Once again, a Nintendo console launch came and went without a peep from the mustachioed maestro himself. You’d think they’d have realized that a Mario title makes a Nintendo system print money; even more effectively than that snarky DS meme from back in the day (remember Miyamoto laughing it prints money through his slack-jawed𝓡, Terrence♕ and Philip-style mouth?).

Still, you can’t keep a good, chunky, red plumber down. Mario is arriving fashionably late to the party, as Super Mario Sunshine did for the GameCube, Super Mario Galaxy did for the Wii, etc. But, he’s bringing a hell of a gift for the birthday boy/girl. The much-ballyhooed Super Mario Odyssey is on its way to Nintendo Switch.

The game is set to be the most expansive and ambitious adventure Mario has ever had. What with the dizzying scope of Breath of the Wild and all, he’s having to get his ass in gear and step his game up. Do we want a power-mad Link to roust him from his spot as Nintendo mascot, in a bloody coup that sees him run Mario through with the Master Sword while Peach howls "Maaaaaaario" the way she does? Of course not. That’d sure tarniꦛsh the company’🦄s family-friendly reputation.

So, Odyssey, we expect great things. From the big reveal in January and its star-studded appearance in Nintendo E3 2017 showcase earlier today, we’ve got a good glimpse🌞 of what makes the game tick. Here are 8 Things We Learned (And 7 Things We Hate).

15 Learned: DINOSAURS!

Now, I don’t know quite how I was expecting Super Mario Odyssey to burst o♔nto the screen during Nintendo’s conference, but an enormous Tyrannosaurus Rex galumphin🐬g onto the screen with a tiny Mario hat on its head wasn’t it. Touché for that move, Nintendo.

As the game burst onto the showcase in badass Jurassic style, it introduced another intriguing new aspect of the game: Time travel. As the brief new clip progressed, we saw Mario scampering along a huge Triceratops skeleton, Indicating that we’ll be flitting through different time periods throughout our time with Odyssey. Will we be advancing through time in a similar fashion to PS1 classic Ape Escape? Nobody knows yet, but there’s one thing I can say for darn sure: th💛e sight of a T-Re𓆉x with a teeny Mario hat on its head was something we all sorely needed in our lives.

14 Hate: Can You Guess The Plot? Can You?

Again, I know. When it comes to Mario titles, it’s a little unfair to expect Dan Brown levels of plo💞tting; convoluted character development, a double agent or two, and cliffhangers out the wazzoo. We know how this stuff goes: Bowser’s up to something nefarious, he steals Peach away, Mario hauls ass after her. That’s the way it will be, the way it must be, and the way it should be.

So let’s make our peace with that right now. Even having said that, though, there’s a level of cheesy theatrics about Odyssey on that score. What’s all this theater business about? Does Bowser really need to be putting on a play to marry Peach, like he’s Count Olaf of A Series of Unfortunate Events? What’s⛦ with that top hat? The world may never know.

13 Learned: Hat’s The Way (Uh Huh, Uh Huh) I Like It (Uh Huh, Uh Huh)

The first thing you probably noticed about the Super Mario Odyssey promo material is… well, that hat. ꩲFor reasons best known to Nintendo, Mario’s hat is alive and kicking this time around, sporting a pair of eyes and a life of its own.

We knew this off the bat, really, as the game’s first in-depth trailer back at the start of the year showed this kooky feature. What wasn’t clear from that two-and-a-half minute clip was just how central the hat theme would be to Odyssey. From the simple jumps and tricks we’ve already seen the main man perform using his new headgear, Nintendo has reached a whole new plateau in terms of level design and platformer puzzle solving. If you thought some of Mario Sunshine’s sans Fludd leve🦋ls were fiendish, you’d better🌺 buckle up for this one.

12 Hate: Mario’s Cheesy Oddjob Impression

Speaking of Mario’s FLUDD (Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device, trivia fans), though, I can’t help but sense a faint whiff of gimmickry here. While Super Mario Sunshine was a much-loved series installment, there were some who thought that the FLUDD 🤡was a bit of💧 a gimmick, something new introduced for the sake of it being new.

I’m getting a similar feeling here. I’m super hyped for Odyssey, as so many fans are, but this whole hat motif does seem a slightly odd concept to be pushing so hard. Bowser in his top hat. Enemies in hats. Mario’s hat is alive. He flies around, as we’ve seen, in a gigantic hat spaceship. I’m not sure how much hat is too much hat, but we’re probably getting perilously close here. As Resident Evil’s Albert Wesker once said, “Complete. Hat. Saturation.”

