TouchArcade Rating:

It’s been a long wait since Nintendo officially announced Mario coming to the iPhone in early September, and even longer if you consider that people have been clamoring for Nintendo to bring games to mobile even since the arrival of the iPhone a decade ago, but the time is finally here that Super Mario Run (Free) has arrived in the App Store. Well, arrived in “GET" form rather than the “NOTIFY" form it’s been in since September, at least. As most everyone knows by now, Super Mario Run isn’t exactly the Mario you know and love from the past three decades. This Mario runs, vaults over enemies, and does every other action besides jumping on his own, leaving you to focus all your attention on the jumping by simply tapping on the screen. It’ll be interesting to see if Miyamoto and Co. have still provided a rewarding, skill-based Mario game despite the extreme distillation of its hallmark mechanics.

Super Mario Run is free to download and gives you a taste of the game, and if you like that taste the rest of the game is available for a one-time in-app purchase of $9.99. As you also might know, you’ll need an online connection to play, which may or may not be a big deal to you but is something to be aware of. We’ll have a full review of Super Mario Run out in the very near future, but until then there’s really no reason not to just check out the free download of Nintendo’s first official game for the iOS platform. No, Miitomo (Free) doesn’t count, Mario gets this accolade. Also be sure to see what the rest of the TouchArcade community is saying about Super Mario Run by checking out the discussion in our forums.

NOTE: Since the game is still propagating, expect a bit of possible weirdness during the download process. For instance, the game never said GET or anything but when I tapped NOTIFY it asked for my Touch I’d, which I gave it, and then simply did nothing. No download circle or anything. However, to my pleasant surprise it was downloaded when I went back to my homescreen. So, it’s real people! Download Mario right now!

ADDITIONAL PRO TIP: If your NOTIFY button is already greyed out, tap any of the buttons at the bottom of the App Store ten times quickly to reset the cache and the NOTIFY button should light up again, allowing you to download the game.