Super Mario Run’s most polarizing mode is Toad Rally

Despite millions of downloads, Super Mario Run has received a mixed response thus far, and players fall most divided on one of its two main modes. Toad Rally, the time attack-style, asynchronous multiplayer feature, is the cause of just as many Mario fans’ ire as it is their affection.

Toad Rally exists as supplemental to Super Mario Run’s main campaign, World Tour, drawing on preexisting levels and adding a competitive element to them. Mario races against a ghost of himself (culled from another player’s data) to collect coins, perform stylish moves and win the approval of as many Toads as possible in order to claim victory.

It sounds simple enough, but players have found plenty to hate. For one, Toad Rally requires the use of collectible tickets in order to start playing. These can be won by playing the central World Tour mode, trading in My Nintendo coins for them or completing other tasks.

As Super Mario Run costs $9.99 in order to access all but its first three levels, that a majority of its content is behind a pay gate of sorts is frustrating.

Even if there’s plenty of ways to amass Toad Rally tickets, Nintendo threw in another catch: Players can only hold 99 of these at a given time.

It would take a while to burn through all 99, but it’s a seemingly arbitrary limit to accessing content included in a premium mobile game. For some players, it’s not enough tickets; for others, they feel like the tickets that the game gives out left and right are going to waste if they don’t spend them before hitting the cap.

The actual gameplay has also won detractors. We explained it in our Toad Rally tips post, but it’s not always enough to come in first place during the time attack race. It’s more important to make that Toad audience happy, as they’ll make or break a player on the cusp of a close victory.

The reward for playing Toad Rally is new buildings for Kingdom Builder, an interior decorating mode where players can unlock more characters. That Toad Rally is required in order to earn those new playable characters is another frustration. All of these components have led many to decry the mode as one of the game’s worst.

Then again, there are others who swear by the competitive feature. It’s a nice change of pace from the basic gameplay, they say, and it’s downright addictive.

Since Toad Rally is one of just three offerings in Super Mario Run, your appreciation for it can be a major deciding factor in whether the game’s worth the purchase. Although a trial lets players test out the World Tour mode, Toad Rally mains exclusive to the full, paid version of Super Mario Run. For more on how it works before you go and try it yourself, check out our guide.

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