Super Mario Run

Super Mario Run is only a week away from releasing on iOS, and the hype is reaching its peak. This is the first major Mario game to come to a platform that's not Nintendo developed, and while it is still a mobile game, it's an important milestone in the long running history of the series. Up until now, all the main Mario games have been primarily single player, offline experiences, but Super Mario Run will mark the first time a Mario game requires a constant internet connection.

Shigeru Miyamoto recently talked a bit with Mashable on the upcoming release, and the game's online connection came up. Though Nintendo experimented with keeping part of the experience offline, they ultimately decided to mandate an online connection in order to keep the software secure. This was actually why it's releasing on iOS first, because the platform as a whole is more secure and controlled. Here's what he said:

For us, we view our software as being a very important asset for us. And also for consumers who are purchasing the game, we want to make sure that we're able to offer it to them in a way that the software is secure, and that they're able to play it in a stable environment.

We wanted to be able to leverage that network connection with all three of the [Super Mario Run] modes to keep all of the modes functioning together and offering the game in a way that keeps the software secure. This is something that we want to continue to work on as we continue to develop the game.

But actually, the security element is one of the reasons that we decided to go with iPhone and iOS first. So this is just — based on the current development environment — a requirement that's been built into the game to support security and the fact that the three different modes are connecting to the network and interacting with one another.

We had thought at one point that it would be nice to have the World Tour [story] mode available standalone, to be able to play without that connection. But then the challenge is when that's operating in a standalone mode, it actually complicates the connection back to the Toad Rally and Kingdom modes. And because those two modes are relying on the network save, we had to integrate the World Tour mode as well.

Later on, Miyamoto clarified what he meant by the "security element", which seems to be referring to keeping the game stable in different networks:

Unlike our dedicated game devices, the game is not releasing in a limited number of countries. We're launching in 150 countries and each of those countries has different network environments and things like that. So it was important for us to be able to have it secure for all users.

What do you think? Will you be getting Super Mario Run? Do you agree with it being always online? Drop us a comment in the section below.

[source mashable.com]