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Nintendo shares jump 18 per cent on Super Mario iPhone tie-up

Shares jumped after Nintendo said Super Mario will make his smartphone debut on the iPhone
Shares jumped after Nintendo said Super Mario will make his smartphone debut on the iPhone Shares jumped after Nintendo said Super Mario will make his smartphone debut on the iPhone

SHARES in Nintendo have leapt 18 per cent after the computer games giant announced that Super Mario will make his smartphone debut on the iPhone.

The Japanese firm said Super Mario Run - the latest instalment of the 30-year franchise- will be released in December on the Apple App store.

The game will challenge players to guide Mario through a series of levels, jumping, dodging enemies and collecting coins along the way.

Nintendo's share price later dropped back to a rise of 13 per cent to 27,955 Japanese yen (£206).

The launch of smartphone game Pokemon Go, when shares closed up more than 24 per cent on July 11, saw Nintendo record its biggest gain since revealing the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1983.

Pokemon Go was Nintendo's first foray into the mobile gaming market and has emerged as a global craze with players hooked to their handsets since it launched in America on July 6.

In the augmented reality game developed by Niantic and The Pokemon Company, players travel around the real world to capture and train creatures known as Pokemon - the most famous of which is Pikachu.

The hugely popular game was also announced as an upcoming app on Apple Watch for the first time, meaning users will be able to track their stats and Pokemon from their wrist.

The Apple Watch will vibrate when users near Pokemon and PokeStops and will also track eggs, telling users how far they have walked and how far they need to go to hatch an egg.