I spent over an hour playing the insane and delightful 'Super Mario Odyssey,' Nintendo's huge next game

Here's hoping Nintendo is working double-time on making more of its new Nintendo Switch consoles available for this holiday. When "Super Mario Odyssey" arrives on October 27, and word starts getting around that it's the freshest, craziest, most ambitious new Mario game in years, people are going to want the Switch. It's going to be a thing once again.

Like "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" before it, "Super Mario Odyssey" will sell Nintendo Switch consoles. It's easy to understand why.

Super Mario Odyssey

More than just adorable, which it obviously is, "Super Mario Odyssey" is a breath of fresh air for the Mario franchise.

It takes classic 3D Mario gameplay and puts a bunch of new spins on the old formula. The new game is a spiritual successor to classics like "Super Mario 64" and "Super Mario Sunshine," with huge, open worlds to explore — like New Donk City, in the "Metro Kingdom," seen above.

What makes "Odyssey" unique is that in enables you to play as nearly anything — including enemies — by throwing your hat at them. This is how Mario becomes, say, Bullet Bill:

Super Mario Odyssey

Though it's a novel trick, "Super Mario Odyssey" is much more than a one-trick pony. I spent over an hour exploring three huge areas in the next major Mario game at a recent event, and I have a bounty of information to share.

SPOILER WARNING: I'm going to speak about specific "Super Mario Odyssey" gameplay from the final version of the game. If you want nothing spoiled, turn back!

Then again, this is a "Super Mario" game, so the real delight comes from playing the game — it's hard to spoil the sheer joy of nailing a long jump. You'll probably be fine.

Perhaps the most important thing you should know: "Super Mario Odyssey" feels like a Mario game. Running, leaping, backflipping and wall-jumping as Mario is as "tight" as ever.

In the brief time I spent with "Super Mario Odyssey" last week, I was pulling off long jumps and backflips in no time flat. As ever, playing a new "Super Mario" game is the video game equivalent of riding a new bike. It might feel new, but the fundamentals are still rock solid.

Before you start throwing your cap at stuff and playing the game as, say, a Hammer Bro, the basic act of exploration with Mario is better than ever in "Odyssey." If you've done it in a previous Mario game, you can do it in "Odyssey" — from the triple jump first introduced in "Super Mario 64" to the wall jumping first introduced in "New Super Mario Bros."

"Super Mario Odyssey" is essentially the sum of all previous Mario games, like so many Mario games before it.

What's so immediately impressive about "Odyssey" is how that level of control translates to the many things Mario can become. "Super Mario Odyssey" is essentially a Mario game with dozens of playable characters.

Whether I was controlling a stack of Goombas in an attempt to woo a female Goomba (seriously) or swimming through the water as an adorable fish with a mustache (seriously), playing as the game's many "capturable" things is truly fresh and exciting.

Just as you might imagine, there are boss fights built around using characters that aren't Mario — that can only be defeated using characters that aren't Mario. The same thing applies to puzzles. I found myself wondering how to solve this or that, applying the usual set of tools that Mario comes with. The solution, nearly every time, was "throw your cap."

I'm oversimplifying of course, but here's an example:

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