Nintendo is finally bringing Super Mario to the iPhone.
During Apple's fall keynote at the Bill Graham Auditorium in San Francisco on Wednesday, CEO Tim Cook took the stage to announce that that a new Mario game will be released in the App Store.
"We could not be more honored that Nintendo chose to bring Mario to iOS first," Cook said.
Cook then brought out "the father of Mario" and chief game designer at Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, to further detail the name of the mobile game, titled Super Mario Run.
Showcasing how the game works, Miyamoto revealed that Super Mario Run is the new runner game where Mario automatically runs to the right of the screen. The player must tap to jump over obstacles in the race to reach the flag. The longer the player holds on the screen, the higher Mario will jump.
Gamers will be able to play the game with one-hand for first time, perfect for when needing a free hand to hang onto a subway pole or to keep playing while "eating hamburger."
In addition to the traditional gameplay of the Mario franchise, Super Mario Run will also feature a new battle mode called "Toad Rally." In this mode, the player can choose their opponent to try to beat their high score. This includes competing against friends and other gamers around the world.
There is no flag in the mode, but rather, the players keep running, jumping and collecting coins until the time runs out.
Toad characters will appear on the screen when the player performs a daring move. They can then gather these Toads to become residents of their Mushroom Kingdom, with the ability to expand and customize the kingdom with coins collected.
Miyamoto said that Super Mario Run will be released for one set price, so that gamers won't have to continuously make in-app purchases in order to play.
The new Mario game for iOS will be released in time for holidays.
Miyamoto also revealed that Nintendo is preparing a set of Super Mario stickers for iMessage that users will be able to text to their family and friends for the upcoming launch of iOS 10.
During his keynote, Cook also revealed that the App Store now has 140 billion downloads, with 500,000 games being offered. This makes the iPhone and iPad the most popular mobile gaming devices in the world.
