Is our beloved video game character telling the tale of a mid-life crisis? In the lead-up to the October 27 release of Super Mario Odyssey, it has been revealed that he is no longer a plumber, and not only has Mario taken up grooming moustaches, he seems to have abandoned his modesty, too, and is totally fine with revealing his beach body.

Mario without his shirt on is Nintendo telling us that he’s just a human like the rest of us. Besides, wouldn’t it have been weirder if the plucky plumber didn’t have any?

When I initially came across the rumour that Nintendo and Ubisoft had gotten together to make a Super Mario/Raving Rabbids crossover game I chose to ignore it.

The very idea of the letting the trite, irritating humour that defines the latter company’s screaming mascots into Mario’s Mushroom Kingdom just felt like a bad idea to me. I was wrong! Not only is Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle actually a pretty good game, the mascots I rejected before even seeing manage to steal the show!