At their iPhone 7 launch event this morning, Apple were graced with the presence of Shigeru Miyamoto, the designer and producer behind some of the biggest Nintendo tiles ever released such as Donkey Kong, Star Fox and of course Mario. Miyamoto announced that Super Mario Run will be launching on iOS, but what he didn’t announce on-stage is that it’s coming to Android too.
In a follow-up with Nintendo PR, Kotaku were able to nail down the information that it will be coming to Android devices too, with Nintendo saying:
We do intend to release the game on Android devices at some point in the future.
For what it’s worth, Super Mario Run appears to be an endless runner game, with the description of the game on iTunes reading:
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.
Pricing is a little weird, with Kotaku advising the game will be ‘free to download with a set purchase price’, so it will be maybe ad-supported with an IAP to unlock it?
Android users can of course run the original Super Mario Bros, by delving into the world of emulators and ROMs on their devices right now. Some side-loading is required but the files and emulators, though legally in a grey-ish area, are available if you look for them.
There’s no specific date for a release of Super Mario Run, and it very likely won’t be soon with Apple sure to have sewn up a deal to keep it a little exclusive for at least a while. We’ll just have to wait and see.
There’s no way a Nintendo game will be ad-supported. I’d imagine it’s free for say “World 1”, and then worlds 2-8 can be purchased individually or as a pack. Potentially even redeem collected in-game coins for the extra levels if you earn enough.
They may as well not said anything 🙁