Super Mario Run Offers Free Gift
By Jason Gallagher 28 December 2016
Nintendo celebrates Super Mario Run hitting 50 million downloads in a little more than a week by giving players a free gift just in time for the holidays.
Super Mario Run is clearly a big hit for Nintendo this holiday season, with the mobile app pulling in $14 million in its first three days on the iOS App Store. The game has topped the iOS charts since its release on December 15 and now, a major milestone has been reached. Nintendo announced late last week that Super Mario Run has now been downloaded more than 50 million times and the Big N is giving away a free gift to all players to help celebrate.
The next time gamers launch Super Mario Run, there will be 10 free Toad Rally Tickets waiting for them. For the uninitiated, Rally Tickets are used to gain entry into the game’s Toad Rally mode, where players compete against the ghosts of other players in a competition to gain the most coins and style points before time expires. Plenty of Rally Tickets can be acquired in-game by gathering special coins in the game’s World Tour mode or by completing My Nintendo achievements, but it’s nice to see Nintendo getting into the holiday spirit with this giveaway.
Gamespot notes that the free tickets were announced on December 23, shortly after Nintendo confirmed the 50 million downloads. Super Mario Run actually hit 40 million downloads within its first four days on the market, which means it took about the same amount of time to gain another 10 million users.
Nintendo has regularly released new content for Super Mario Run since its launch. The most notable addition also involved Toad Rally, with Nintendo releasing a new game mode called Friendly Run. This mode allows players to compete against players on their friends’ list without having to spend any Rally Tickets. The number of Friendly Runs each player gets is limited by the number of courses the player has beaten in World Tour mode. Nintendo also patched in holiday decorations for players to use in the game’s Kingdom Builder mode shortly before Christmas.
While Super Mario Run has clearly been successful, it’s worth noting that it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for the first Mario game to release on a non-Nintendo platform. The mobile app has been docked by some negative reviews by users who think the game’s $9.99 price is too expensive. Super Mario Run can be downloaded by anyone for free, but players can only complete the first three levels in World Tour before hitting a paywall asking gamers to fork over some cash to unlock the rest. The negative reviews have caused Nintendo’s stock price to decline in recent days. The game’s price point is a key line of questioning in a recent survey Nintendo sent out to players seeking to gauge interest in a possible Super Mario Run sequel.
Super Mario Run is out now on iOS.
