Super Mario Run Won't Be Playable Without Internet Connection

Super Mario Run, Nintendo's infinite runner coming to the iOS platform, will not be playable without an Internet connection.

Adam Rosenberg of Mashable interviewed producer and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, who revealed the game's lack of offline playability. The news might come as a disappointment to gamers who were looking forward to tackling the World Tour mode without having to connect to WiFi.

"We had thought at one point that it would be nice to have the World Tour [story] mode available standalone, to be able to play without that connection," said Miyamoto, when asked about the possibility of an offline mode. "But then the challenge is when that's operating in a standalone mode, it actually complicates the connection back to the Toad Rally and Kingdom modes. And because those two modes are relying on the network save, we had to integrate the World Tour mode as well."

Miyamoto also said that part of the reason that Nintendo chose to release the game on the iOS platform first was because of security, to protect themselves from piracy. The requirement of a network connection is supposed to help keep the game secure across all of the different network environments in the 150 countries that are set for its launch.

It's a shame that we won't be able to play the game without an Internet connection on long commutes or anywhere devoid of WiFi, but here's hoping we can play it while waiting in lines for all of the Nintendo areas at Universal Studios parks.