You can't give the new 'Super Mario' game for iPhone as a holiday gift even if you wanted to

The good news: "Super Mario Run," the hugely anticipated debut of Nintendo's flagship plumber on the iPhone and iPad, is now available, just in time for the holidays. Better yet, it's pretty great.

The bad news: There's no way to gift "Super Mario Run" to your Mario-loving friends and family - at least not directly, confirms a Nintendo spokesperson.

That's because "Super Mario Run" starts as a free download from the iTunes App Store, which gets you a handful of levels and features. Then if you spend $9.99 as a one-time in-app purchase, you get all of the levels and everything else the game has to offer.

Since Apple's App Store currently has no way to give in-app purchases as gifts, it might ruin your plan to play Santa for the Nintendo fan in your life.

There is one way, but it's not exactly elegant. You could buy the lucky recipient a $10 iTunes gift card, with instructions to use it for "Super Mario Run." It works, but it might come off as a little less personal than you intended.

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