Super Mario Odyssey (2017)
19 min read
“Above all, video games are meant to be just one thing: Fun for everyone.”
-Satoru Iwata
Super Mario has enjoyed one of the longest running and most successful careers in gaming history. Though not consistently revered, Mario has left an imprint on not just gaming culture but on world culture, befitting an icon recognized across ethnic, linguistic, and generational divides. He is the best representation of what Nintendo is all about. Heās featured in many titles that have been met with critical acclaim. Heās survived every downturn his company has suffered. Heās an emblem of the joy and magic of gaming.
The latest culmination of this legacy is Super Mario Odyssey, a game which feels familiar and fresh at the same time. It has been rightfully called the true sequel toĀ Super Mario 64. What Mario 64Ā got right in terms of turning three-dimensional game space into an enduring and addicting adventure about collecting stars, Odyssey builds on and masters. Odyssey is an instant classic set at a grand scale, one which Nintendo purportedly hopes will become a perennial title, and likely that will be the case.
This is what you get when a series has the opportunity to refine and polish itself to a brilliant shine for over thirty years.
MILD SPOILERSTUFFS AHEAD
Super Mario Odyssey, in formulaic fashion, begins with our hero chasing down his archnemesis Bowser in an attempt to rescue Princess Peach from his clutches. This has been Marioās life story but the difference here is that Bowser has at last revealed his true intentions: the Koopa King is planning to wed the Princess. Gross, but cāmon, we knew this all along.
Mario confronts Bowser atop an airship fortress, the Koopa King clad in his white tuxedo and top hat. Their battle is resplendent but Mario is foiled and knocked senseless, hurtling downward through the clouds to whatever lies below. He just so happens to land in the Cap Kingdom and heās met by the appropriately named Cappy, a shapeshifting specter who takes the forms of hats. All is not well in the Cap Kingdom, however. Bowserās quest for unholy matrimony has carried him on a conquest through the kingdoms of the world, plundering priceless treasures and artifacts for his big day.
Bowser has hat-napped Cappyās sister Tiara from the Cap Kingdom, for the Princessās bridal headgear, so Cappy and Mario decide to join forces, pursue Bowser and Peach across the kingdoms, and present their formal reason why those two should not be wed rather than forever hold their peace. Theyāve a wedding to crash but while everything is sunshine and roses (since this is a Mario game), the going will not be easy. Bowser has enlisted the Broodals, a quartet of leporine wedding planners, to appropriate the treasures of the kingdoms and stop Mario in his tracks.
Odyssey represents the fullest vision of Marioās world that weāve ever seen as he and Cappy go globe-trotting from region to fanciful region. There are many such regions, including but not limited to Bonneton the Cap Kingdom (evocative of England), Tostarena in the Sand Kingdom (representative of Mexico), Shiveria in the Snow Kingdom (the Arctic), and New Donk City in the Metro Kingdom (referencing the US of A).
Each of these fantastical visions of real world cultures provide unique backdrops for Marioās explorations. They make you feel like youāre seeing the world alongside the hero in his airship modeled after a hot air balloon, Ć la Jules Verneās Le Tour du Monde en Quatre-Vingts Jours, undoubtedly. Each kingdom is filled with fun and colorful characters for Mario to aid, as well as tons and tonsā¦ and tons of secrets to find.
Chief of these are the Power Moons.
Power Moons are the energy sources of this world. They power cities and Mario and Cappyās airship, the Odyssey. Mario is initially tasked with hunting down a set amount of Power Moons in order to fuel the Odysseyās voyage, and then with each subsequent journey to another kingdom more Moons will have to be found in order to reach the next.
This structure of completing miniature challenges, puzzles, and platforming sections in order to collect items that open up more of the game is directly lifted fromĀ Super Mario 64, where originally the collectibles were stars, and OdysseyĀ constantly reminds you of this connection referentially. Where Mario 64Ā included just over a handful of discoverable stars per area, accessible through magic paintings, as youāll recall, Odyssey includes many more Power Moons in comparison. Though each sandbox region isnāt that large (nowhere near as huge as the playground of Breath of the Wild), there are some kingdoms that contain as many as 60 Power Moons, with even more to be found post-game.
The fact that Nintendo made virtually zero embellishments to this gameplay loop of collecting items to unlock more areas to collect more items shows off the Big Nās confidence in the system, bolstered no doubt by the rousing success of every past iteration this loop has seen. The ājust one more starā mentality fromĀ Super Mario 64, wherein you unlocked new rooms and passageways in Peachās Castle, was reinforced again in Super Mario Galaxy where Power Stars had to be obtained in order to reach new galaxies. Here it is utilized again on a larger scale and the only difference is Odyssey is concerned with Power Moons, not Power Stars.
The sheer quantity of the Moons tucked into each kingdom in Super Mario Odyssey is alone impressive. I made no to-do about checking the list of Moons as I went along. I merely discovered what I could, completed the little story segment in each region and fought the Broodals in order to make it to the end of the main game as quickly as possible. There was, after all, the marital status of Princess Peach at stake.
