Hats off to Nintendo for its unrelenting first-year salvo of Switch software. From Breath of the Wild to Arms to Splatoon and so on, they had one of their strongest years yet and captured a lot of the gaming community’s mindshare in the process. And it all culminated in the launch of Super Mario Odyssey, which marks their iconic mascot’s first return to the open-ended, exploratory style of Mario 64 since 2002’s Super Mario Sunshine.

Odyssey is a joyous romp across the globe showcasing the design creativity and polish that only Mario’s development team can muster. It delights in presenting a bountiful bevy of new locales, characters, and challenges. It showcases Mario’s history and heritage while embracing a multitude of boldly new and unexpected elements. That’s a tricky tightrope to walk, but luckily Nintendo was up to the challenge.

Of all the achievements attributed to the landmark Super Mario Bros. for NES, one of the most overlooked is the game’s feel. The “physics” implemented to govern Mario’s core running and jumping actions felt just right and helped define the future of an entire genre. The Mario series’ signature excellence in control is carried forward all the way to the 3D gaming era, when Super Mario 64 helped to redefine the possibilities of movement in a new dimension.

Odyssey’s many kingdoms are so fun to explore partly due to how good it feels to simply control Mario’s expansive move set as he bounds gleefully through their cartoonish environs. This game’s addition of the cap throw and his ability to bounce off his headpiece midair is utter genius. It’s a move so novel, so useful, so intuitive, so fun… and so Mario. By the end of the game I forgot it hadn’t always been a core aspect of the series. I hope it stays for future installments in the series.

For those who commit fully to the game, the sheer variety of challenge types and many ways in which the designers iterate upon them mean that you’ll have plenty to do and a lot of fun along the way. Others will simply find a lot of charming worlds to explore with surprises around every corner. Either way, there’s a certain freedom to the game’s progression this time around, and it feels right for a portable game to have this sort of breezy approach.

Nintendo always has a high standard to meet with the core Mario series, and with Odyssey they’ve raised it a bit higher. I wouldn’t have it any other way, and I’m confident they’ll raise it again soon enough.