In January of this year, Nintendo held a special broadcast that put the Nintendo Switch and its first year of software on full display. It was during that presentation that we got our very first glimpse of Super Mario Odyssey.

Here’s the trailer that debuted. Things got jarring around the 30-second mark.

The livestream reactions, the rapid fire Twitter conversation, message boards and comment sections all lit up with a similar theme: “What is Mario doing alongside realistic people? It looks bizarre.”

Those concerns, which may or may not be justified, were shared by the creator of Mario himself, Nintendo Fellow Shigeru Miyamoto. Here he is with IGN on the creation of New Donk City, that area of the game.

“I was worried about how players would react to being in a world where Mario is this tall and normal people are a little bit taller. Or the fact that people don’t get mad at Mario when he’s jumping up and down all over the place… But with all that said, I think I realized that the character Pauline has already existed, and the idea of this game taking place in the city worked out really well. And so we ran with it.”

Ultimately, we won’t know how that area jives with the rest of the experience until Super Mario Odyssey actually releases and we play through it. The game will hit the Nintendo Switch on October 27, 2017.

Use a chess clock to keep track of move and play times
Tick tock

Use a chess clock to keep track of move and play times

These chess clocks feature dual clocks for players to control their own timers, and loud alarms so everyone knows when time is up. These clocks can be used for other 2-person games, like checkers, that may benefit from a game timer.