Perhaps one of the most striking aspects of Super Mario Run is how just how much content it has on offer. While the game is, when you get down to its very core, an automatic mobile runner, it is packed with an incredible amount of content, and players can easily spend dozens of hours on it on account of its replayability and solid level design. There’s also the fact that its accessible nature as an automatic runner, and its simple, slick controls that allow you to easily play the game using just one hand, work heavily in its favour, making this a package that is easy to get into but enjoyably difficult to master.

"Super Mario Run still feels very much like a Mario game, and a combination of the slick and solid level design Mario games are known for, and a constant focus on the hunt to collect coins – special and regular – makes this feel like a trueMario experience."

Super Mario Run, in terms of level design and gameplay style, follows the template of traditional 2D side-scrolling Mario games, with a visual pallet that is heavily reminiscent of the New Super Mario Bros. titles to boot. Sure, the levels are shorter, and you no longer have the same amount of control over Mario as you do in the side-scrolling platformers, which means that the game definitely loses some of the genius complexity that is apparent in so many iconic and memorable Mario stages of the past, but don’t let that fool you. Super Mario Run still feels very much like a Mario game, and a combination of the slick and solid level design Mario games are known for, and a constant focus on the hunt to collect coins – special and regular – makes this feel like a true Mario experience.

The controls here are simple and intuitive, and you can basically do everything in the game using just one finger. Mario runs forward by himself, and vaults over small objects and enemies on his own as well, but you control all his other actions. You make him jump by touching the screen, make his jumps higher and longer by holding down on the screen, make him perform summersaults, and can even control his trajectory and speed as he falls downwards.These controls, as we’ve already established, are pretty easy to get the hang of, but the real fun begins when you try to gain mastery over them in order to collect the special coins in each of the stages.

And these special coins are, ultimately, the real hook of the game. The main campaign itself is fairly short. It consists of 24 stages, and it’s fair to say that it doesn’t take too long to beat them all. However, each of these stages has five special coins that are placed just out of reach, and collecting these special coins requires players to perform and string together perfect moves. Upon collecting all five special coins, you unlock another set of five more coins, which are even harder to collect, and as if that isn’t enough, when you’ve collected those as well, you unlock a third and final set of five more.

"Kingdom Builder isn’t going to be Super Mario Run’s main attraction, nor was it meant to be (clearly), but it’s a fun distraction, if nothing else, and provides a nice, quiet break from the breakneck, fast-paced running and jumping action that the rest of the game doles out almost constantly."

Collecting these coins is incredibly challenging, yet never unfairly so, and pulling off perfect combos of moves to collect them as they become progressively harder to reach proves to be incredibly satisfying, and this constant hunt for special coins will definitely keep players returning to Super Mario Run again and again.

And there’s even an added incentive for players to collect as many coins as they can, because in Super Mario Run, they serve as actual currency. You use the coins you collect in the campaign stages and other modes (more on this in a while) to create and customize your very own Mushroom Kingdom in the Kingdom Builder mode. It’s not a full-fledged builder like you would expect, though, and maybe that’s to be expected. All you’re ultimately allowed to do is build houses and have Toad residents move in, and the effects of this are mostly superficial. However, as you build more and more of your Mushroom Kingdom, you’ll unlock new characters, which you can use in the campaign.

Kingdom Builder isn’t going to be Super Mario Run’s main attraction, nor was it meant to be (clearly), but it’s a fun distraction, if nothing else, and provides a nice, quiet break from the breakneck, fast-paced running and jumping action that the rest of the game doles out almost constantly.

But wait- there’s more! Super Mario Run also includes a Toad Rally mode, which is essentially a time trial mode with a typical Mario spin on it, in that you have to collect as many coins in the allotted time period as possible. You compete against the ghosts of other players, and if you win, you’re gifted with an increase in population of Toads in your own Mushroom Kingdom, allowing you to, in turn, unlock more items for customization and creation. The competitive aspect of the Toad Rally mode definitely lends it an even greater addictiveness than the campaign itself, and adds to the replayability of the game in general even further.

"If you’re a hardcore fan of the Mario franchise, purchasing the entirety of the Super Mario Run experience for the price of admission might be an easy decision, but for anyone else, even with the wealth of content on offer here, that might not be the case."

