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Mario For iPhone Is RIP Productivity Forever

by Charlie Beckerman

At Wednesday's Apple Event, "Father of Mario" Shigeru Miyamoto announced that a brand new Mario game will be coming to Apple iOS this fall. The game, called Super Mario Run, looks to be in the same vein as other runner-platform games like Temple Run. Speaking through a translator, Miyamoto said the game would be out in time for the holidays. Is it possible for the translator to say back to him "I NEED THIS NOW KTHXBAI"?

The announcement of the Nintendo platformer was a major change for the legendary Japanese video game company. Before 2016, it had been a while since Nintendo had made its properties available for third-party hardware.

It looks like Nintendo is gearing up for more immersion into third-party hardware systems, including iOS. In April, the company announced other games in their library coming to smartphones. This was before the summer's monster success of Pokémon GO, which broke Apple store download records and sent Nintendo's stock soaring by 25 percent. While I know many of my friends will be waiting with baited breath for Zelda to make an appearance on the iPhone, I'm a Mario boy at heart, and I'm ready for the red plumber to ruin my productivity.

No other details, including pricing or release dates, were available at Wednesday's event — though Ben Kuchera at Polygon reports that there will be in-app purchases — but unless Apple and Nintendo want hordes of fiending Mario fans clamoring outside their respective headquarters, they'll get it out ASAP. (Oh, and it looks like Android users will get to have Super Mario Run too. I guess that's fair.) Find out more information about Super Mario Run on iTunes' web site.