‘Super Mario Odyssey’ Is About To Turn the Mario Series Upside-Down

Lurking beneath the kaleidoscopic bustle of Super Mario Odyssey, Nintendo's tentpole 3D Mario for its Switch game system, due October 27, is something counterintuitively pacific. The game in motion is vibrant and frenetic, angular and elastic, a potpourri of gameplay ideas whizzing and bopping like something unleashed from a crazed chemistry experiment.

Freeze frame and the game betrays other aspirations.