Hacker News Reader

Comment by dcw303 | Hacker News Reader

It's important to highlight that Nintendo have stayed true to one of their core principles: that the game should reflect the characteristics of the hardware it is played on. They've done this to great success before - think of Super Mario 64 pioneering 3d control with the analog stick, or the wiimote gestures used in Wii Sports.

They've correctly identified that mobile gaming is done with one hand, and even if this is not the first runner game on an iPhone, it's the right choice for a Mario game.

It would have been easy for them to whack up a virtual d-pad in a traditional 2d platform scroller, but I'm glad they've attempted something new.

View on HN

It literally looks like Rayman Run clone. Not that it's a bad thing, Rayman Run is excellent, but I don't think Nintendo is pioneering anything here.

They are pioneering for themselves. Nintendo's increasing participation in mobile platforms is very exciting even if they aren't particularly revolutionary in their releases.

Execution is important though, and Nintendo might surprise here.

Just like Rayman Run is a clone of some other thing.

Pretty sure Canabalt was the first real runner on ios.

Canabalt is an "infinite runner" game. It isn't close to the same genre/ style as the Rayman games (which are action/ puzzle games, where you have to find and use dexterity to collect 100 "Lums" in each of the many small levels).

First endless runner anywhere! Invented the genre.

Hmm... I'm not sure about that.

https://blog.codinghorror.com/bill-gates-and-donkey-bas/

http://segaretro.org/Drivemobile

WarioWare came out in 2003 and included what is (if I understand the term correctly) an infinite runner

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=65xStDAjNCM

At the very least, there were one- and two-button runners in Flash for some time before Canabalt.

I think Canabalt is like Doom or Super Mario Brothers--it was the first really polished implemention of its genre that showed its full potential and led to an explosion of other games, but it didn't invent the core concept.

I think Aztec Challenge on Commodore 64 might have a strong claim here.

It's not an infinite runner, though - you move on to other levels. You eventually go back to start and have to go through everything over and over, but the running part is punctuated.

3D World Runner for NES?

Rayman Run is in landscape mode. Huge difference IMO.

He also stated that it will be a non-freemium game, which I think would hurt the Nintendo brand. Hopefully they don't go down that road.

Nintendo has made plenty of Freemium games - Miitomo and Badge Arcade.

Nintendo has also pioneered (?) free-to-start games, such as Pokémon Picross (where it starts off micro-transactiony to get "energy" but once you've paid $x all shop items are free)

freemium is bad

Reply on news.ycombinator.com