It's been quite a while since a proper Mario game has left me genuinely surprised. While almost always enjoyable, the past half-decade or so of the series has generally delivered a suite of things comprised solely of my own personal assumptions. Not since the original Super Mario Galaxy in 2007 has Nintendo blindsided me with the unexpected. So you can probably imagine how pleased I was to get my hands on a small slice of Super Mario 3D World and walk away genuinely surprised in the best possible way.

A World to Explore

Loading Part of the reason I consider Super Mario World to be one of the finest games of all time is due to its impeccable sense of place thanks to its wonderful, evolving world map. Making your way around the island, transforming the world and building new paths, and ultimately being able to step back and view your progress as a giant mosaic makes replaying the game a complete joy even two decades later.

Super Mario 3D World harnesses the same sense of map-based scale and exploration as its SNES predecessor, but gives things a 21st century spin by allowing you to go off the beaten path and move freely around the map while in-between stages. The map is presented from a top-down isometric perspective, and is filled with levels, shops, enemies, coins, and even secrets that we weren't able to uncover in our brief hands-on time. From what we've seen, the world is populated by at least seven different islands, which you'll seemingly visit in a counterclockwise fashion starting from the bottom. So it's like the Australian version of Super Mario World's map. Yeah, we'll go with that.

Embracing the Old...

Loading After spending about an hour with Super Mario 3D World, I found that the game it seems to draw from most aside from its pair of namesakes is actually the original Super Mario Galaxy. Much about the flow of the game, from the relatively bite-sized chunks of environment, to the way that you could often see off into the distance to where your eventual destination would be screamed of the Wii's 2007 hit. But while I did enjoy my time in each of the five different stages we were allowed to play, I still can't help but long for the vast, open, and mysterious environments of Mario 64 and Sunshine. I miss being tossed into the middle of a location without a finish line in sight, and being able to wander and explore in whichever direction I desired.

Nostalgic lamentations aside, another welcome homage came in a mid-world fortress stage called "Bowser's Bullet Bill Brigade," a level comprised of a dangerous parade of tanks that brought back fond memories of Super Mario Bros. 3's notoriously difficult 8-1. This slow scroll of a level was filled to the brim with wood tanks, armed goombas, and enough shrapnel to make mincemeat out of Nintendo's iconic heroes. If this is a taste of the challenges the game will throw at us during its early stages, I can't wait to see just how tough 3D World can get.

...But Delivering the New

Loading But while these throwbacks to classic Mario games were certainly welcome, it was 3D World's brand new tricks that left me the most satisfied. One came early on during our first boss fight with Bowser. While I expected to have to battle the villain in some form or another, what I didn't predict was that this fight would take place on a fiery highway, where I would have to run behind Bowser as he drove in a large purple Cadillac, tossing bombs and spilling flaming oil back at me. Yep, you read that right. It was a strange, unexpected, but much appreciated dose of wackiness.

Another new and interesting twist on the old formula came in a level which featured a heavy use of shadows. These were sometimes used as misdirection, such as a giant Piranha Plant's silhouette on a wall turning out to be from a tiny enemy that just happened to be close to a light source. The action also shifted to a purely 2D perspective and had us take control of our shadows in what felt like platforming akin to New Super Mario Bros.. This transition brought shades of the upcoming indie Contrast, which is definitely a good thing and shows that Nintendo has no qualms with thinking outside the box.

Power-Up Bonanza

Loading Mario games are often defined by their signature power-up -- it's hard to separate Super Mario Bros. 3 from the raccoon tail, or Mario 64 from the flying cap. 3D World is no exception, but this time Mario's arsenal of goodies contains a wealth of new toys for us to play with. Aside from the iconic cat suit which was highlighted in the initial E3 2013 trailer, the most surprising new power-up was the double cherry, an item which added a cloned copy of your character whenever you stumbled upon a piece of fruit. Each copy is controlled in unison, and there seemed to be no limit to the amount of duplications we could conjur. By the end of one level, we were controlling five separate Luigi's, all of which jumped, shouted, and shot fireballs in horrifying/mesmerizing unison.

Other power-ups we encountered in our brief time with the game included a cannon we could wear and fire off explosive shells to our heart's content, and a sleeping Piranha Plant which we could pick up and use as a carnivorous vacuum cleaner across all of Bowser's minions. And though we didn't encounter it in our playthrough, a new trailer highlighted a Goomba costume which Mario could wear and use to sneak around an enemy compound without being detected. Whether these novel boons are tethered to very specific scenarios, or can be taken into any level you desire ala Super Mario Bros. 3 remains to be seen.

Multiplayer Mayhem

Loading But perhaps the most surprising thing I encountered in my time with Super Mario 3D World came when we decided to replay a handful of the levels in multiplayer. What struck me here was just how different each stage felt when an additional three players were added to the fracas. This change came primarily as a tonal shift -- where my single-player time with each stage rolled out in a methodical, exploratory fashion, multiplayer was a much more chaotic and competitive affair.

Once four of us were dropped into a level, the game immediately turned into a race to see who could reach the finish line first. The reason for this being that 3D World keeps track of each player's score -- every coin collected and enemy defeated adds to your personal final total. But the biggest bump in points came from claiming the highest spot on the flagpole at the end of a stage, and once the first character has passed this finish line, the rest only have a few moments before their time is up. Whomever has the most points is awarded a crown which they will actually wear in the next level. If they get first a second time in a row, then they'll be given additional rewards; sadly, we never got to see these, because we were too busy screwing each other over to actually have someone finish on top twice in a row. Not working together to find out the reward may have hurt this preview a bit, but man oh man did it feel good.

Loading Be sure to watch the new trailer Nintendo released as part of its announcements today.

Marty Sliva is an Associate Editor at IGN. Super Mario World for SNES might be the single game which he considers himself "best" at. Follow him on Twitter @McBiggitty and on IGN.