During the September Apple event this past month, Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Nintendo’s Mario franchise, announced “Super Mario Run,” a new game by Nintendo, will be released on to the iOS market this December.
The announcement came a few months after the release of the massively popular iOS game “Pokemon Go.”
Some speculation has come across as to whether or not “Super Mario Run” will be as popular as “Pokemon Go.”
The idea that Mario’s popularity will overshadow the success that Pokémon has demonstrated is a bad bet for consumers to put their money on.
The social implications that Pokémon utilizes greatly outweighs the single player access “Super Mario Run” demonstrates.
During the 2016 summer Olympics, Japan used Mario as a theme to announce itself as the next country to host the 2020 summer Olympics.
The antithesis is that Pokémon will remain on top, given the apps nearly instantaneous success and social playability.
“The nature of it alone allowed it to become such a big thing where more people are playing it because you are exploring your neighborhood and catching Pokémon,” said Enrique Muñoz, owner of Comic Hero University in downtown Fullerton.
“The Mario game sounds like something that you could just do at home,” Muñoz adds, ”There is less of a social aspect with Mario then there is with Pokemon Go.”
“I don’t think it will overshadow the game [Mario],” said Matt Vasquez, Co-owner of Lost Levels in downtown Fullerton, “Pokémon and Mario have always been two of Nintendo’s biggest selling franchises.”
“I think that the same market that “Pokemon Go” appeals to Mario also,” Vasquez adds, “I think that it will be a compliment rather than a replacement. Nintendo has been talking about releasing some sort of new platform to release their games for a while now, so I think a lot of people will be playing it.”
Footage of gameplay from “Super Mario Run” looks a lot like a hybrid between traditional Mario games and other mobile games such as “Jetpack Joyride” and “Geometry Dash.”
Games that primarily allow the characters in the game to move on their own in one direction (usually from left to right) and avoid incoming obstacles by the player pressing their finger on the games screen at the right times, which allows the character to survive and the player to keep going.
Games that are designed like this don’t offer the sociability that games like “Pokemon Go” do, in fact they may make one to become more isolated and stay indoors.
One of the things “Pokemon Go” players are experiencing and valuing, is that it’s making them more active in their lives and that they are going outside.
It’s nice to see that a video game is getting it’s players to experience the outside world, rather than experience a virtual one from the comfort and confines of their homes and couches.
“Super Mario Run” will undoubtedly make a ton of money for Nintendo on the iOS App Store, but it will not give video game players the same connection they have to “Pokemon Go.”