Nintendo made a surprise appearance at Apple’s iPhone 7 media briefing today to announce Super Mario Run, Mario‘s smartphone debut coming first to the iOS App Store in December. Users will be able to download a portion of the game for free, and can unlock all of the game content after paying a set purchase price.
The game is an runner where Mario automatically runs to the right of the screen. As he does, he’ll hurdle small gaps and certain enemies. The longer you press the screen, the higher he jumps, which is key to getting high scores. In later levels, you’ll see blocks that will change Mario’s direction and start and stop with specific timing. There is also a new “Toad Rally” mode, where players can choose an opponent from a list and try to beat their high score, and a mode in which players can create their own Mushroom Kingdom based upon those play results.
Here’s the full overview, via the Super Mario Run App Store page:
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 offers three different game modes:
- The first mode features challenging courses for you to complete.
- In the second mode, you challenge the play data of other people’s completed courses. You compete to see who can finish the course with the most style!
- In the third mode, you can create your own Mushroom Kingdom using coins collected by playing the first two game modes.
In addition to Super Mario Run, Nintendo is preparing a free Super Mario-themed sticker pack for iMessage that will launch day and date with the release of iOS 10.
Finally, Nintendo announced that its previously announced Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem smartphone games, which were planned for release this fall, are now due out before March 31, 2017.