‘Super Mario Run’ is just as much fun as we’d hoped
It’s no stretch to say that Super Mario Run (launching December 15th for iOS; an Android version will arrive next year) is one of the most notable mobile games in years. It’s Nintendo’s first real smartphone game and one of the only instances in which the company has developed a Mario game for non-Nintendo hardware. It’s the first of several mobile titles planned and could mark the start of a major business shift for Nintendo. But let’s put aside all these heady concerns about what Super Mario Run means for the company and answer the most important question: Is the game fun?
Based on the all-too-brief demo I had earlier this week, the answer is a resounding yes. With Super Mario Run, Nintendo has successfully built a Mario title that makes perfect sense for a mobile phone while still featuring surprisingly deep gameplay and a level of polish seen in a small percentage of games, regardless of platform.
The gameplay appears to be identical to what Nintendo first showed off onstage at Apple’s event this past September. Mario runs automatically from left to right, and the player can tap the screen to make him jump. The goal is to get to the end of a course, which seems to take a minute or two, while avoiding death and collecting as many coins as you can.
Naturally, there are a lot of variations on what you can make Mario do here beyond that: Holding longer when you tap makes him jump higher; you can tap again to get a brief momentary hover; you can wall-jump; landing on enemies gives you a chance to string together multiple jumps; and so on. There are a handful of environmental items that change things up as well — jumping off of certain bricks will send Mario soaring to the left instead of to the right, and standing on some bricks will stop Mario so you can assess the coming challenges and plan your route.
In the few levels I tried, getting to the end wasn’t a big challenge. But the replayability should be excellent here because I didn’t come close to grabbing all of the coins in the course — those among us with OCD tendencies are going to be playing these levels multiple times to perfect our route and jump timing. Furthermore, each course has five pink special coins to grab. Getting those unlocks five more purple coins in harder-to-reach locations. Getting those unlocks five black coins, again in even tougher places in the level. It’ll take at least three playthroughs to grab everything in a given level, and to get all the standard coins will be another challenge.
That’s one example of the game’s depth. The next comes when you factor in competition. The main game’s standard 24 levels are only one part of Super Mario Run. There’s also the “Toad Rally,” in which you compete against friends or people all over the world. Entering a Toad Rally competition costs tickets, which you gain in other parts of the game.
Once you’ve entered the rally, you start a timed course that doesn’t have an end and shoot to get as many coins as you can before time runs out. But you also need to impress the Toad judges by doing combo jumps and other more complicated tricks as you make your way through the level. The more you impress the judges, the more they cheer, and the more points you get.
In both the standard “World Tour” and Toad Rally, the gameplay is excellent. There’s enough of a learning curve that I didn’t feel like I could immediately master each level, but it certainly wasn’t hard to just pick up and start playing. Perhaps the trickiest thing for those of us who’ve played a lot of Mario will be remembering you don’t have to jump on Koopas and Goombas — by default, Mario will automatically vault over them. Jumping gives you more points and the opportunity for more combos, but you don’t have to do it.
The Toad Rally has another twist: You put a few members of your personal Toad posse on the line when you play, and if you lose, those Toads defect to the victor’s team. The number of Toads on your team serves as a good representation of how successful you’ve been in the rally — so you can use them to see how good a potential opponent is before challenging them to a match. Toads also serve as some in-game currency for buying little houses and other objects you can use to customize your very own Mario overworld map. There’s no actual game to be played here, but plenty of fans will likely enjoy tweaking the Mario home screen that they see every time the game starts.
Regardless of what part of the game you’re playing, the graphics look wonderful. I played the game on the iPhone 7 Plus and I’ve never seen Mario look quite so sharp and vivid (the last Mario games I played for more than a few minutes were on the original, standard-definition Wii). And there’s no hint of slowdown or performance hiccups here either. I would have liked to see how it performs on less powerful hardware, but we’ll have to wait until the game launches to see what devices you’ll need to have a good experience with Super Mario Run.
Nintendo decided to price Super Mario Run at $9.99 — more than most iOS games, but less than most games for the company’s own consoles. I think that’s a fair price, given the number of levels included and the replayability factor here. But if you’re wary, the free version of the game lets you play the first three levels and try your hand at a few Toad Rallies so you can see what it’s all about. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said it didn’t feel right to make people pay to keep unlocking levels when there’s so much momentum in the game to keep running through levels, so the company decided to skip all in-app transactions and go with the single one-time purchase.
