Super Mario Odyssey Shows Stages, Shopping, And A Sleepy Dino In An Hour Of Gameplay

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This first video delves into two areas, New Donk City and the Sand Kingdom. It also explains some of the game's concepts and mechanics. The basic drive of the game is collecting Power Moons, which you need to power Mario's new airship, named the Odyssey. In addition to all his regular moves, Mario can now toss his hat, which he can use to destroy enemies, collect items, or possess things. And when I say "things," I mean pretty much everything. Enemies, people, and even inanimate objects like cars and traffic cones.

As for the levels, New Donk City is actually the location of the original Donkey Kong. In fact, it's revealed Pauline has become the city's mayor! Never let a giant ape kidnapping keep you down! Sand Kingdom looks a bit more like a typical Mario level, with a large castle to explore. In a neat twist, at certain points you can turn yourself into an 2D sprite and engage in some old-school platforming on castle walls. Oh, and we also catch a glimpse of The Brutals, the evil rabbit wedding planners that will serve as Super Mario Odyssey's secondary antagonists. Have I mentioned this game is kind of weird?

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In our second video, we see the Treehouse crew explore the tranquil Wooded Kingdom. You can now use the coins you collect to actually buy outfits, with each world having its own currency in addition to the standard gold coins. Oh, and we also get a look at that T-rex from the trailer, but he's sleeping, and the Treehouse folks leave him that way. Darn.

During the Treehouse livestreams, Super Mario Odyssey producer Yoshiaki Koizumi laid out the game's basic design philosophy:

"Super Mario Odyssey has a theme of going on a journey, but we also try to give the player a lot of surprises. The dinosaur is a really big surprise. We want to balance that surprise with emotional resonance, giving people something that's familiar, attractive, and cute from other Mario series, then bounce people back and forth between the familiar and the surprising."

Well, consider me successfully surprised.

Super Mario Odyssey leaps onto Nintendo Switch on October 27. You can check out WWG's coverage of all the big Switch games, right here.