One of the highlights of Nintendo’s Switch presentation was – surprise! – their mascot, Mario. His latest mainline title made a brief cameo last October, but now the game has a name: Super Mario Odyssey!

Travel Through Dimensions In Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine were the first two 3D Super Mario games. They’re also different in their level design philosophies in comparison to the titles that preceded and followed them. Most of the levels in 64 and Sunshine were sandboxes, where Mario could wander around with a degree of freedom in how he progressed.

Odyssey is returning to that standard. Personally, I’m fond of the tightly-designed obstacle courses, but we’ve have those for four 3D games in a row now. So, a change of pace will be nice!

So far, Mario is the only character who’s confirmed to be playable. However, his hat serves as a new tool, functioning not unlike the Boomerang Suit from Super Mario 3D Land and 3D World.

Speaking of 3D Land, Mario seems to have retained its rolling move.

Mario’s leaving the Mushroom Kingdom! Thusly, he’ll hop across different dimensions, including an abstract world of fruits and the conspicuously named New Donk City. Why is Mario doing this? Well, I’m sure you could hazard a guess.

Super Mario Odyssey will jump into stores this holiday season. Until then, we can entertain ourselves with its trailer and some gameplay footage: