Super Mario Run Is Dumb

This game isn't even available to me just yet on the Japanese app store but it's already disappointing.  You could argue that I shouldn't be chatting shit about a game I've not even played yet but I'd argue that I played Temple Runner and Sonic Runners and every game in this genre is essentially the same goddamn thing.

Anyway, in case you're not familiar with these type of games, a "running" game is a genre that's pretty popular on mobile platforms.  The idea is that your character will just run forward through the stage without stopping and it's up to you to tap or swipe the screen in order to make them avoid obstacles and not die.  There are usually items for you to collect in order to boost your score and other items that you can buy or find in order to facilitate longer running times.  After that it's just a case of seeing how many points you can get.  Sonic Runners tried to incorporate a story where running a certain distance would progress a plot but at the end of the day it's all the same shit.

Now Super Mario Run looks, from the screen shots, exactly like that.  The game isn't going to be crap per se but it is going to be another forgettable running game.  The kind of game that you'll download, play for about a week and then delete in order to make space for a different stupid weekly top pic game off the store.

It's disappointing that Nintendo have resorted to this and not because it's suddenly Mario on an iPhone but because they just went for a dime a dozen running game.  Nintendo are famous for always trying something new, weather it's successfully with the Wii or the DS or unsuccessfully with the WiiU, the point is the are pretty much always trying new things.  So it's sad to see that the debut game on the iOS is just a running game.  Like I said, I can't get it right now so what's the fucking point?  It's not like I'm going to get excited for a game like this and if I REALLY wanted to play a game exactly like it I could just go and download one of the THOUSANDS of these games available on the store.

What's even more disappointing is that back when Iwata was alive he said that this would never happen, that Nintendo wouldn't just sell out their shit for fast profit.  He DID once talk about how Nintendo had plans to use smart phones as a platform to attract users to the main line Nintendo systems and the piece of software that came from THAT plan was Miitomo.  If Iwata saw THIS shit floating around the app store he would be rolling in his grave.

This is like watching a loved one get sick, deteriorate rapidly and start to die right in front of your eyes, it's just sad.

Race the Sun and Indie Whining

Race the Sun is a strange game I was told about last night so let me give you the story.

I was sat in my room playing Ultima 1 yesterday and while I was moving around the lands of Sosaria trying to vanquish Mondain and his orb of immortality, I heard my facebook chat go off.  I go to check it and it's a good friend of mine saying that he had discovered this game called Race the Sun and it was really good.

So I go and check the trailer and it's this cool looking infinite running game where you control a ship dodging all sorts of stuff at high speed, collecting power ups and trying to stay alive long enough to beat your high score.  The cool thing about this game though, at least the way I understand it, is that every 24 hours a world is randomly generated and the leader boards are reset.  From there you have 1 day to get really good at the stage and top the daily leader boards.  It's a cool idea and would definitely keep me coming back, factor in the hard mode that comes with the full version of the game and you've got something pretty good.  A little different from every other infinite running game on the market and a good way to try and kill some time during lazy afternoons by the sounds of things, right?

But then my friend messaged me again this morning telling me that Flippfly, the company who made the game are in a spot of bother.  They can't get green lit on Steam.  So while looking around the website for the game I came across this article written by one of the developers.

http://flippfly.com/news/race-the-sun-a-month-after-launch-losing-steam/

Now I get they are upset about their game not doing very well (2 copies sold last week) but there seems to be a lot of finger pointing and whining in this post.  Whining about how they can't share the same success as Mojang, whining about how the interest for it on Steam Greenlight isn't all that good and whining about how Indiecade basically dismissed it as a mobile game.

My problem with this article is they don't really have any place to whine like this; the lack of success of Race the Sun is entirely their own fault.  Yes, the game looks cool and yes, they managed to get me interested but just by watching the trailer and playing the demo on Kongregate, it's nothing more than a bog standard infinite runner.  The problem with your game being one of those is that there are already loads of those damn things on the mobile market and almost ALL of them are free.  So why would I throw down $10 for your game when I can just pick up my iPod and play Temple Run for nothing? 

Now judging from my friends reaction to the game, it's better than your standard mobile runner game, and I'm willing to believe him.  If it doesn't get a Steam release soon, I'll pick it up off their website and show some support, because it looks they have made something that's pretty fun, so show some love.

But really, drop that whiny "wahh, our game is so good why won't it sell?!" and re work your trailer and make sure people KNOW what sets it apart from every other game in the genre, because there are reasons to want this thing, just no one can tell from what you've put out already.

Go give them a thumbs up on Steam Greenlight too, I'd like to buy this using my steam credit.