Watch Jimmy Fallon Play Super Mario Run, Then Try It Yourself Today

If there’s one thing iOS gamers everywhere can agree on, it’s our collective excitement over next week’s launch of Super Mario Run. Jimmy Fallon was a conduit of our giddiness last night when Reggie Fils-Aimé and Shigeru Miyamoto stopped by …

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If there’s one thing iOS gamers everywhere can agree on, it’s our collective excitement over next week’s launch of Super Mario Run. Jimmy Fallon was a conduit of our giddiness last night when Reggie Fils-Aimé and Shigeru Miyamoto stopped by his show to share some hands-on time with their first mobile platformer.

Although we didn’t see anything shockingly new in the few short levels Fallon ran through—he wall-jumped past piranha plants, snagged an invincibility star, and thwomped a goomba while screaming “Miyamoto, are you watching this?!”—it was interesting to watch a “cold” run with slight backtracking, stalling on walls, and missing some coins to highlight that player control of Mario is still critical even in auto-runner form. The underground stage he tackled was split into four short sections separated by scrolling pipes with a brief aboveground flag-grab to signal the end, showing off the quick pick-up-and-play format Nintendo has emphasized.

The biggest reveal was that a demo for Super Mario Run will be available today, a week before the official release. Of course, you’ll need to wall-jump your way to an Apple Store to try it, but still—you could be playing Super Mario Run right now, this minute, at least until the Apple Store employees ban you for hogging the demo iPhone for two hours.

The second half of Fallon’s Nintendo visit was focused on the Switch and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Although some of us here at Gamezebo have doubts about the Switch’s potential as a mobile device, we still can’t help but be ridiculously stoked watching Fallon carry around the latest Zelda in his hands. Reggie reminded us that the Switch will launch in March, and more details about it will be available in January.

And, as one of the final reminders before the official launch, Super Mario Run will be available on iOS devices December 15th. You can request a notification when it goes live via its App Store page, if you’re not already in prison for sneaking a demo iPhone out of an Apple Store.

Jillian will play any game with cute characters or an isometric perspective, but her favorites are Fallout 3, Secret of Mana, and Harvest Moon. Her PC suffers from permanent cat-on-keyboard syndrome, which she blames for most deaths in Don’t Starve. She occasionally stops gaming long enough to eat waffles and rewatch Battlestar Galactica.