This is it.

This is the end.

This run is largely about both keeping on the path (to collect coins) and timing your jumps so that you turn-the-tables on Bowser, and throw his own bombs back to him. This part takes a little more practice than you would think, but once you’ve done it once or twice, you can smash through the level pretty quickly.

In short:

Step 1. Follow Bowser
Step 2. Throw his own bombs at him
Step 3. Save the Princess
Step 4. Live happily every after

And thus, we end our romp through the core levels of Mario, or the ‘Tour’ levels anyway. There’s plenty of other places to play and ways to indulge in Super Mario Run, but this brings me to the end of this adventure.

Still … plenty of other games to play!

In the wise words of President Bartlet, “What’s Next?”

Another ghost level – ghosts ghosts everywhere! This level involved a lot of jumping, back flipping and timing to get through platforms that either need to appear or reappear thanks to well-timed switches with no way to get around it.

It is absolutely evident that we’re getting near to the end.

It’s dry. It’s dusty. And it’s a desert … with guys who through spikey balls at you.

This level is largely dodging bullets, but there is some complexity in getting the coins if you want a completionist run.

This is a great level of jumping puzzles, which is a bit hard to work out in some places on account of semi-3D rings being in a 2D side-scrolling game, but nothing insurmountable.

The big boss is back to pseudo-Bowser again, who is easy enough to hit if you’re ‘big’, where you can just take the hit and walk on through.

Oh, and this time around – he turns into a turtle again.

Man, what a level. This was a battle just to find out where the keys were located in order to proceed. Working out how to kill ghosts or find the right obstacles to jump over is far more annoying than dodging the ghosts themselves.

What was amazing about clearing this level was that I did it with one second to spare! Sometimes it’s the little things in life!

This level was a bit strange – not so much in layout, but moreso the enemies to defeat. For the most part, this involved dodging, or working out how to defeat a strange spikey-ball-cat enemy, blessed with enough height to be annoying for short, jumping plumbers.

There are some tricky platforming areas on offer in this level, mostly in pursuit of coins, but there’s more than enough here to keep you busy just dodging the aforementioned spikey-ball-cats.

This is a wonderfully faster-paced, speed-run level with lots of invulnerability stars that make it conducive to simply living fast-and-dangerous and having a great time.

My ignorance of Mario lore is evident in this level, as I assumed that ‘Lakitu’ was the little dude dropping things from his cloud in the sky, and it turns out I was right – thanks to a quick search, I found this article from the Mario Wiki:

“Lakitus are Koopas who ride clouds through the skies, mostly dropping Spiny Eggs on the ground or near the player. When they are defeated, their clouds can be ridden for a short amount of time.”

The more you know …

Back into the air again – this time with a slightly more darker and spookier aesthetic. The push towards the end-boss was a little more tricky than the other air-ships. In particular, a lot of the jumps in the level come from a lower height, meaning that you either need to be in ‘large’ mode so that you can withstand the hit, or … well … you die.

The end boss here was much-of-a-muchness, with the added bonus of flames either side of the level to prevent camping. That being said, it really isn’t a boss fight that is suitable for camping, so the flames aren’t really anything more than window dressing. Three bops on the head – and another one gone!