This is hilarious, but the only thing I disagree with is taking a screen to introduce saving the princess. Yes the original Mario didn't need a narrative hook and this one doesn't either. But reinforcing the narrative of Mario adds value to their brand that has a long term payoff. Mario isn't just a video game anymore, in case you missed the closing of the Olympics. Yeah, saving the princess is a worn out narrative, but they get grandfathered in on being able to use it.

I wonder through how many hoops devs have to jump to ship a "simple" game for a big company.

The numerous steps until the game starts makes me think there are more managers than actual [gaming] experts chipping in on the concept. The game is more fun if those who are making it have fun too!

Super Mario Run was a smash hit in terms of downloads -- over 50 million in its first couple weeks -- but was a disappointment in terms of revenue: not quite so many of those trial players turned into paying ones as anticipated.

What part did player onboarding play in that surprise?

At least he didn't have to create a nintendo account. That was brutal, especially on an old phone, where the in-app browser kept crashing without error notification.

73 clicks to go through the slides just to reach a to be continued for the game portion.

The irony...