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Super Mario Run for Android Released!…

Finally Super Mario Run for Android has been released. It seems the game was released a day early. You can download the game via the
Google Play Store now. The game is pretty much the same as the iOS version where you can install the game for free but you will need to purchase the game to unlock all the modes. Nintendo had the placeholder up in the Google Play Store for some time which allowed you to pre-register and you would get notified.  😕    Well….. I never got the notification. Go figure.

Super Mario Run for Android apparently has not reached Nintendo’s expectations. I would assume this is due to the $10 in game purchase to unlock all the modes. Nintendo being the newby in this arena hasn’t learned yet how things go in Android world where open and free are one of its features. Apps or games with high up-front or near up-front purchases do not generally do well. To give you an idea of where Nintendo’s expectations are, the iOS version’s gross revenue hit about $30 million in 2 weeks and they were still not satisfied with that. Now it has only been a few days and Nintendo is already running touting horns is displeasure. I didn’t even know it was out yet so I am sure this is true for others. Nintendo should have done a little more to advertise this release then mainly relying on a Google Play front page ad or even the pre-registration process which failed in my case.


Try in the Google Play Store!…

Click Here to install

On another note, Nintendo is not trying to focus on freemium games or apps despite the success of another game they have called Fire Emblem: Heroes. This notion is based on comments made by different Nintendo officials.

Android will allow more people to see the game and so money really can’t be totally the main focus at this point in the game for Nintendo. Of course it is overall the goal but being the newby Nintendo needs to build a larger presence in the smartphone industry. So if Nintendo continues they would be able to make good on claims they have made to use smartphones to introduce their games to a wider audience.

This in turn would in fact open up doors into the next step for Nintendo in their newly released console, the Nintendo Switch, which is doing pretty well it seems so far. If you want the numbers, well approximate numbers now, Superdata and various sources say about $1.5 million consoles worldwide have been sold and get this… 90% are buying Zelda with it. There has been a drop in sales though in the second week of its release so question has arose as to whether the Nintendo Switch will hit mainstream status once…say…the rave over Zelda dies down.

I mention all of this because it is relevant as Super Mario Run is the first step into a new era for Nintendo where portability in gaming becomes a focus. The Switch opens up the door to the next step being portable high-end gaming. Can Nintendo stay on top in this area cause now that the cat is out there will be others in the shadows that will try to copy and improve on their idea.


Sources:

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How Well is Super Mario Run Doing?

So just how well has Nintendo’s Super Mario Run mobile game done so far? I would say it did well but Nintendo is not too happy about it. Nintendo revealed that Super Mario Run has made ($53 million) in the almost 2 months time it has been released. I guess Nintendo is still thinking like the company it once was who was pretty good at turning it’s players into payers.  They forked Seventy-Eight million total downloads having more than 5% of those spending the money to unlock everything. Having seen game stats from time to time I would say that is pretty great for a game with a $10 in-app purchase. A lot of apps also having multiple ways to make money though numerous different purchases and a good number of apps cannot hit 5% with lower dollar amount purchases.

I think it is a fine take in for Nintendo. Okay Supercell, the infamous Clash of Clans developer, took in close to $1 billion now 2 years ago in 3 of its games while Super Mario Run is just one freakin’ game. Seriously though I remember catching thoughts numerous times of wanting to play Super Mario on my phone and went looking for ways to do it Check out How to Play Super Mario on your phone only finding at best non-ideal workarounds and replacements. Then I see someone playing it on their iPad and I was already hooked only to find out it was only available for iOS. Nintendo being not totally happy about the number the game took in, well shoot you messed up from the beginning by only offering one version of the game. Sure there are a lot of Apple device users but there are statistically more Android devices out there than just the several choices that Apple offers.

Nintendo is the newbie at the moment in the mobile game venue and higher initial price games have always suffered in sales. The money is in in-app purchases where you as a developer benefit by having several upgrades or levels to offer. Nintendo will learn though, not to mention they have the advantage by having that name that everyone knows. I think the only reason the game has sold is due to the Nintendo name and the fact that people like me actually had the urge to wanna play Super Mario on their mobile devices.

On a brighter note, Nintendo has some light at the tunnel (the light is already there) which is a Super Mario Run release for Android marked for March. Nintendo also has 2 other games on the way, Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing, which could get them possibly equal to that of Supercell but that depends on Nintendo’s delivery which is not looking too promising. Nintendo has delayed release of Animal Crossing yet again to the next fiscal year which is roughly around April 2017 to March 2018. So that may not be till next year which is okay, I guess. I am not sure how well these 2 titles will do though. Has anyone who has had a Nintendo system heard of these games? Have you?



