Super Mario Run Gets An Easy Mode
Super Mario Run takes the pressure off with a new "Easy Mode" that gives players unlimited lives and removes levels' time limits—and all you have to do to unlock it is fail.
Easy Mode, which is available after players lose all of their lives in a given level, will give players credit for beating the stage, allowing them to move on to the next challenge. According to the update notes (archived on sites like TouchArcade), however, players won't get to keep any of the gold or colored coins that they collect during Easy Mode, and Nintendo urges players to return to levels beaten via Easy Mode to "try clearing it using your own abilities."
In addition, Super Mario Run's latest update reduces the penalties for losing in the game's multiplayer challenge mode, Toad Rally. In Toad Rally, players race against one another in special, never-ending levels, collecting coins and Toads that unlock special items. Losing a race means that some of your Toads will defect to the winner's side. With the new update, fewer Toads jump ship after a failed run, making it easier to keep your kingdom going after a string of bad Rallies.
According to Nintendo's annual earnings report, Super Mario Run has made roughly $53 million since it's release last December. The app, which marks Mario's first official appearance on mobile devices, has been downloaded 78 million times, with about five percent of users forking over the $10 required to unlock the bulk of the game's content.
Given Mario's popularity—he's starred in everything from video games to comic books to a live-action feature film—that's a lower number than Nintendo had hoped for, although analysts note that a five percent conversion rate is standard for free-to-play mobile titles, in which purchases usually cost one to two dollars. Given the $10 price tag, Serkan Toto, CEO of the game research company Kantan Games, calls Super Mario Run's conversion rate "amazing." Toto also expects Super Mario Run's numbers to improve when the game comes to Android devices later this spring.