There is, however, the issue that Super Mario Run requires your smartphone to be constantly online, meaning that if you do not have an active internet connection, you won’t even be allowed to start up the game, much less play it. This feature by itself isn’t that baffling, considering it’s a common occurrence in plenty of mobile games, but when you consider the fact that the game doesn’t include proper player vs player online interaction, or even any real micro-transactions to speak of, it does become a bit of a head-scratcher.

The other real issue is that even though you can play a specific version of Super Mario Run for free, you will only get access to the full-fledged experience for $10, a price that seems especially high when compared to a number of quality platformers and automatic runners on smartphones. If you’re a hardcore fan of the Mario franchise, purchasing the entirety of the Super Mario Run experience for the price of admission might be an easy decision, but for anyone else, even with the wealth of content on offer here, that might not be the case.

When all is said and done, though, Super Mario Run definitely goes down as another impressive Nintendo entry in the mobile gaming landscape. Granted, in opting to become an automatic runner, it gives up the agency and intricate and layered level design of traditional Mario games, but the level design here is strong regardless. Ultimately, recognizable soundtracks, slick animations, nostalgic visual beats and its extremely addictive and incredibly accessible nature all come together to make sure that Super Mario Run does justice to the Mario franchise.

This game was reviewed on iOS.

There was a time when “indie” was a genre completely subversive to what the industry brought out. Nowadays, indie development means so much more. It means new experiences, doing things differently, delivering triple-A quality stories in hereto unseen ways and even taking us back to the glory days of retro gaming. No matter their budgets or direction, indie gaming will always be around to give us that little something special. Here are this year’s nominees for best indie game.

NOMINEES:

The Witness

A lot of creativity is needed to innovate on the first person adventure genre and Jonathan Blow’s The Witness delivers amply. Composed primarily of puzzles, The Witness is actually a beautiful journey of realization, celebrating logical thinking, observation and yes, even frustration as we navigate through an island of mystery.

Owlboy

Part Metroid-vania, part-Miyazaki-styled epic and all heart, Owlboy is an endeavour that’s nine years in the making. It pays tribute to glory days of 16-bit platforming with its gorgeous pixel while moving the genre forward with its awesome twists and turns. Here’s hoping we see Otus again (and much sooner).

Inside

Mysteries don’t always have to be grisly but no one told Playdead that. The studio’s latest title Inside combines puzzle platforming with a grim yet ethereal atmosphere that exudes wonder and horror simultaneously. Strange things are afoot but the journey inside provides far more mesmerizing and unforgettable. You’ll know what we mean so just go play it already.

Hyper Light Drifter

Inspired by its creator’s real-life battle with heart disease, Hyper Light Drifter’s wordless narrative combines 2D Zelda-style adventuring with Dark Souls levels of aggressive combat. Exploration and discovery are key though and Hyper Light Drifter proves a beautifully haunting journey that will entice and aggravate you in equal measure.

Thumper

The sound of rhythmic violence is hard to decipher but Thumper has it down to a tee. This rhythm racer challenges you to match movements with its heavy soundtrack, barreling faster and faster into the abyss, losing yourself in the beats. Harsher than Rez but equally sublime, Thumper is a musical experience unlike any other.

Unravel

What’s it like being made of yarn and gathering up the strings of beloved memories? Unravel’s Yarney answers that question and traverses a bunch of beautiful, physics-based levels while looking as cute as possible. Unravel teaches us about love and loss, relying on emotional visuals over extensive verbiage and it’s a stellar game as a result.

Stardew Valley

Have you ever wanted to leave it all behind and just settle down on a farm? Then waste all your energy in a day, growing crops and managing your new life? Stardew Valley offers all this and more with tons of exploration, questing and enough farming to fill your soul. It’s slow but relaxing and will take away many hours while rewarding them in equal measure.

WINNER:

The Witness 

Enough can’t be said about The Witness and the sheer triumph of its vision. This is a game that was made with every inch of creativity and resources that Thelka Inc. had to spare. The visuals exude a sense of wonder while its music invites you to stay forever. The most overpowering element of The Witness is its gameplay however. Each puzzle is cleverly designed, nurturing your intelligence, pushing it to the limit and leading you to the ultimate prize. You’ve probably had it spoiled several times over but The Witness still begs to be played and revisited for years to come.

