Figureheads from Japanese gaming giant Nintendo made a surprise appearance at the top of Apple's big event this week, as the iPhone-maker's CEO Tim Cook announced that Super Mario would be coming to mobile devices for the very first time.
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Legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto — creator of many of Nintendo's most famous characters, including Mario — was joined on stage by Nintendo of America's Bill Trinen and long-time Mario game designer Hideki Konno to show off the new game, titled Super Mario Run.
"For the past 30 years, every time Mario has encountered a new platform he has evolved and continued running towards a new goal", Miyamoto said. "And now, Mario is running towards his next goal: iPhone".
Nintendo had previously announced that two of its big franchises — Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem — would be coming to smartphones in by March 2017, but it seems to have kept the third and biggest a secret in order to reveal it on Apple's stage.
The game — which will be out in December for iPhone and iPad and which Nintendo has confirmed will subsequently come to Android — is drawn in the New Super Mario Bros. style that fans may recognise, and is designed to be played one-handed.
Nintendo's US stock jumped 29 per cent shortly after the announcement (and this time, it was because of a game the company actually made).
In the game, Mario automatically runs to the right of the screen, and players touch to make him jump. While the character would ordinarily lose a life if he hit an enemy, or stop if he ran into a platform, in this game he vaults over small obstacles parkour-style, meaning the focus is on collecting coins, avoiding pits and chaining together stomps on enemy heads. Mario also grabs onto the edges of platforms you don't quite make it to, and rolls when he hits the ground to keep momentum.
In addition to the main World Tour mode where players seek to hit a high score and make it to the flagpole at the end of each stage, a competitive mode called Toad Rally puts you head to head with your friends and players around the world. After choosing a player to challenge, you run through a stage collecting coins and performing daring feats to impress onlooking toads. An on-screen representation of your competitor shows what path they took, which coins they grabbed and where they were most impressive. You can use coins collected in the game to customise your own version of the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario's home.
The title fits Nintendo's stated goal of introducing smartphone gamers to the company's series and characters, featuring familiar Mario elements like super mushrooms, goombas and question mark blocks in a much more accessible design than that seen on consoles or gaming handhelds.
Long-time fans may worry that transitioning Mario to mobile would over-simplify the formula, but Konno and Miyamoto's involvement is cause for optimism, especially given some of the features shown off on Apple's stage.
The World Tour mode resembles a traditional Mario game, with six worlds of three levels and a castle stage each. The simple running and jumping shown off all took place in the very first level.
A glimpse at a later level showed off lava obstacles, overhead hand rails and special blocks that will cause Mario to turn around and dash in the other direction or stop and wait for your cue to keep running, which all add to the complexity.
In another reassuring announcement (for players, but maybe not investors), Miyamoto said Nintendo will be charging a set fee for Super Mario Run, rather than annoying players with microtransactions as most successful mobile games do. Players will be able to download a small version of the game for free.
Elsewhere at Apple's event, a Pokemon GO companion app for Apple Watch was shown off, which lets players interact with the smartphone game from their wrists. Nintendo owns a third of the Pokemon Company, and has a stake in the hit app's developer Niantic.
