'Super Mario Run' Just Shows Apple Is Way Overhyped

Last week's iPhone 7 event came with a big gaming announcement from Apple and Nintendo : the new mobile game Super Mario Run is coming to iOS. It's a landmark move as the first major partnership between Nintendo and Apple. So of course, when Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto came onstage to introduce the new game, it generated a ton of attention from the gaming and gadget worlds.

But all of the hype masked an important problem: it's just another side-scroll runner, and there's really nothing groundbreaking about it. The extent to which Apple hyped a game from Nintendo (and an underwhelming game at that) just shows how it has struggled to maintain its own reputation as an innovative company.

If you check out early gameplay footage of Super Mario Run, you can see how little is new:

Sure, Mario can walk on the ceiling and move backwards, not just forwards. Big deal. It's still a lot like Fast Like A Fox , but with Mario instead of a little fox. The appeal of the game comes from nostalgia, not innovation. And while it's created by Nintendo, Apple spent a significant amount of time promoting it at its own flagship event. Is that really what we expect from the world's largest tech company, from the people who created the first Macs and iPhones?

For Apple fans, Super Mario Run should be about as exciting as the iPhone 7. Each year the Apple iPhone is the "best ever" with the "best ever" camera and other "best ever" new features. Last March, we got the iPhone SE, which was a lot like previous phones but with a four-inch screen. This September, we got a phone that looked and felt a lot like other iPhones except now it's slightly more waterproof and doesn't have a headphone jack. Significant design changes for sure, but nothing revolutionary compared to the creation of the first iPhone or iPad.

I, for one, switched to Android on the same day as the Apple event, and haven't regretted it for a minute. I'll be slower to get a download of Super Mario Run on Android, but I can live with that. Because so far, it looks like a non-groundbreaking mobile game designed for an equally non-groundbreaking iPhone.

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