Ultimately, the entry fee may seem a little high, but I suspect it’ll be one well worth paying — and I think lots of players will agree with me. Having a native Mario experience built from the ground up with the iPhone in mind is a huge win, and the game appears to be equally well suited to quick play on the subway and longer, in-depth sessions when you’re on the plane. I haven’t bought a new Mario game in years, but I’m ready to pull the trigger on Super Mario Run.
Update: If you want to try Super Mario Run out for yourself, Reggie announced on The Tonight Show that starting Thursday, a demo will be available at Apple Stores worldwide.
Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime explains why it’s time to go mobile
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has garnered a reputation for being a larger-than-life character, whether he’s onstage presenting his company’s latest or getting ready for a one-on-one interview. He’s playing Super Mario Run on an iPad mini when our meeting begins, as if he just can’t stop to focus on the more mundane task at hand. “I’m gonna put this down now,” he says as we get started. “I had a great run going, too.”
It’s clear salesmanship, but it doesn’t feel dishonest. Fils-Aime is one of Nintendo’s most passionate and charismatic advocates, and the brief time I spent with Super Mario Run prior to this meeting made me believe Nintendo has successfully crafted an addictive experience that stays true to Mario’s roots while also feeling native to mobile devices. With that mission accomplished, Fils-Aime is ready to talk about the rather stunning reversal Nintendo has gone through in regard to mobile games. Rather than build only for its own hardware, Nintendo is now focused on making experiences for phones that don’t devalue the company’s franchises.
“The mobile business really has changed versus when Mr. Satoru Iwata [the late CEO of Nintendo] made those comments way back at GDC,” Fils-Aime said, referring to when Iwata dismissed the value of mobile gaming back in 2011. “As we sit here today, literally multiple billions of smart devices are out there in the marketplace … in places like India, throughout parts of Europe, parts of South America where we don’t have a robust dedicated console business. So it really is a different type of opportunity, arguably a mainstream opportunity, that we’re looking at now.”
Those comments sound very similar to what Google, Microsoft and Apple have all said about reaching the “next billion” consumers in developing regions coming online. Those consumers are getting online not with traditional computers but with mobile phones. And Nintendo views mobile as a huge opportunity in those markets as well.
Specifically, Fils-Aime mentioned Brazil as a perfect case where mobile can unlock a big market for Nintendo. He said the country has import duties that make a $200 Nintendo 3DS cost the equivalent of about $600 for a local consumer. “That’s a really tough business model — and yet they all have smart devices,” he explained. “As a way to satiate the desire for our IP, to introduce new IP, to effectively keep the market warm while we figure out how to do business there with our dedicated systems, [mobile] is a huge business opportunity for us.”
Image credit: Troy Harvey/Bloomberg via Getty Images
To that end, Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing will follow Super Mario Run to smartphones in Q1 of 2017, and it seems all but certain more mobile games will follow. Fils-Aime promises the company will provide both value and experiences you can’t get anywhere else, whether you’re playing on a smartphone or on Nintendo’s own hardware. “What we will do is create experiences specific to the device,” Fils-Aime said. “We’ve optimized [Super Mario Run] for the [smartphone screen] — and in doing so it really is taking an approach that is unique, is differentiated, and looks to maximize the value of our IP.”
Of course, Nintendo could have made specific mobile experiences four years ago, but now the opportunity is simply too big to ignore. In 2011, Iwata said that mobile games might help profit in the short term but ultimately not help Nintendo’s “mid- and long-term competitive strength.” However, with millions of consumers who can’t afford a Nintendo console but carry their smartphones everywhere, going mobile can provide a good fix until the company figures out a good way to affordably bring its hardware to various markets.
The launch of Pokémon Go this summer certainly helped Nintendo realize how big an impact a good mobile game can have on the company’s core hardware business. “We saw the impact on our 3DS hardware [and] the 3DS game sales,” Fils-Aime said. “We know that the launch of Pokémon Go generated a tremendous amount of play and anticipation for all things Pokémon; certainly we hope that Super Mario Run will do the same thing for all things Mario.” Further quantifying the impact of Pokémon Go, Fils-Aime said that 3DS hardware sales have increased year-over-year every month since June.
Still, there are going to be consumers who think: Why buy a Nintendo Switch when I can get Mario on my phone? But it’s not something keeping Fils-Aime up at night — while the company may have started crafting great mobile games, it still believes its hardware will be something no other platform can truly match.
“Go back and look at the Nintendo Switch video that we aired back in October and ask yourself: Can you do that on a smart device?” Fils-Aime asked, somewhat rhetorically. “Can you have a big-screen experience and then, ‘I gotta go jump on the train — I’m going to take it with me and continue to have that great experience’?” Again he answers his question: “No, you can’t do that. We believe in creating a differentiated experience for all the platforms that we participate in, and if we do that, the consumer will see how these experiences are different and how there’s room for all of them in their entertainment time.”
