作者：Bryant Francis

《超级马里奥跑酷》已经来了！这是任天堂对于该公司将如何进入这一未知领域的各种疑问的强有力的回答，而既然《复仇者学院》重拾了我对于手机游戏的信心，我便决定去下载《超级马里奥跑酷》并投入10美元去看看任天堂到底出了何高招。

玩了2个小时游戏后它给我留下了一些初印象。从某种程度看来我并不是资深马里奥玩家，但是我认为游戏开发者还是可以从这款游戏中获取一些有用的经验教训。

Super Mario Run(from mit)

1.这并不是一款无尽跑酷游戏，它创造了些有趣的邂逅

从根本上来看无尽跑酷游戏占领了整个手机平台游戏类型，但任天堂却还是坚守在基于固定开始并在单一空间中展开一系列特殊挑战（就像传统的宫本茂游戏那样）的关卡中。通常情况下这些挑战（游戏邦注：如推动墙壁跳跃或设置一群敌人）将被整合到有趣的游戏互动中并为玩家体验添加一些惊喜。

我认为设计师总是希望能够创造出与任天堂一样的这种平台游戏，因为这能够为那些对在手机上创造平台游戏感兴趣的开发者开放一个全新空间。

2.声音设计的调整

伴随着跳跃，收集货币与打败敌人的声音都是我们在《超级马里奥》游戏中非常熟悉的内容，但如果你认真去听，你便会发现他们做出了一些更有效的调整能够带给玩家更快且更大的满足。90秒的关卡可以说是短暂游戏过程的一个有效支撑点，即能够帮助游戏更好地吸引那些无法对抗巨大挑战的休的、闲玩家。

3.在马里奥公式中做出一些有趣的细小调整

当马里奥与敌人发生冲突或跌落矿层中，他便能够获得另一个应对障碍的机会，而不是回到检查点。有趣的是，游戏中的重置机制（游戏邦注：即气球将把马里奥重新带上来并引导玩家回到关卡中）能让玩家选择在哪里重新开始挑战并提供给玩家我在其它游戏中不曾看过的“返工”代理。这是来自任天堂的创新，所以其它游戏可以以此作为参考。

除此之外，游戏的整个关卡是基于《超级玛丽兄弟》的导航逻辑进行创造，即玩家可以朝右离开屏幕并从屏幕左边出现，这是基于从左到右移动的有效改变，并能够有效利用portrait alignment功能。

4.游戏将是关于重玩价值，但结果怎样我们还无从知晓

这款游戏只有一小部分明确的关卡（最多24个？），而现在任天堂想要鼓励玩家去精通这些关卡并将这些技能带到Toad Rally模式中与其他玩家的AI版本进行竞争去吸引更多Toad到自己的王国中。这里有许多较长的挑战，如杀死无数Goombas或创建整个王国（即在未推动微交易的前提下模拟一般的手机游戏体验）。

5.我不知道这些社交元素会怎样

很幸运我的任天堂账号还留在我的手机上但我却不清楚添加朋友有什么价值。幸运的是从Facebook和Twitter上找到朋友就像在《Miitomo》那样简单，但我认为任天堂似乎对什么是“在线”体验以及如何有效利用这种体验存在某种程度上的心理隔阂。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Super Mario Run: Five first impressions

by Bryant Francis

So Super Mario Run is here! Nintendo’s first big leap onto mobile answers a lot of questions of how the company is going to enter this uncharted territory, and now that Avengers Academy has vaguely revived my faith in mobile games again, I decided to download Super Mario Run and drop the $10 to see what Nintendo has up its sleeve.

Here’s a few impressions based on about 2 hours of futzing with the game. For some context, I’m not a Mario connoisseur by any means, but I do think there are some clear takeaways for game developers to focus on when they pick up the game.

1. It’s not an endless runner, and that lets it create interesting encounters

Endless runners have basically taken over the mobile platforming genre, but Nintendo’s insistence on levels with a fixed start and end let it create a bevy of unique challenges that unfold across a single space that have that traditional Miyamoto-inspired feel. Often times these challenges, such as a push to practice wall-jumping, or a set of enemies positioned just right, will chain-link together into a delightful interaction that adds a nice bit of surprise to the experience.

I really think that designers interested in making platformers should pay close attention to what Nintendo’s doing here, since it may open a space for developers interested in making tightly designed platformers on mobile (Cause lord knows Steam is not being kind to them right now).

2. The sound design is aces.

The sounds that come with jumping, collecting coins, and defeating enemies are mostly familiar invocations of the Super Mario aural palette, but if you listen close it’s clear there’s a lot of fine-tuned ‘juice’ that’s meant to satisfy quickly and clearly. Combined with the 90 second levels, it’s a good anchoring point for the short play sessions that will help psychologically hook casual players who aren’t here to master the biggest challenges.

3. There’s some interesting little twists on the Mario formula.

When Mario collides with an enemy or falls off a ledge, he gets another chance at solving the obstacle, instead of resetting back at a checkpoint. But interestingly, the reset mechanic—a bubble that lifts you up and guides you back through the level—lets players choose where to restart the challenge, giving them some agency over this do-over that I haven’t seen in other games. It’s a quality Nintendo innovation, and other games should steal it right away.

Elsewhere, one whole level is structured with the navigation logic of Super Mario Bros, with players traveling off screen to the right and appearing on screen on the left—it’s a good change-up from the left-to-right motion, and also allows for inspired levels that make strong use of the portrait alignment.

4. This game’s going to be about replayability, but for what payoff I’m not sure yet.

It’s clear that with only a handful (24 at most?) tightly defined levels, Nintendo is interested in encouraging players to master these levels and bring those skills over to Toad Rally mode, where players can compete with AI versions of other players to attract more Toads to their kingdom. There’s a lot of long-haul challenges, like killing X number of Goombas, for instance, and building up the kingdom as a whole, that simulate the usual “live” mobile experience without pushing microtransactions.

5. I have no clue what’s going on with the social stuff

I’m lucky that my Nintendo account was—still logged in somehow on my mobile phone, but it’s not entirely clear what the value of adding friends is. Luckily finding friends from Facebook and Twitter is vaguely as easy as it was with Miitomo, but I think Nintendo still seems to have an internal mental block on what an ‘online’ experience is, and what they can do well with it.

All in all I think Super Mario Run by itself is a good Nintendo game that just happens to be on iOS, and I don’t know if any of these specific takeaways will impact how well it does financially. I do hope that its hands-off approach to microtransactions (just charging you once for the content) is how the game will company will approach its upcoming DeNA-backed gamesFire Emblem and Animal Crossing series, but my hopes don’t run especially high. (source:gamasutra)