When I completed the game and prepared to go back to clean up and find all the Power Moons I missed, I was floored at how many Iād left behind. Both Super Mario 64Ā and Super Mario Galaxy contained a total of 120 stars. Super Mario Odyssey has nearly nine times that amount in Moonsā¦ clocking in at a whopping 900 plus.
With so many to find, the ālevelā doesnāt end and return you to a hub upon finding a Moon (excepting the Moons from the kingdomsā bosses). Odyssey feels a little more open-world in that regard. Youāre left to explore each region finding whatever Moons you can in whatever order you like, with more unlocked later on.
Most of these Moons, given the shocking amount present, are quite easy to find. Simple things like talking to an NPC, purchasing the local duds, or climbing to the top of a spire will earn you a Moon or several but there are still gruesome trials for the late game Moons. Though the repetitive tasks of chasing down rabbits for Moons or buying them from shopkeepers occupy a lot of space, whatās most impressive is how meaningfully hid a majority of these Moons are. Considering there are more than 900 of them, itās surprising how many of them feel purposeful instead of random. They are indeed scattered across the kingdoms but finding all of them isnāt as simple as just looking around.
One such set of Moons is obtained (spoilers: highlight to reveal) post-game on the Dark Side of the Moon by fighting five Broodal bosses in a row with only one healing heart in sight. The balance of challenging Moons and easy Moons in Odyssey ensure that the game doesnāt feel too easy or too hard. Itās balanced, providing incentive to keep finding more through accessing more worlds and unlocking more goodies in the shops. Yeah you can be sure I kept wanting to find more Moons when I unlocked the (spoilers: highlight to reveal) Wario, Waluigi, Diddy Kong, and polygonal N64 costumes.
It has been said that Super Mario Odyssey is designed to appeal to the core Mario audience, rather than the casual player. Mario games, to my mind, have always attracted fairly casual players, but this aim to please is clearest in the many cameos, references, and old school side-scrolling sections mixed into the game. These are of course a delight but one wonders if Odyssey could have aspired to greater success and truly captured the hearts of millions, as Mario has many times before, if the paradigm had shifted just a little more. Several friends Iāve talked to have expressed that Odyssey didnāt quite click, didnāt quite resonate with them as they expected. Is this due to Nintendo relying too heavily on tried-and-true formula?
Ultimately, my thoughts are that Odyssey is enjoyable but not quite as captivating as its progenitors on the 64, GameCube, and Wii. The magic that Nintendo wields in unparalleled fashion is surely present in Odyssey, though it wears thin in moments that feel especially like all too familiar ground. I expect that this isnāt everyoneās take on the game and the difference of opinion is likely measured in iotas but let it be known that Odyssey doesnāt fundamentally change the Mario formula. Though Bowser marrying Peach seems like the climax of a triple decade history of kidnapping and rescuing, Odyssey doesnāt do for Mario and sandbox-style games what Breath of the Wild did for ZeldaĀ and open-world games earlier this year.
Odyssey doesnāt reinvent through simplicity, it repackages games near and dear to billions of hearts with great success, though the level of attraction that Odyssey can sustain on that front remains to be seen.Ā For those looking for an escapist window back to the games of yesteryear, blown into monolithic proportions, Odyssey will likely make your heart soar. I admittedly experienced that myself during the āJump Up, Super Star!ā sequence in New Donk City.
My goodness, I cannot get that song out of my head.
The 8-bit Review
Ā Visuals: 9/10
Have you ever watched the new release of a Pixar movie at the movie house only to hear your companion say something like: “That was a fun story but the graphics were too kiddie and terrible!” Probably not. If so, you likely need new companions. With films likeĀ Up,Ā The Incredibles,Ā andĀ WALL-EĀ (my favorite) we extend the courtesy of allowing the movie to be moving, to impact us and engage us not in spite of butĀ through the comparatively simplistic visuals. Pixar films do not of course aim for high definition realism most of the time. They’re stylized digital cartoons. I might’ve had a hearty sob at the end ofĀ Toy Story 3 (maybe) and that emotion was carried along by the visuals, not forced through them like an impediment.
One thing which leads me to believe that video games are still in their adolescence, particularly in light of the conversation that surrounds them, is the matter of many players’ obsession with high definition realism as the sole measure of visual quality. Standing back from the statement, surely it’s ludicrous to suggest that a game is great simply because its graphics are realistic. Certainly these kinds of graphics are indicative of the power of the hardware, but that’s not to say that they automatically serve the execution and presentation of their games and accompanying stories better than heavily stylized, simplistic, or cartoonish graphics. Or, as I discussed in myĀ Axiom VergeĀ review, games can opt for the limitations of pixel art in order to give impressions of their characters that the player’s imagination must fill in, a cooperative phenomenon which high definition realism cannot attempt at the same scale. Since games are after all meant to be played, the graphics are then meant to allow the player into the world, not bar them from it. Therein is at least one decent standard for quality graphics.