In some ways, the combo of the Switch and Nintendo’s mobile game strategy seems to be an admission that mobile games are going to kill dedicated handheld consoles sooner than later. Nintendo did surprisingly well with the 3DS, but it seems likely that it’ll use mobile for quick gaming fixes and the Switch for in-depth experiences going forward. And since the Switch can be used on the go as well, those used to the deeper experiences a 3DS can provide shouldn’t worry about being stuck with quick-play games like Super Mario Run when they need a portable gaming fix.
We still need to find out more about the Switch before we can say if Nintendo’s new strategy will be successful. But after the confusing and poorly received Wii U, it feels like Nintendo might be able to recapture the public’s imagination. It’s a tall order, but 20 minutes with Mario on the iPhone had me missing all the fun I’ve had on Nintendo systems in the past. With the Switch right around the corner, now’s the perfect time for Nintendo to get old fans back into the fold — if games like Super Mario Run can do that, the move to mobile will surely have paid off.
Nintendo Switch makes its live TV debut on ‘The Tonight Show’
After you check out our discussion with Nintendo’s president Reggie Fils-Aime, you can get a good look at the new Switch console in operation () on the Tonight Show stage. Reggie and host Jimmy Fallon played the yet-to-be-released console, taking a trip through The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild showing off its ability to go portable with the press of a button. Additionally, after previewing a bit of Super Mario Run action, Reggie announced that starting today, you can visit Apple Stores worldwide and try out a demo version before the game launches December 15th.
There’s not a lot of new information if you’ve been paying attention, but it does give a good idea of what using a Switch will be like when it ships in March. As an extra bonus, check out the second video to see Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto playing the game’s theme song along with The Roots.
Source: The Tonight Show (YouTube)
Doctors can now sift bacteria from your blood using magnets
Sepsis, or blood poisoning, is no joke. More than half the people who contract the condition end up in the morgue. The conventional treatment involve the liberal application of antibiotics at the first sign of infection, though as we discovered on an American pig farm Wednesday, even our best meds may no longer be enough. And that’s where the magnets come in.
A joint research effort between Harvard University, the Empa research group and Adolphe Merkle Institute has resulted in a novel means of purifying blood: they simply suck the bacteria out with magnets. First, the researchers coated antibodies that bind to harmful bacteria with iron particles. When exposed to the bacteria in a solution, the antibodies did what they do and latched on to them. When the solution was subsequently passed through a dialysis machine, magnets literally pulled the antibodies — and their pathogen passengers — out of the blood, leaving it clean.
The only issue is that the team has run into is the fact that antibodies are purpose-built. That is, they can only bind to a single type of bacteria. So if you have multiple species of bacteria infecting you, doctors will have to administer multiple rounds of the treatment to get them all. Coincidentally, the Harvard contingent of the research team is closing in on a one-size-fits-all synthetic antibody that can bind to all of the most common bacterial strains responsible for sepsis. This molecule isn’t approved for humans yet but Empa has called its effectiveness “promising.” There’s no timetable yet for when the treatment will be made available for clinical use.
Via: New Atlas
Source: Empa
2016 Porsche 911 GT3 RS review – Roadshow
The Good Tons of downforce, grippy tires and a 0-60 mph time of 3.1 seconds. Just get in and hold on!
The Bad Not much in terms of media and connectivity. If you want even a simple USB port, you have to upgrade to the Porsche Communication Management System.
The Bottom Line The GT3 RS is super spendy but if you have the coin, it’s tough to find a better performance car.
Close
Drag
When the
2016 Porsche 911
GT3 RS arrived at Gingerman Raceway, a small argument broke out. Actually, a melee of Roadshow editors elbowed each other out of the way to hop behind the wheel and take the 500-horsepower street-legal racecar out on the track.
I emerged bruised and battered from the brawl, but nevertheless got to thrash the GT3 RS around the 2.14-mile track, where it earned a top space in my heart.
Get in, sit down, hold on, and shut up. The Porsche GT3 RS is one helluva ride.
Nick Miotke/Roadshow
The GT3 RS starts where the standard GT3 ends. It’s got 50 more horsepower and a bit more torque. Vents cover the body while a big fancy-pants wing sits on the back, and its hips would make Shakira hang her head in shame. Those fenders are stuffed with staggered wheels wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires, sized 265/35-20 in the front and a whopping 325/30-21 in the rear.
