing the first two modes. The last of the three modes remains a bit of a mystery, since we've not seen much of it yet.
"We have created Super Mario Run to be perfect for playing on your iPhone," said Miyamoto. Super Mario has evolved whenever he has encountered a new platform, and for the first time ever, players will be able to enjoy a full-fledged Super Mario game with just one hand, giving them the freedom to play while riding the subway or my favourite, eating a hamburger."
It looks quite good, really:Super Mario Run for iPhone release date | Super Mario Run price: Stickers
We've still got a while to wait before Super Mario Run launches on iPhone, but in the meantime you can do a load of free advertising for the game amuse your friends with the free Super Mario Run sticker pack for Messages in iOS 10.
For more of this kind of thing, take a look at our roundup of the best Messages apps, games and stickers. And to read about the new features in Messages in iOS 10, including stickers, read How to use Messages in iOS 10.How to download and play other Nintendo games on iPhone
Gamers desperate to play Nintendo games like Pokémon and Mario on the iPhone were excited to find out what the first official Nintendo mobile game would be after the Japanese video games giant stated its intention to develop apps for iOS and Android earlier this year, but we now know that it's called Miitomo and looks utterly disappointing. Find out when you can expect to get other Nintendo games on your iPhone by reading on.
What other Nintendo games are coming to iPhone?
As of 29 October, we now know what the first of Nintendo's official mobile games is, but it's not the Mario, Zelda or Pokemon we'd been hoping for. Instead, Nintendo has created a game called Miitomo, which is a sort of avatar-based life simulator game that, in all honesty, doesn't look very exciting. Details are limited right now so we'll have to hold of judgement until it arrives in March next year, but it's going to be free-to-play with in-app purchases that presumably allow you to buy new clothes and accessories for your Miis.
But don't lose hope, Nintendo fans. There are still four games to come before April 2017, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that the next one to be unveiled will be more exciting.
Nintendo isn't going to be making iOS games itself – instead the games will be made by a Nintendo partner company called DeNA. While fans may feel a bit dispirited that Nintendo itself isn't doing the game development, this makes sense, as Japanese games company DeNA is experienced with iOS development. It's already made Marvel Mighty Heroes, Godus, Transformers Legends, Star Wars: Galactic Defense and more.
It does, however, suggest that the Nintendo games for iOS will be original games, rather than recreations of Nintendo classics.
DeNA has confirmed that there will be a total of five titles by April 2017 as part of the partnership, but we still don't know what the other four games will be. We'll update this article when we find out more.No information has been provided regarding pricing, but DeNA tends to follow the freemium model (where games are free to download and play, but they display ads or you can pay for extra features).
In this interview with Time, then Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata, who sadly died on 11 July, said: "I understand that, unlike the package model for dedicated game systems, the free-to-start type of business model is more widely adopted for games on smart devices, and the free-to-start model will naturally be an option for us to consider. On the other hand, Nintendo does not intend to choose payment methods that may hurt Nintendo's brand image or our IP, which parents feel comfortable letting their children play with."
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