A few years ago, I wrote an opinion piece praising Mario as the “king of reboot”. My argument was that, even though Mario may be seen as a brand that doesn’t change much through the years, it is in fact Nintendo’s most successful gameplay laboratory. A franchise that doesn’t care about holding on to its own ideas, rather leaving plenty of space for inventiveness at every new title.

That was just before Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World, the games that ditched the full-3D levels of the acclaimed Galaxy titles in order to try a new approach to level design, one that could well have taken place between Super Mario World and Super Mario 64.

The fact is, Mario never stops changing. Sure, stomping enemies is a constant, but the moving parts change a lot. In the 80’s, it’s 2D platforming and virtually inventing game feel. Then, the franchise sets the paradigm for 3D play. Mario’s at one time punching and kicking, and a couple years later ditches that in favor of an over-the-shoulder water shooter. Then the series messes around with gravity, changes the basic interaction to spinning, and scrapes the open maps for linear pathways on floating platforms. Now it throws out the latest conventions again and goes open-world, at the same time letting you morph into objects in the stage. That’s not even touching on the western Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario World 2, unusual sequences in the least.

Word has been out that “Mario is not a plumber anymore”. With Super Mario Odyssey, Mario finally admits his role as, above all, a platform for play. Someone that can turn not only into a plumber, a racer or a tennis player, but a frog, a fish, a chef, a tank, a cab and a spark. Mario is Mr. Videogames himself.

Unlike Master Chief (Mr. Shooter), Kratos (Mr. Slasher) or even Link (Mr. Hero), Mario can take on the role of pretty much anything, much as any of us players when sitting in front of a console. And it’s sure to be fun.

This time around, he even walks among regular people with a curious look as if saying, “you humans are a bunch of strange folks”. And you, Mr. Videogames, are awesome. The Internet fretted at Mario having a different look than the people of New Donk City. Well, people is people. Mario is a videogame. Like it’s always been. The place where Mario is a real person like any other is the movie with Bob Hoskins and Dennis Hopper as mould dino Bowser. Careful what you wish for.

The thing is, as edgy as the next triple-A blockbuster may seem, there’s plenty of dated game design going around. And while the next big graphical leap or connectivity paradigm depend on incremental upgrades in technology, advances in game design depend largely on how we perceive the current state of play, and the occasional breakthroughs that come with that. The former represent advancements in science, the latter represents advancements in language.

We’re used to see sequences or reboots as products that are basically the same game in a different setting, with a new plot and improved visuals. That’s evolving, changing, in a medium whose moves are largely compared with cinema. Game design improvements, or even leaps for that matter, are not as easy a sell.

Luckily, we seem to have in Nintendo, among others, this drive to evolve the medium of play. A drive to scrap the has-been-successes and reboot the core interactions every couple years. While the plot in any Mario game is a variation on the same ordinary rescue mission, and the art direction tends to maintain the cutesy, familiar style (no edgy gangster cousin), they leave space for the gameplay to try something new. I think that’s something to be praised, mainly when you look around the triple-A landscape and the biggest design advances seem to be on ways to get an extra buck after a premium sell.

Mario is a symbol for videogames and the lexics of play at their finest, as much now as in 1996 and 1985. It’s also an ever-changing franchise that reinvents itself and in doing so sets the paradigms of game feel and fun for years to come. It surprisingly manages to do that while being perceived as a classic, familiar brand that’s “always the same” and has a guaranteed sell. Not an easy feat.

Thanks, Nintendo and Mario, for the years of delightful moments and masterful teaching. I can’t wait to see what you come up with next.