Porsche employs a lot of what I like to call “small small catch monkey” tactics to add lightness. The small weight savings from a carbon-fiber trunk lid, hood, wing and spoiler, as well as an ultrathin magnesium roof, results in losing 22 pounds of weight when compared to the standard GT3. Fabric door pulls and no backseat help keep weight low, but don’t worry, air conditioning, navigation and a radio are still available.
Many race car tricks keep the GT3 RS barreling down the track and not, say, crashing into the wall at the first turn. The rear wing generates 485 pounds of downforce in addition to the 243 pounds of downforce delivered by the front splitter and vented front fenders, enhancing grip. Although it takes a speed of 186 mph to get full downforce, I was plenty happy with whatever fraction I had as I crested 140 mph on the rear straight.
On the wing of love with the Porsche…
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Keeping the GT3 RS flat and neutral through the turns is one word: adjustable. As in, adjustable front suspension and adjustable front and rear anti-roll bars. Also on hand is an electronically controlled limited-slip differential, and a nifty rear-steering system. At speeds under 50 mph, the rear steers opposite to the front, resulting in a tidier line. Put a little pressure on the right pedal and the rear wheels turn in the same direction, sort of crabbing the GT3 RS along the turn.
No manual is available in the GT3 RS.
Nick Miotke/Roadshow
Normally I’m not one for all these fancy electronic interlopers in my track day fun, but Porsche does it right. From the first scream up to 8,250 rpm, the shifts of the seven-speed Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK) gearbox were heart-stopping.
New York lawsuit aims to apply the Second Amendment to Tasers
The Firearms Policy Foundation and Matthew Avitabile are suing New York state over a regulation that outlaws the possession of electronic weapons including stun guns and Tasers. Avitabile happens to be the mayor of Middleburgh, New York, and he wants to buy a Taser or stun gun for his home, according to court documents filed over the weekend. His lawyers argue that the New York ban on owning stun guns is unconstitutional, violating the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
New York is one of five states that prohibits the possession of stun guns and tasers — the remaining four are Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island. A handful of cities and towns across the US also have bans in place. In 45 states, electronic weapons are legal for use in the home, and in most states it’s also legal carry a stun gun in public. New York Penal Law § 265.01 disagrees with this approach, making it a criminal misdemeanor to “possesses any firearm, electronic dart gun [or] electronic stun gun.”
Avitabile’s lawyers cite the Second Amendment ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, a 2008 US Supreme Court case that overturned a ban on handgun possession in the home and made it legal to store weapons so they can be readily deployed for self-defense.
“Given the decision in Heller, Defendants may not completely ban the keeping and bearing of arms for self-defense that are not unusually dangerous, deny individuals the right to carry arms in non-sensitive places, deprive individuals of the right to keep or carry arms in an arbitrary and capricious manner, or impose regulations on the right to keep and carry arms that are inconsistent with the Second Amendment,” the New York lawsuit argues.
New York isn’t the only state dealing with constitutional challenges to stun gun laws. Earlier this year, the US Supreme Court rejected a Massachusetts high court ruling that upheld a stung gun ban, noting that this move violated the Second Amendment. This didn’t make Taser bans illegal, but it gave Second Amendment activists leeway to fight these laws in court. Most recently, in November (and in response to the Massachusetts ruling), New Jersey’s attorney general admitted that the state’s stun gun ban violated the Second Amendment.
Via: Ars Technica
Source: Washington Post
Microsoft has big plans for VR and AR in 2017
Ever since Microsoft announced earlier this year that it would be opening up its Windows Holographic platform to other device makers, the company has been an intriguing presence in the world of virtual and augmented reality (or “mixed reality,” as it’s fond of saying). After all, Microsoft could offer some healthy competition to the likes of Oculus and HTC, which launched their own VR headsets and platforms this year. Today at the WinHEC conference in Shenzen, the company is finally giving us a clearer sense of how it plans to bring mixed reality to more consumers.
For one, it’s finally revealing the official system specifications you’ll need to run the $300 Windows 10 VR headsets, which will be built by the likes of Dell, HP and Lenovo. At a minimum, you’ll need an Intel Core i5 CPU with Hyperthreading, 8GB of RAM, USB 3.0, HDMI or DisplayPort connections that support at least 2,880 by 1,440 resolutions at 90 Hz, and an Intel HD Graphics 620 chipset or a DirectX 12-compatible graphics card.
That’s mostly on par with the specs hinted at by the “Windows Holographic Test Run” app last month, though notably that listed 4GB of RAM as a minimum requirement. Both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive have similar requirements, but they demand mid-range GPUs (and curiously 4GB less RAM than Microsoft). Microsoft will also make dev kits for the Windows Holographics headsets available at the Game Developers Conference in February.
