Hands on with Super Mario Odyssey @ E3 2017

Nintendo’s show floor this year is themed after New Donk City, the (almost) real life world from our favourite plumber’s latest adventure; Super Mario Odyssey. New York styled buildings flank the walls, road markings and manhole covers are printed on the show floor carpet, and over half of the ‘city’ is taken up by rows and rows of Nintendo Switch consoles, each with a playable demo version of Super Mario Odyssey.

I was lucky enough to get a solid 10 minutes hands on time with the new game. In this game, Mario travels to vastly differently themed worlds that offer many different types of level play styles. For the E3 demo, there was a choice between two worlds: Sand Kingdom and Metro Kingdom. Metro Kingdom is where New Donk City resides, offering more emphasis on vertical exploration as Mario navigates through vast skyscrapers. However, I had seen the new gameplay trailer from the Nintendo Spotlight and was eager to play Sand Kingdom because of its incredible retro 2D playable sequences.

Entering the Sand Kingdom, Mario finds himself in a vibrant Mexican desert town where all the inhabitants are cute, sombrero and poncho wearing skull-faced people. All their water has turned to ice for reasons unknown to me at this stage of the demo, but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with the tracks left by Bowser in sand nearby. Mario can even equip similar garb and I was determined to do just that. So equipping my new sombrero and poncho, I set off into the desert to follow the tracks.

Moving Mario is all very familiar and easy to jump straight in. But this time his new magical hat grants him a whole new range of abilities, such as throwing it out like a boomerang to take out enemies, or acting as a temporary jump pad to get to hard to reach areas. You can also throw it at certain enemies and characters to take control of their abilities.

For example, throwing your magical hat at an enemy Bullet Bill will see Mario possess it, allowing him to fly to new areas or destroy obstacles. In one section, I had to take possession of what can only be described as an ‘Easter Island head statue with feet and sunglasses’ to collect 5 Power Moon fragments. Putting the sunglasses on revealed hidden paths, but made the creature move much slower. It was a simple task but one that was done with sheer joy. And the gameplay trailer (above) shows so many more things that you can take control of with the magical hat - just look at that T-Rex rocking a fantastic moustache!

But the best bit for me (and the whole reason I chose to play this level over the New Donk City level) was seeing Mario go 8-Bit retro by entering a pixelated pipe. Action seamlessly shifts to the 2D mode - complete with my Sombrero and Poncho rendered in glorious 8-Bit - as Mario has to navigate through traditional platforming sections, avoiding Bullet Bills and breaking blocks, all taking place on the curved surface of the tower wall, the camera rotating around the structure as it follows Mario. By reaching the top of the tower, Mario pops off the wall and instantly transforms back into is 3D rendered model. It reminds me of the feeling I got when playing the shadow level on Super Mario 3D World for the first time. A brilliant idea you could base an entire game on, which is likely to be used very sparingly to wondrous effect. I just can’t stop smiling!

Super Mario Odyssey is out 27th October for Nintendo Switch. Pre-order it from The Game Collection here.

- Nathan