11 Learned: Mario’s Super Short/Everyone Else Is Super Tall

I know, I totally get it. This is a difficult one to judge, with Mario’s abi𝕴lity to grow and shrink by taking magical substances like it’s Alဣice in freakin’ wonderland. Nevertheless, the fact remains. If we’re safe in the assumption that Mario is one of the Mushroom Kingdom’s few resident humans, then he seems to be one tiny, tiny dude.

Odyssey marks one of the few times that he’s been brought face to face with true, regular, Earth-humans. As the trailers have shown, they tower over him like an Ent taking his pet dwarf-baby for a walk. Curious indeed. Is it just because he isn’t in his mega mushroom f𝓡orm? Is that the true standard by which Mario’s height is measured? How would Luigi measure up?

10 Hate: Sonic Speed!

Now, this, I don’t know what to make of. My younger nineties-self wants to cheer and cry simultaneously (now that’s an awk💖ward thing to envisage).

Generally, Mario’s the kind of guy who sticks to his guns. He’s got his crop of moves and he sticks to them, like the stubborn chubby dude we love. All platform heroes are like that; from Crash Bandi𓃲coot and his spin attack to Spyro the Dragon and his flame breath. Or, you know, so I used to think.

Hey, Mario, Sonic called. He wants his patented spin dash back. Right from our first glimpse of Odyssey, we’ve known that Mario came packing this new move. The animation is almost identical to the blue s꧋peedster’s own, and I think Sonic’s weird anthropomorphic hedgehog lawyers are going to have something to say about this.

9 Learned: It’s Like Our World, But Different

Everything about the game, from its globe logo to its title and sense of freedom, suggests that this is Mario taking his biggest leap yet. As we know, the guy has traveled whole star systems in Mario Galaxy and its sequel, so that’s one holy hell꧋ of a boast to make.

Galaxy’s grand scale is quite an act to follow, the team was surely wondering how they could make things yet bigger. The answer, some thought, was that the game might be set in our own world (or a bizarre Mushroom Kingdom take on it, at any rate). And so we arrive in New Donk City, a great metropolis world clearly inspired by a certain little town on Manhatten Island. Despite that, though, wꦍe’ve also seen a Candyland world that looks more like something Homer Simpson would daydream about than anything I’ve ever known on Earth.

8 Hate: Those Devious Teasers

Darn it, Nintendo. We know you don’t want to shoot your bolt too early and show us everything you’ve got under your skirt straight away, like Marilyn Monroe standing over that steam grate in The Seven Year Itch. We get that. That’s how you stoke♔ the Hype Train uജp to fever pitch.

Still, though. Give us something, damn it. Odyssey is the biggest deal of the Switch’s early life. It🍸 might be the most hype game the system ever sees. Stop with the teasing and get to the pleasing, already.

Nintendo’s trailers and gameplay showcases have been perfectly pitched to just hint at some of the game’s cooler new aspects. How does that fancy new 𒊎hat shop work? Will there be more mounts, and will each of them behave differently? Even after today’s E3 show, we have many more questions than answers.

7 Learned: Damn, It’s Pretty

There’s one thing we certainly can’t knock Odyssey for. When I first got my hands on Super Mario Galaxy,꧂ I was amazed by the level of detail and the lush and varied environments (I was afraid the whole thing would come with the bitter tang of ‘generic space-y’ flavour). Mario’s big Wii outing boasted gorgeous and grand presentation throughout, not to mention that beautiful orchestral soundtrack.

For his Switch debut, then, Nintendo had to pull out all of those stops again. From everything we’ve seen so far, they’ve certainly delivered in a big way. The detailing is, for a Mario title, quite extraordinary. Every individual hair on his mustache can be seen (as perfect and manly as Tom Selleck’s it is too), and his bulbous nose looks to have better jiggle physics than every pair of boobs in Dead or Alive and Soul Calibur combined.

6 Hate: Mechanically, Not Too Much Has Changed

As we’ve already said, platform heroes don’t tend to be very big on the whole ‘revolution’ thing. Donkey Kong, the very first game to ever feature Jumpman (as he was known then), was released in 1981. Over 35 years later, you really can’t expect to teach an old mascot any new🦩 tricks.

In the big Odyssey reveal back in January, the scant gameplay footage we saw showed off all of Mario’s favorite moves. His long jump and triple jump were present and correct, as was to be expected. At E3 2017 earlier today, much more of the game was showcased, and hat-flingin’ good times aside, it’s remarkable how si🐷milar the game is to previous 3D entries mechanics-wise. Perhaps this brave new era of Mario isn’t𝓡 quite as new or brave as it might have been.