Shigeru Miyamoto Reveals More Details on Super Mario Run

For most technophiles, the highlight at the Apple Event last September was the announcement of the uber-expensive iPhone 7 (and its lack of a headphone jack). Oh yeah, there's also the similarly overpriced wireless earbuds, which Apple has "creatively" called "AirPods." But for gamers, and especially Nintendo fans, the highlight was the announcement of Super Mario Run for the iOS.

The auto-runner game will soon be available on iTunes next week. And to further rev up the hype machine, Mario mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto dropped more details regarding the game. Speaking with Time, he said that the world-famous plumber isn't the only playable character in the game.

"One thing we have done this time is that you'll be able to play not just as Mario, but after going through the game and unlocking some things and meeting some conditions, you'll be able to play as some of the other characters as well."

Hopefully, the "meeting some conditions" part doesn't involve anything that requires us to hand over real-world money - in-app purchases, in other words. But unlike other big-name companies in the industry, Nintendo isn't known to make lots of money-grab moves. So at least there's that to hold on to. We already know that collecting coins in the game will allow players to customize their own "Mushroom Kingdom." Perhaps the coins will be the key to unlocking other Mario characters?

As for the characters themselves, it's safe to assume that two of them will likely be Princess Peach and Bowser. And apparently, the extra characters won't simply be Mario stand-ins - playing as them will allow players to approach the game differently. Miyamoto said that collecting coins with a different character "require you to do it in a different way." This could mean that some characters might be equipped with special abilities or attributes. Like perhaps Luigi being able to jump higher and quicker, thanks to his slimmer build.

Anyway, we only have less than a week to go before Super Mario Run releases on December 15th. The game will follow the freemium model where you can download the game for free, but you need to unload $10 to unlock all the game's content. We assume Apple had something to do with that idea.

Source: Time