Note: GamingBolt’s Game of the Year categories, nominations and awards are selected via an internal nomination, voting and debate process. You can check the rest of categories and the respective winners here.

As with every year, mobile gaming continues to grow at an astronomical rate. In fact, this year saw perhaps the most popular mobile game ever release (and no, we’re not talking about that one). There were updates in Square Enix’s vaunted GO series, space robot pirates and even hydrojet racing. At least in terms of variety, that’s a hard roster to beat. Let’s take a look at the nominees for best mobile game of 2016.

NOMINEES:

Clash Royale

A mobile strategy game from Supercell that isn’t Clash of Clans? Thankfully, Clash Royale is a little more than that. The freemium title mixes card-battling, tower management and multiplayer battles into one big smorgasbord of fun. With challenges, tournaments and chests to earn, Clash Royale strikes a very good balance between free to play and paid.

Pokémon Go

Niantic’s Pokémon hunting mania took the world by storm, challenging players to enter the real world and build up their collections. Pokémon Go quickly became one of the most popular mobile games ever, mixing social interaction and exercise with exploration. Though the grind and overall wonky launch servers soured many folks, Pokémon Go has improved with tons of new features and Pokémon to capture.

Deus Ex GO

Taking the turn-based puzzle formula further is Square Enix’s Deus Ex GO. While not as involving as Hitman GO or Lara Croft GO, Deus Ex GO managed to combine hacking and stealth into a worthwhile mobile premise. With numerous puzzles to solve, Deus Ex GO provides a decent diversion from Mankind Divided.

Riptide GP: Renegade

Some people just want to race on hydrojets and can you blame them? Riptide GP: Renegade is the latest in the series with a new single-player mode, bosses, vehicles to unlock and different playable characters to take control. The attractive visuals, fast action and sleek optimization make Riptide GP: Renegade easy to recommend.

Bully: Anniversary Edition

Rockstar’s other open world epic Bully finally hit mobiles and we couldn’t be gladder. How else will we rise through the ranks of school, becoming the one true authority over our peers? The open world of Bully: Anniversary Edition offers tons of stuff to do with a significant amount of PG-13 hilarity and it’s packed with great characters throughout.

SteamWorld Heist

Turn-based action with robot pirates, heists and strategic gun fights describes SteamWorld Heist in a nut-shell. It’s not just the procedural generation or distinct style that sets the game apart. Rather, it’s the combination of everything and how easy it is for players to become addicted that makes SteamWorld Heist one of the best mobile games this year.

WINNER:

Clash Royale

Supercell seems to have a monopoly on hopelessly addictive titles. Clash Royale thankfully doesn’t fall too deep into the money trap that Clash of Clans has become. Matches are easy to get into but it takes a significant amount of skill to master the game’s mechanics. With a huge roster of characters and plenty of replay value, Clash Royale is our pick for the best mobile game of 2016.

Note: GamingBolt’s Game of the Year categories, nominations and awards are selected via an internal nomination, voting and debate process. You can check the rest of categories and the respective winners here.

Pokemon Go has been out on the market for quite a while now but we have to give Niantic and the rest of the people working on the app credit for trying to improve it even as its getting to be less of a big time draw. Just because the application isn’t quite as popular as it used to be, it’s still plenty popular and that means the team is looking to make the app better, piece by piece.

A new update to the application has been officially launched and while this isn’t a major update, it does have some new features. This update will fix a bug that had to do with vibration notifications.

The other fix of note that comes along with this update is the day and night modes have been changed to accurately reflect the user’s current time of day. The full log can be read below:

• The bug that caused incorrect vibration notifications has been fixed.
• Day and night modes have changed to more accurately reflect the Trainer’s current time of day.
• Minor text fixes.

Listed below are fifteen real life incidents that have happened while playing Pokémon Go, good and bad.

MAN QUITS JOB TO BECOME FULL-TIME POKÉMON GO PLAYER

Tom Curry from New Zealand has gone and done something all of us dream of doing but probably won’t ever have the balls to do.  He quit his job so that he could become a full-time Pokémon Go player for the next two months, during which time he will be embarking on a tour across New Zealeand. He’s already caught 90 Pokémon (at the time of writing this feature). “I wanted to have an adventure,” he says. “I have been working for six years and I was desperate for a break. And Pokémon gave me the chance to live that dream.”

