Jason Hidalgo|jhidalgo@rgj.com
Technobubble covers games, gadgets, technology and all things geek. Follow Technobubble poobah Jason Hidalgo’s shenanigans on Twitter @jasonhidalgo
One of the lessons we all learn while growing up is that you can’t have everything.
Whether it be that toy that you can’t get or the times when you had to share with siblings or friends, you find out pretty quickly that part of the privilege of living in reality is to be acutely aware of its limits.
It’s a philosophy that Nintendo has adhered to for the longest time when it came to mobile gaming. As a big player throughout the history of portable gaming from its old-school Game & Watch devices to the 3DS, Nintendo was quite content to play within its own walled garden and leave the mobile smartphone and tablet space to the Rovios and Kings of the world. After all, why cannibalize your own systems' opportunities by making your games available to other mobile platforms?
Even mighty Nintendo, however, isn’t immune to one key factor that looms over any publicly-traded company: money. More accurately, it’s the opportunity to make money — something its stockholders are most definitely very, very interested in. It’s no secret, for example, that shareholders have been pressuring Nintendo to enter the smartphone and tablet space given the inherent nostalgia people have for Nintendo properties and how mobile's large user base positively dwarfs that of Nintendo's systems. It’s like the perfect recipe for printing money. It doesn’t help that the Wii U didn’t quite set the market on fire the same way that the Wii did. As such, the company finds itself with less cover for rejecting its shareholders’ mobile demands.
Which brings us to the announcement of “Super Mario Run” for iPhone and iPad. Although the removal of the headphone jack on the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus created the most coverage buzz during Wednesday's Apple Event, the surprise appearance of Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto and Bill Trinen generated some gasps of its own. Obviously, the arrival of the first new, bonafide Mario title to iOS after all these years is big news by itself. Even bigger, however, is what it means for Nintendo’s business model and bottom line moving forward, not to mention its overall philosophy for which platforms its games appear on.
Unlike previous efforts by Nintendo on the smartphone space, Super Mario Run represents a more serious entry. The Miitomo app, for example, feels more like Nintendo dipping its toes into the mobile waters. Pokemon Go, meanwhile, represents a partnership with Ingress developer Niantic and isn’t a full-fledged Nintendo effort. That being said, Pokemon Go proved one thing in spades — there’s ginormous demand out there for the right Nintendo product on mobile. This became apparent not just to investors who drove up the value of Nintendo stock after the release of Pokemon Go but to competitors as well. Sony practically took its struggling Vita out of life support when CEO Kaz Hirai announced that the company will start to aggressively pursue mobile gaming following the public reaction to Pokemon Go. For Hirai, Pokemon Go was literally “a game changer.”
Still, there’s the issue of what an entry into the mobile space would mean for Nintendo consoles such as the 3DS or even the upcoming hybrid system code-named the “NX.” If Super Mario Run is any indication, however, it looks like Nintendo found its answer. Just like Pokemon Go isn’t a full-fledged Pokemon title, Super Mario Run is not a full-fledged Mario game. You actually don’t completely control the beloved plumber the same way you do in New Super Mario Bros.
Instead, Mario automatically starts running toward a direction right off the bat — the same way characters do in endless runners such as Temple Run and Jetpack Joyride but with a bit of a twist by adding mechanics such as timers. Its vertical screen and one-handed operation also mean that the game is purposefully designed for smartphones and tablets and does not take away a potential title for Nintendo’s own consoles.
Admittedly, there are potential downsides to the approach. One is that gameplay isn’t as deep as a full-fledged Mario title. It’s a problem that was evident in Pokemon Go, which feels shallow compared to an actual Pokemon game. This means that Nintendo’s more hardcore fans could end up being disappointed with Super Mario Run. For casual mobile gamers, however, the idea of a less technically demanding game that you can quickly pick up and play sounds perfect. Just look at how well similar titles without the benefit of an established character such as Mario are doing on the App store.
The arrival of Super Mario Run also potentially serves as a history lesson. Sometime around 1,180 B.C. or so, the Greeks purportedly managed to sneak their army into Troy by using a Trojan Horse. For Nintendo, games like Super Mario Run are its Trojan Horse. By giving people a taste of Nintendo gaming, they might be encouraged to buy an actual Nintendo system to get the complete Nintendo experience. Just look at the sudden spike in sales for 3DS consoles and Pokemon games after the release of Pokemon Go. According to NPD data, Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire saw sales jump 80 percent while Pokemon X and Y saw a 200 percent boost in July this year over the same period last year. Even Nintendo's stock saw a boost shortly after the Super Mario Run announcement.
Nintendo’s alsothrowing in a bit of goodwill by making Super Mario Run a regular-priced title when it releases this holiday season. That means you pay one price and get the full game without any of the content-gating and nickel-and-diming shenanigans of freemium games. For parents worried about their kids racking up a gaming tab or gamers sick and tired of microtransactions that prey on people’s impulses, this will be viewed as something positive. It appears that the game could make its way to Android devices as well, further expanding its reach.
Of course, it remains to be seen how Super Mario Run will be received. Even Pokemon Go has already lost a lot of its original luster, thoughthat’s more on Niantic than it is on Nintendo, to be honest. If everything goes well, however, get ready for a slew of new money-printing memes as Nintendo finds itself in a situation that all of us would like to be in.
Not only does it end up having cake, it gets to eat it, too.
