GameSpot -- 7/10
IGN -- 8/10
GamesRadar -- 4/5
USGamer -- 4/5
Pocket Gamer -- 9/10
Pocket-lint -- 4.5/5
Time -- 5/5
It's easy to fault Run for various reasons, but it's hard to totally lose appreciation for how well it's brought the series' core gameplay to smartphones. Simple controls be damned, Run offers great platforming and that distinct Mario charm that Nintendo's perfected over the years. It's a shame to find that it's on the easy side and bereft of a long-lasting platforming adventure, but it's the sort of game that you'll be happy to have in your pocket. Even if you don't play it to unlock every character and special course, finishing the game once will inspire you to dust off New Super Mario Bros. and revisit Run's quality roots on other platforms--a testament to the series' refined DNA than lives on in Run.
IGN -- 8/10
Super Mario Run is an elegantly designed platformer with strong hooks that kept me coming back. Once I wrapped up the main campaign, the addictive, replayable stages urged me to perfect my coin runs. Kingdom Builder and Toad Rally provided further motivation to keep dashing for the finish line, so I could invest the spoils in my own Mushroom Kingdom. While this isn’t the best-looking Super Mario game by a longshot, it successfully distills the core fun and charm of the Mario franchise into a smart, one-handed experience.
GamesRadar -- 4/5
However, for a more casual player, Super Mario Run has the potential to be incredibly frustrating. Replaying levels over and over again, especially when each one is demanding to begin with and only increases in difficulty from there, is not the kind of relaxing commute-worthy process you might be looking for in a game. Super Mario Run is what you might expect from a game made by Nintendo. It’s well-made, it’s detailed, it’s polished - but that still doesn’t stop it from being not everyone’s cup of tea.
USGamer -- 4/5
Super Mario Run's lack of offline play is a bummer, but otherwise it's an engaging experience that demonstrates Nintendo understands what makes for a good mobile game. Even if you're not a fan of mobile titles, it's worth a try: The initial download is free, and you can pay for the additional levels if you like what you see.
Pocket Gamer -- 9/10
Anyway: Super Mario Run is not, as some feared, a simple cash-grab or an advert for the 3DS. This is a proper Mario game, with the feel, the fluidity, the imagination, and the depth of a fully-fledged Nintendo release.
It is a game where the designers thought carefully about how to translate the bouncy thrills of Mario to a platform without buttons or a d-pad and came up with something special: a deceptively simple game that serves as a full-bodied celebration of Mario's genre-defining jump.
Pocket-lint -- 4.5/5
It took a while for Mario to arrive on mobile, but now he is, we feel he's here to stay.
Time -- 5/5
But if you’re able to make peace with the game’s online requirement (and to be fair, I was most of the time), the experience is mostly fantastic. Super Mario Run impresses in ways I wasn’t convinced this approach to the character could. This, let’s not forget, is Nintendo on someone else’s hardware making good. Who else can stroll this assuredly into a stranger’s house, size up the joint lickety-split, then remind us of how much we have yet to see?