In a recent interview with legendary Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, it was revealed that upcoming mobile game Super Mario Run will require an active internet connection to be played.
It is unclear why Nintendo did not previously reveal such an important detail about the game, but whatever the reason may be, gamers are not happy about the requirement.
Why Does 'Super Mario Run' Need To Be Connected To The Internet?
According to Miyamoto, an active internet connection is necessary because it is too difficult to offer the World Tour single-player mode as an offline mode, particularly because the mode is also related to the Toad Rally and Mushroom Kingdom modes.
Toad Rally needs to access the play data and scores of other users, which is information that can only be acquired from a server. Mushroom Kingdom, meanwhile, requires purchase verification as players will purchase items through coins earned in the game. Again, this will be impossible to do without an internet connection.
It can be argued that World Tour, which does not need to pull data from anywhere aside from verifying the one-time payment of $9.99 to unlock the complete Super Mario Run experience, can be made into an offline mode. Miyamoto said that Nintendo will continue working on the game in reference to making World Tour an offline mode, but no specific timeline for that development has yet been made.
Security is the other reason why Super Mario Run needs an always-on internet connection, since this will prevent piracy attempts on the game by checking the software's integrity.
Reactions To The Super Mario Run Internet Connection Requirement
Aside from the arguments on the possibility of making at least the World Tour mode playable offline, gamers have vented out their frustration on the internet connection requirement for Super Mario Run, with many users stating online that they will no longer be downloading the game.
An internet connection might not always be available for mobile devices, such as for users who commute through subways. For some, their daily commute might be the only time that they would be able to play Super Mario Run, so requiring an internet connection will not allow them to enjoy the game. The sentiment was largely echoed in a Reddit thread that discussed the news.
"So my kid can't play it on their iPod Touch on long car trips? Fail," wrote one Redditor in another thread, with another chiming in that Nintendo would be missing out on one of their biggest target groups, which are children playing on offline devices, by requiring an internet connection for Super Mario Run.
A Redditor in a separate thread discussing possible solutions thought that perhaps it would be a better idea for Super Mario Run to only require users to go online after a specific time, which would keep World Tour an offline mode while ensuring that the software remains secure.
However, Redditor bluefootednewt may have come up with the best solution there is, and that is to simply allow users to play Super Mario Run offline. Piracy will always be present, and an always-on internet connection will not fully solve the problem but would rather push possible players away from the game.
The Redditor continued by saying that the only realistic solution is for Nintendo to make Super Mario Run such a great game that players will be more than happy to spend money on it.
"I trusted Nintendo to do that, but apparently they didn't have the same level of faith in themselves that I did," he ended.
