Nintendo wants Super Mario Run to be a gateway to dedicated game systems as well as a fun mobile game in its own right. With that in mind, Nintendo creative fellow (and original Mario maker) Shigeru Miyamoto told The Verge that the jumping plumber's new fans will help guide Mario's growth across Nintendo projects.
"Super Mario Run is going to introduce millions of more people to the fun of Mario, and it'll become the entry point for them," Miyamoto said. "And then the question becomes, once you've gone through that entry point, then what comes next? Is it a more traditional Mario experience? Is it something like the Mario Galaxy games? We'll then have to look at what it is these new fans want from a Mario game, and we'll continue to see Mario evolve in that way".
If you're a hardcore Mario fan who loves secret worlds full of precision platforming challenges, that last sentence might have given you a start. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth, and remember that Super Mario Run's new fans probably wouldn't bother making the jump from playing games on their phones to dedicated Nintendo devices if they didn't want a more involved experience. But the way those players are being introduced (or reintroduced) to the series is definitely something for Nintendo to keep in mind going forward.
Hey, maybe they'll put an always-running mode into that new Mario game for Nintendo Switch. How often can you appeal to the casual gaming and speedrunning communities with a single feature?
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