Mario Run Is Finally Served to the App Store with a Large Side of Deception

We’ve seen a lot of changes coming out of Nintendo over this past year. They saw massive, stock-changing success when they first released Pokémon GO (with their partner Niantic), only to be followed by one of the biggest fall offs of a trend since frosted tips. Back in fall, in order to get back into the thick of console competition, they announced the Nintendo Switch, an at-home/portable console hybrid that got everyone talking for its use of the 3^rd party hardware and software, a first for Nintendo (who typically keeps all development under Nintendo’s roof). Now, the Japanese game company looks to try to takeover our smartphones one more time with the use of one of their oldest and most fabled characters, Mario. Releasing yesterday, Mario Run is a (kind of) free-to-play mobile game that brings to you the classic feel of those old Super Mario Bros. games, with the added feature that Mario won’t stop running for the length of the entire level. Players get to soak in all the Nintendo-ey nostalgia of running through the various levels of the 6 worlds, as they go and attempt to save Mario’s beloved Princess Peach just like the good old days. Sounds like a hit, right? Well, like most events that have happened in 2016, this deal has a hell of a sour note to it.

After completing the first 3 levels of the first world in the game (something that takes about 8 minutes tops), you are told that you will only get a 20 second preview of level 4 unless you purchase the game in full. And to top off that little feeling of betrayal, in order to access the other 6 worlds and all their levels, you have to make an in-app micro-transaction of a whopping $9.99. That’s right, more than a whole burrito bowl at Chipotle. Have you ever paid $10 to play a side-scrolling knock off of Temple Run? Yeah, us neither… Naturally, the internet quickly assembled in its hive-mind mentality to express disdain for Nintendo’s underhanded money grab in the form of very salty memes. Are you feeling Mario Run enough to pay the relatively big price tag? If you need to get your 8 minutes of test time to decide, head over to the App Store now to give it a try.