When Nintendo announced that Apple Stores would have demos of Super Mario Run a week in advance, my initial reaction was "cool!" followed "Wait, I'm going to have to go to the mall during Christmas shopping season." Once again, the mall has become my Waterloo. Yet, it wound up being not that bad: not much traffic, easy parking, no wait to get an iPhone to play the game. I was able to play Super Mario Run in peace. My experience with Super Mario Run followed a similar narrative arc: initial excitement, then a bit of disappointment, before realizing things were actually pretty cool.

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I'm looking forward to how the world reacts to Super Mario Run because I think the game needs a little bit of time to click with players. It feels like a Mario game enough, there's just some little things that go against expectations. The jumping mechanics exist in this uncanny valley between being kinda like what you'd expect from a Mario game, and something you haven't played before. For example, bopping on enemies is something you have to get used to, because you will automatically jump over enemies when running. So to hit the goombas, koopas, etc., you have to tap as you pass over them. So, bouncing off an enemy to get greater height has an unorthodox feel to it because you have to initiate the head-bopping action and then tap and hold to get extra height. Many item boxes are laid out in such a way in which it's impossibl...