First 'Super Mario' iPhone game finally has a release date, price (which might be higher than you wanted)

Nintendo made huge waves in September when legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong and others) walked on stage at an Apple keynote event and announced Super Mario Run, the Italian plumber's first game on smartphones. Nintendo didn't give a lot of details at the time, but they did say that the game would cost some amount of money.

Now, we know exactly how much: $9.99.

That may seem prohibitively expensive compared to other mobile phone games, which tend to fall in a price range of $0-$3. But for a new Super Mario game from Nintendo? The price could be a steal — depending on the quality of the final product. A new Mario game on the 3DS would probably cost you $30, while one on the Wii U would run closer to $60.

It's also worth noting that the price gives you unlimited access to the game. Unlike many of the App Store's biggest hits, Nintendo has no plans to pester you to buy additional items and power-ups as you play.

If you're still worried about dropping ten whole dollars on a game, though, there will be a free download of the app so you can try out the game's modes for yourself.

The game will launch on the iOS App Store on December 15. It's expected to come to other mobile devices in the future, but no release date for other versions has been announced.