As many surprising announcements as there were at E3 this year, nothing seems to have garnered quite as big a reaction as Super Mario Odyssey. Not only is this the first true 3D Mario game since Super Mario Galaxy 2, it’s also arguably the most anticipated Switch game of 2017 (or possibly ever).
After debuting a brand new trailer for Super Mario Odyssey during its Spotlight presentation on Tuesday, Nintendo then spent nearly an hour demoing the game on its Nintendo Treehouse live stream.
In the first show floor demo, Nintendo gives us a tour of New Donk City and introduces us to some of Odyssey’s interesting new mechanics. Mario can turn into various people, creatures and objects, he can purchase costumes to reach new areas and he can even transform into 2D Mario:
A while later, Nintendo returned with a second demo taking place in the Wooded Kingdom. While New Donk City and the Desert Kingdom are playable on the show floor at E3 this week, the Wooded Kingdom only appeared during the Nintendo Treehouse stream, so you won’t see this footage anywhere else:
What’s striking about Super Mario Odyssey is all the empty space. Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World were both tightly-crafted platformers with relatively linear levels, while Odyssey appears to be a far more open-ended experience, even more so than Mario 64 or Sunshine. As long as there’s plenty to do in these big, open kingdoms, it could be a positive evolution for the series.
Super Mario Odyssey will release for Nintendo Switch on October 27th.
