You Can Now Play Super Mario Run's Toad Rally Without Spending Tickets, But There's A Catch

....I'm confused...so I can take on friends but won't get anything for it?....Seems like a waste of time...

@Joeynator3000 It's a friendly match. What did you expect?

Not useful at all if you bought the game. You can have 99 (the max amount) of tickets about every day and play hours of Toad Race against those same friends where it does count.

I guess it's good for newcomers who want to practice without losing any Toads.

@Joeynator3000 Do you usually expect rewards from friends when you have fun with them? lol

@NintendoFan4Lyf You don't compare scores and compete on the non-rally stages? I've been doing that since the first few minutes of play and I go back and forth with friends. For me it is the highlight of the mobile game compared to other Mario games.

@aaronsullivan Let's not go there. lol

Just dawned on me. Another added feature since launch in a very fast fashion. It's almost as if Nintendo plans on continually updating the app like they knew they'd have to. I only bring it up because of that "insider" who said no more updates. Probably it meant no new level content or new stages... but I'd still bet on new stages as well.

Apparently, Nintendo just announced that 40 million downloads happened in 4 days. This is way faster than Pokemon GO downloads for instance and only available on Apple devices compared to all smartphones for GO.

Conversion rate is low, but I'm waiting to see what happens over Xmas. For me and mine we are waiting for potential iTunes gift cards.

Sadly, it looks like what I expected but hoped against: people don't want to pay $10 for a mobile game upfront. They want to slowly bleed $50+ into a game with gambles and compromised play mechanics that rely on wrestling with money vs. time in the middle of play.

I want that stuff out of my gaming personally, "The price is paid, now I can just enjoy at my leisure."' There's this huge swath of people who play games on smartphones who don't even know how much better it can be. In my book at least, Nintendo is a hero for trying to change things. Looks bleak, though.

@aaronsullivan Yes, their tears.

Let me just get this out of my head too: Super Mario Run seems like a game that was made to be free-to-play with micro transactions. The whole set up is there. My guess is that Nintendo and Apple got talking about it. Apple would much prefer upfront pay and/or a better pricing model as the race-to-the-bottom pricing just fills the store with fodder. Nintendo sees eye-to-eye on this having entered even into DLC reluctantly and under financial stress. They probably decided to make a deal and see if a change could be made.

The evidence is the advertising from Apple on the App Store page is unprecedented. At one point it was plastered across the top and every item in the carousel was filled with a different Super Mario image, phrase and link to the game. Never happened before as far as I know and wouldn't happen with just cash. It takes a deal and something Apple believes in for that to happen.

Anyway, that's my theory.

@Jaredfrogman Now you're talking! Well, I'm a bit more lighthearted about it, myself, but come on! You don't want to knock that friend of the top of the list when they only beat you by a point or two? Show some ambition, amirite?

@aaronsullivan top of what list? I haven't been able to get any friends to download it since they only play shooters or sports games...

Friend list? Ohh boy, here we go. We all know what's next.

Mario is going King on our collective rear end. Enjoy Super Mario Run Saga.

Hmm no, it's the World Tour which provides the addictive hook for me. I barely play the Toad Rally, hence why I'm quite literally always at 99 tickets. I'm too busy trying to get all the coloured coins to care about how many toads I have tbh. But this is great because when I do play I hate trying to collect coins on the ghost house levels. So it gives me a chance to practice without losing toads because I get stuck trying to find a way to get into the right door.

Love the special worlds. Feels like stages from Mario maker expert

After building the question mark blocks and all the bonus houses my tickets are pretty locked at 99.

@Damo The big coin blocks give you like 20 and 10 tickets each day, maybe more. Plus in the bonus game where coins come up from a pipe you can get at least 5 easily. The game gives out tickets like it's candy! I've been abstaining from getting all black and purple coins just so I do not loose the 2 tickets you get as reward.

@aaronsullivan I believe Miyamoto said in one of the interviews that Apple actually tried to convince them of the benefits of free-to-play, it was Nintendo who was set on making it paid upfront. I don't recall the exact words, but I think it's in the interview NL posted was available as a download on iTunes.

How do you add friends ?

@nab1 I recall something like that as well and it certainly balances my theory differently (off the scales?). Now I want to see that, but at the moment I should be doing other things than commenting on here much less looking that up.

@Damo From the Bonus Games Huts (Red, Blue, & Yellow) and the ? Blocks (Small, Long, and Large), I can get an upwards of 150 a day if I'm good.

Plus, there's the Coins to grab which give you 2 tickets each time you get a set.

@hieveryone There's a friends button in the upper left hand corner and then an invite button (with a letter signifying email) on the bottom row. I at first used the add button to then try and send my number to people but that's more cumbersome than the invite button. It's nice and doesn't require any linking to Facebook or Twitter or anything (though you can do that too)

EDIT: come to think of it the add feature (and friend code) is nice if you don't use email

@aaronsullivan Haha, I hear you, I probably should be doing other things as well But there's an audio version of the interview in iTunes, I just streamed and listened to it during work.

@YouSeemFRAZZLED They could've made us add friends using NNID usernames too :/

@nab1 Didn't get to listen to it yet which is a bit crazy because I listen to podcasts on part of my commute every day. Had to fit in Rogue One Catalyst audio book lately though and then I'm on break. Anyway... here I still am.

@hieveryone: You have to exchange your Player ID with them, which is listed in the Add Friend screen. Mine is 9476-6102-2550, if anyone want to add (and earn themselves some Rewards Coins). You can also "Link" through Facebook and twitter.

The bigger point to Friends Rally, as noted by aaronsullivan above, is that Nintendo is manning the ship and updating SMR. Loving that Christmas tree in my kingdom (and look forward to friends rally)!

Idk, I've got like 70+ tickets and I play plenty of Toad Rally. I guess if you binged for hours every day you might run low, but that hasn't been an issue for me

@JaxonH mine is on 99 and I play a little or more everyday. It just doesn't finish

@nab1 I can confirm that I got 50...yes 50 rally tickets from the Mega Block when you can carry up to 99. Why is there a limit?

@Furealz Yeah, the limit is pretty much pointless, but at least we know you pretty much have unlimited tickets if you just play the game.

EDIT: I guess some people might play more than 150+ rounds per day (assuming you start with 99 and then get 50 from the block), maybe it's to prevent server load from those really devoted to it, or potentially bots.

There's only so many toad rallies you can ay each day if you only spend an hour or two on it. I sit quite high all the time. Preventing me from grabbing coins as I don't want to waste tickets I earn. I may cave after I get all toads for all unlocks. I wonder what the max kingdom level is.

I'm getting much lower ticket rewards than some of you, today I got 10 from the big block, 5 each from the long & single block, 1 from the ghost house bonus, 0 from the matching blocks bonus & 3 from the pipe bonus game. That's only 24. I guess I might get a bit more if they recharge again today. Are these particularly low?

@Joeynator3000 You just described all of video gaming. It's all a waste of time, which is the whole point.

@Joeynator3000 Fighting friends is its own reward.

@bluedogrulez i send you friend request!

@hieveryone : great! Are u Abba or Joac30?

@bluedogrulez Joac30

@Damo Hmm, it may differ per person depending on how much you play. I used to play about 30 to 50 Toad Races when the game came out. That's about the only time I ran low. Then I started to finish the World Tour mode with all colored coins, and that mode literally drowned me in tickets. 2 per colored coin completion and some more for world completion (if I remember correctly).

Once you get enough colored Toads, you get these special blocks and minigames you can use to get more tickets everyday. The big block gives 10, the small ones usually 5 (if not just coins). The minigames could give you another 10 to 15 tickets.

So as long as you aren't playing 20 to 30 Toad Races a day, you can safely gain more than you spend.