This man will be the very best, like no one ever was.

Read more about this here.

The good news is, Pokemon GO is a remarkably easy game to get into- you start it off, and you can’t not know what to do in very short order. The bad news is that there are some nuances and intricacies to it that the game, shockingly enough, makes no effort to explain.

Here are 12 of those, which may help you along your way on your very own quest to be the very best.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

PIKACHU

The game ostensibly sets you up with choosing either Bulbasaur, or Charmander, or Squirtle as a starter right as soon as you start the game, as they pop up around you, and you’re prompted to catch one of them. But did you know, you don’t have to start with them? If you’d rather go the Pokemon Yellow route, or the one that Ash followed in the Pokemon cartoon, then you can- all you have to do is ignore Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle, and walk away from them. You may need to repeat this step three to four times, but a Pikachu will pop up in short order, allowing you to catch him and start out on your journey with him instead.

That’s not to say Pokémon Go has had a bad launch- no, not at all. Even in its beta stages the app is showing us its incredible potential that will eventually be realized within the coming months. But for it to do that, it needs to address some of its bigger flaws. Here are eleven of them.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

SERVER ISSUES

I read somewhere recently that Pokémon Go’suser count will exceed that of Twitter soon, so the fact that the game’s servers are facing problems is really not that much of a surprise, but man is it a drag when it happens- and it seems to happen quite frequently. Given that sometimes these server issues punish the player (for instance, a gym battle win not registering or a rare Pokémon not being registered when caught, to say nothing of the times that you can’t even log in) they are actively interfering with our enjoyment of the game.

It goes without saying that the devil’s in the details. Apparently, that applies to Nintendo’s balance-sheet as well. Pokemon Go has generated a lot of cash, in very little time. But how much of that actually goes to Nintendo? Bloomberg financial analyst Luke Kawa had this to say about Nintendo, Pokemon Go, and monies.

Well, reading the fine print, Nintendo doesn’t exactly own the Pokemon brand outright. The Pokemon IP is held by The Pokemon Company, which in turn is a 33-34-33 split between Japanese developers Creatures, Game Freak, and Nintendo. Right off the bat, that means that 2/3 of Pokemon Go’s profit isn’t directed toward Nintendo. But wait, there’s more!

Apple’s App Store policy means that’s the iPhone maker gets a 30 percent cut on revenue before the three-way revenue split between Nintendo, Creatures, and Game Freak. Pokemon Go has reportedly generated 14.03 million dollars in revenue since last week. A bit of math tells us that Nintendo’s share of the pie is ((14,030,000 * 0.7) / 3)) which is (drumroll) $3,273,666.67. Which is actually still a lot of money generated in a single week.

So, yeah. Pokemon Go’s broken the internet. In addition to causing road accidents, and netting Nintendo their highest opening share value in 33 years, the sudden spike in Pokemon Go activity has hit the game’s UK servers hard. My, my, it’s almost like a DDoS attack. Except with mobile gamers instead of hackers.

CEO John Hanke told Business Insider in an interview, that international release is being “paused until the developer is comfortable” with the game’s servers. “We thought the game would be popular, but it obviously struck a nerve,” Hanke says.

Pokemon Go is having a phased launch, having been outed in the US and Australia, last week. The game is Nintendo’s take on the ARG-genre. Pokemon Go basically overlays a map of the world with pocketable Pokemon you can only see if you squint at  your phone.

It is, admittedly kinda cool to see a Charmander popping up on the street, even if it’s only on your phone. But, going by the download growth rate–the game shot right to the top of the iTunes Charts–people seem to be taking the whole “Gotta catch ’em all” thing very, very seriously.

Complete The Banner Saga 2 with help of this HD video walkthrough and game guide. The Banner Saga 2 is a sequel to the original game which continues the legacy of The Banner Saga. The game was developed by a team of three and was first announced at The Game Awards in 2014.

The Banner Saga 2 is now available for Windows and MAC platforms. The game was developed by Stoic and published by Versus Evil. This game will also be available for the PS4 and Xbox One later this year.

Check out the video walkthrough of The Banner Saga 2 below and let us know if you have any questions in the comments section below. For video game guides, tips and wikis, check out our gaming portal here.