Leave a comment and let me know if you have heard of these games.

Sources

TheVerge

Wall Street Journal

Nintendo Report

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Super Mario Run for Android – Coming Soon

Since Super Mario Run arrived in the App Store in December 2016, users of Android have been waiting  for Nintendo to make a version of the game for other mobile platforms.

While no release date has be revealed, Nintendo has opened up a pre-registration for Super Mario Run on the Google Play store on the evening of December 28th. Like the “Notify” button that appeared in the App Store after the game was announced, the “Pre-register” button on Google Play will allow Android owners the same chance to find out as soon as the game hits the store for Android devices.

When Nintendo showed off Super Mario Run in September, it was not clear if the game would be released on other platforms. The question was later answered with a Nintendo press release saying the game would be available “first” on iOS, which leads into the notion that the game would pop up eventually on Android. I assume with Nintendo’s status the way it is now Windows Phone fans shouldn’t hold their breath.

The release date is still being unknown, it would make sense for some sort of Apple exclusivity to last for a period of time. Who knows…but no such details have been revealed so the game could be out at any time.

The description on Google Play is virtually identically to the one on the App Store, right down to “paying a set purchase price” for the full game. I wonder if Nintendo will be able to keep up with updates on the Android version as any Android Developer knows the Android world has new challenges to face with so many different phones available. We will see…

Update

January 19, 2017



Okay we have some news now on when Nintendo intends to release Super Mario Run for Android which was shorter than I expected. Yesterday evening on Twitter Nintendo made it known. Not much is known currently about how similar it will be to the iOS version or what the in-app purchases will look but I think it can be safely said it will align up closely having a free version with only a few levels to entice you and then boom you will need to kick out about $10 to unlock the full game along with smaller purchases being available for some added glamour.

So you think the news makes the wait any better?   😀

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How to play Super Mario on your Android

For all you Super Mario fans you may have wondered how to get that Super Mario addiction under wraps as you are on the go. To get to the point you can do so through the use of game emulators. Wikipedia defines emulator as:

In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the host) to behave like another computer system (called the guest). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use peripheral devices designed for the guest system. Emulation refers to the ability of a computer program in an electronic device to emulate (or imitate) another program or device. Many printers, for example, are designed to emulate Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printers because so much software is written for HP printers. If a non-HP printer emulates an HP printer, any software written for a real HP printer will also run in the non-HP printer emulation and produce equivalent printing. In the 2010s, some video game enthusiasts use emulators to play 1980s arcade games using the original 1980s programming code, which is interpreted by a 2010-era system.

There are many emulators out there for your PC and your Android devices. If you wish to see what is available you can visit EMUParadise for quite an extensive list of emulators that you can use to play whatever old school games you want to play. The newer gaming consoles will be harder and less stable when attempting to get games playing with issues in non-smooth play, no audio, slow frames per second, or simply won’t play at all. The communities for these emulators are usually working together to fix issue found but how well that goes depend mostly on popularity.

So in here the topic is getting Super Mario going on your Android device.


What you need….


Here we are setting up playing New Super Mario Bros for the Nintendo DS.  It is one of the newer versions of the game that can still be played pretty easily without having to worry about Mario actions that required some movement or gesture.

First you need only to download 2 items.

DraStic DS Emulator  The demo version limits play time so test it out to make sure it runs well on your phone then consider purchasing the emulator. I suggest this one though because it is one of the best one for the Nintendo DS.

Paid Version    Demo Version

And

the Super Mario Bros file

Once you have downloaded the emulator and the file to your phone/device open the emulator. You should see something like this:



Now you could go into the options and ‘change options’ in the menu like to get better looking video. I would not suggest doing so at this point unless you have a high end Android phone like a Samsung Galaxy Note series phone. So let just tap on ‘load new game’. The emulator is pretty good at finding the file you just downloaded and should show up on the list. If so tap to start it.

From here on watch my video to help you get used to using the drastic emulator…


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Samsung Galaxy Note 4

 

 

 

 

[ntcyoutube id=”NE3AzfWaQQw”]In 2011 at IFA Samsung announced the Galaxy Note. While some if not most media outlets questioned the device due to its 5.3 inch screen (which most considered extremely large for a phone), but the Note did quite well. It was received positively due to its stylus, the screen proving useful, and the speed of its 1.4ghz dual-core processor.  Proving to be a success Samsung announced that the Note had sold 1 million units in 2 months. Two months later Samsung made a version of the Note with LTE support. Six months after that the Note sold 10 millions units worldwide.