Alex Kipman, the creator of HoloLens, describes the $300 headsets as “mid-range” devices that’ll detect six degrees of motion, a similar experience to what you get with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. As for truly high-end VR experiences, Microsoft also announced a partnership with the Chinese headset maker 3Glasses, which will offer Windows Holographic on its S1 device in the first half of next year. The S1 looks similar to the Rift and Vive, but it sports two independent 2K display panels and a faster 120Hz refresh rate. Technically, that means it should deliver a smoother and sharper VR experience than the competition, but of course other factors also weigh in heavily in VR, especially ergonomics.
As for HoloLens itself, Kipman says Microsoft is working on making it available in China. The company has just submitted the headset for government approval, and he has “every expectation” that Chinese consumers will be able to get their hands on it in the first half of 2017. Perhaps more interesting than the HoloLens itself, though, is seeing how other companies remix the technology in different ways. Back in June, Microsoft’s Windows and Devices group head Terry Myerson told us a consumer version of HoloLens “may come from us, or it may come from a partner, and either way that’s fantastic.”
Microsoft and Intel are also partnering on “Project Evo,” an initiative to bring together their many PC offerings to deliver systems that will support things like 4K gaming, far-field microphones, smooth mixed-reality experiences and security features like Windows Hello. It all sounds pretty amorphous — haven’t they been trying to build these things into PCs for a while? — but hopefully it could lead to more fully featured PCs of all shapes and sizes. Most intriguingly, Intel also plans to have its integrated HD Graphics chipsets supporting mixed reality by the end of next year, according to its consumer head Navin Shenoy. That means we could see mid-range VR-ready laptops sometime in 2017.
Windows 10 is coming to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon mobile chips
Microsoft’s first attempt at bringing Windows to ARM-powered machines was, shall we say, not a good idea. But perhaps the second time’s the charm. Microsoft and Qualcomm just announced that Windows 10 is coming to the next generation of Snapdragon mobile processors. And to be clear, they’re referring to the full version of the OS, with support for legacy Win32 software and universal Windows apps. It won’t be a stripped-down affair like Windows RT.
Both companies are being vague about specifics, but in short you can expect Snapdragon-powered Windows 10 devices to be incredibly light and power efficient. And since those chips typically appear in mobile devices, they also have the added benefit of packing in cellular radios. As for availability, Qualcomm says the first Windows 10 Snapdragon PCs could arrive “as early as next year.” Perhaps they’re just hedging their bets, but the cynic in me thinks that really means we won’t see them until 2018.
The first season of Telltale’s ‘Batman’ wraps next week
Just a year after it was announced, the first season of developer Telltale Games’ Batman series is drawing to a close. Its final episode “City of Light” will makes its debut on December 13th on Android, iOS, PC, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. And, based on how you played the penultimate installment, you’ll start episode five in pretty different places, according to Telltale.
More than that, the developer has issued a new patch for the game’s rocky PC version, replete with “numerous” performance sliders. The game’s first episode is free on Steam as well, so you can see precisely how it’ll run on your machine before plopping down the $25 cost of entry for the entire run.
Of that premiere bit, our own Nick Summers said that the game “feels closer to the comics, balancing the measured Bruce Wayne and his often brutal alter-ego Batman.” Now, there’s little stopping you from finding out if you agree.
Apple reportedly working to rent new movies early on iTunes
According to Bloomberg, Apple is in talks with major movie studios to offer early rentals on iTunes. The report, which cites sources familiar with the ongoing discussions, suggests 21st Century Fox, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros., are trying to find a partner to help them rent films “as early as two weeks” after they first hit theaters. That said, Bloomberg does note that the Hollywood overlords may “end up choosing another technology platform” instead of iTunes, although no specifics were given.
If such a deal were to take place, chances are viewers at home would have to pay a premium for this type of service, since it would take some revenue away from the box office. For now, all we know is that the studios allegedly want these rentals to be “high-priced,” so you should definitely expect to pay more than the usual $5 or $6.
Sean Parker, Napster founder and tech entrepreneur, is trying to do something similar with “The Screening Room,” which aims to rent movies the same day they come out in theaters for $50 per view. Most importantly, he claims his service offers a secure anti-piracy technology, something that’s crucial to the movie companies.
Even at that price, you’d probably still end up saving a bit of cash by skipping the trip to your local movie theater — time to start stocking up on popcorn and hot dogs.
Source: Bloomberg
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