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In 2012 at IFA Samsung displayed the Note 2. The Note 2 was an improvement to the Note in the hardware area sporting a quad-core processor and a larger 5.5 inch screen. Samsung revised the stylus to be more sensitive to pressure (1024 levels of pressure sensitivity) for a more precise feel. Samsung like to make the lines of devices similar in look and the Note 2’s design was based on the Galaxy S3. The Note 2 has other new features like pen gestures, split-screen multitasking, other features that the S3 came out with, and Air View which allows previews of content to be displayed by hovering the pen above the screen.

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The Note series opened the doors for artists in mind which spawned apps for the graphic artists like PS Touch (Photoshop Touch) and SketchBook which Samsung had included. Next came the Note 3 in 2013 showing off a more “premium” design with a plastic leather backing, more stylus pen functionality, and a 5.7 inch 1080p screen. The new “premium” design was something to cater to  the world due companies coming out with devices with (I guess) better design chassis. Phones like the iphone 5 and the  HTC One. People liked the HTC Once due to it metal (premium) body. I thought the phone was okay personally. The stereo speakers only sounded great if  the phone was tilted landscape. Then again I had already joined the cult of the Note and any phone without the S-pen would just not do for me but I can still be objective…lol.

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Samsung in 2014 came out with a ‘lower’ version of the Note 3 and called it the Note 3 Neo. It had  the S-pen, a 5.5 inch Super AMOLED HD 720p screen , 8MP camera, 16GB storage, 2GB of RAM and all of the Note 3’s software features. The Note 3 Neo was made really different in that it sported the Samsung Exynos Hexa 5260 (6-core) processor. The processor in actuality was made up of a quad-core 1.3ghz Cortex A7 CPU and a dual-core 1.7ghz Cortex A15 CPU as well as support for HMP and a Mali-T624 GPU. GPU people refers to graphics.

Now we have the Note 4 which was announced at IFA on Sept 3rd, 2014. This 4th generation Note comes with some new features, yessir. I cannot really review the phone as I have not seen it yet but it seems to be getting some good reviews thus far. The Note 3 comes with the same size screen as the Note 3 but instead with better quality. The screen now has Quad HD Super AMOLED technology giving it a 2560×1440 resolution (about 500+ pixels per inch). Again the “premium” design was used but with a metal rim around the phone. The Note 4 comes with some of features of the Galaxy S5, of course, like the heartrate monitor on the  back (which can also be used to take pictures). Now HTC and Apple have heightened the consumers’ expectations of what a phone should feel like and so now a flagship phone has to have metal (oooooooh….). How about this, try dropping your iphone a few times and see how well those scrapes show up on your cool phone.

The S-Pen on the Note 4 has also been improved with more sensitivity. (double the amount making it 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity). Supposedly this makes it feel more like writing with a real pen. I don’t know really but I will update with I get my hands on one. As far as gestures and UI stuff I have seen mentioned about a floating  thing going on much like the Facebook Chat that Facebook has now shoved down people’s throats.

The Camera has  gone from 13MP to 16MP and is not only a better camera in this point but it now clocks in at f1.9 (for all you photographers out there), which allows the camera to take in 60% more light making for better quality images. Also baked in is optical image stabilization. If you don’t know what that is here is something to help you understand: An optical image stabilizer, often abbreviated OIS, IS, or OS, is a mechanism used in a still camera or video camera that stabilizes the recorded image by varying the optical path to the sensor. This technology is implemented in the lens itself, or by moving the sensor as the final element in the optical path. The key element of all optical stabilization systems is that they stabilize the image projected on the sensor before the sensor converts the image into digital information.

All of the regular promises of improvements are included like battery life but it is too soon to tell how that panes out but let’s not forget the Note 4 will also come in another version, the Galaxy Note Edge. Those of you who want a Note 4 may want to wait for this bad boy to come out then spend that dough as this phone has a curved screen on the right side that can be used for notifications and other things. I will just let you watch the videos cause you just need to see it. Dude I like this one. If I try to upgrade it will be to the Note Edge definitely. I’m saying it is still the same phone. Maybe a lil smaller and the resolution would have to change a bit to allow for the curved part of the screen but technically the same phone. Enjoy the videos…

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If you need to know the differences. Watch this video…

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