WithĀ Super Mario Odyssey, I really did think of Pixar as I was playing it. It is gorgeously rendered, full of the life and vibrancy that has filled Mario’s world for decades, though now we’re allowed to see the individual strands of hair in his mustache and the gleams of light catching in his cerulean irises. The cutscenes are exceptionally beautiful though not every moment is visually perfect. There are quite a few regions, textures, shadows, and characters with edges more jagged than you’d perhaps expect. The lighting is particularly garish in the open sunlight of gray-toned New Donk City, for instance, and that place is populated with hordes of ugly PS2-faced plastic people muttering their creepy anti-language.
However, on the whole,Ā OdysseyĀ is a delight to look at. Besides, this is the game that finally gave us Mario nips. That alone will make you thankfulĀ Odyssey isn’t rendered in full HD realism.
Ā Audio: 10/10
Let me immediately embed “Jump Up, Super Star!” for you. We all know it’s the only reason you’re here, unless of course you were already listening to its 10 hour YouTube video on repeat. Highly likely.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELbrDrnTsrM&w=560&h=315]
As astonishing and even a little incongruous as it is that we’re actually hearing a vocal song in a Mario game, it’s impossible to listen to that song without smiling. It’s performed in-game by Mayor Pauline of New Donk City, who is in fact the damsel from the originalĀ Donkey Kong arcade game, and the vocalist who lent her voice in real life is Kate Davis, singer, jazz pianist, voice actress of Sakura inĀ Naruto, Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog, and so on.
There, now that that’s out of the way we can actually talk about the rest of the music. Audio should allow the player into the world, welcome them in, just like the visuals, and I felt that as soon as I hit Cascade Kingdom right after Bonneton. The orchestra swells up into their playful, soaring, adventurous, sprinting melody. I was immediately reminded ofĀ Super Mario Galaxy and how the series turned away from its steel drum and calypso roots to the scope and scale of symphony.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xkQzS2WFAc&w=560&h=315]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqk-nlFinnU&w=560&h=315]
What keeps the style of orchestrated music in post-Galaxy mainline Mario games so distinct (beyond the new chiptune versions that play during side-scrolling sequences, which you can hear above) is the brightness of the music. There seems to be a tendency toward ambient sounds in games with the use of the orchestra, and within that there seems to be another tendency to wield the power of the orchestra to brood and set a dark or pensive mood.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKBjbjZfTiM&w=560&h=315]
WithĀ Odyssey, there’s nearly none of that. The music conveys a kind of energy that makes the player propel Mario forward.Ā Odyssey highlights excitement. You remember… that thing which fades with teenage years and eventually leaves most adults entirely. OdysseyĀ reminds us that it’s exciting to be alive, to be curious, to explore, to see the world and experience wonderful new places and cultures. The ethnic tapestriesĀ OdysseyĀ pulls from encapsulates all of that and the toe-tapping rhythms ensure you catch a sense of what Mario games are all about at their core…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZEiUDTRuHo&w=560&h=315]
Ā Gameplay: 8/10
So whatĀ are Mario games all about? Momentum.
Nearly every Mario game I’ve played has been about momentum, aside from spin offs where he’s driving a cart or a golf club. Often Nintendo fans seems to triumph the values of gameplay over graphics, given the development tendencies of the Big N, so is there a nucleus of valuable gameplay at the heart of Mario games? I would say yes, though that doesn’t alone entirely validate the statement “gameplay over graphics” or mean I ascribe to it, necessarily.
Why the gameplay of Mario works is because it’s invitational. Mario games invite you to run. The presence of timers in early side-scrollers prodded you to run faster. The platforming in the later 3D titles emphasize velocity in order to navigate wide distances. Mario sprints so smoothly and so pleasantly at top speed that slowing for a hazard becomes less and less desirous, especially as the player becomes accustomed to the way Mario handles in each outing, their skill level rising. This is why speed runs of Super Mario games look like such impressive, game-breaking stunts. These games are designed to make you want to play that way, so you’re fighting against your better instincts to play it safe while at the same time craving speed. Though it is Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario’s 90’s rival, who capitalized on this aspect of gameplay in platforming, it is Mario who maintained the balance of interesting level design, dangers, and room enough to explore, backtrack, slow to a crawl and reach top speed at will.
Mario games are secondarily about variables in platforming. This hearkens all the way back to the firstĀ Super Mario Bros. with its introduction of unique power ups such as the Big Mushroom to add an extra hit point and environmental damage, the Super Star for invincibility, and the Fire Flower for projectile offense. The Super Mario games have built on the concept of variations since: flight came withĀ Super Mario Bros. 3, the devouring steed Yoshi hatched inĀ Super Mario World, 3D platforming entered the arena inĀ Super Mario 64, the concept of gravity shifts messed with our minds inĀ Super Mario Galaxy. There have been suits and power ups and items galore since Mario’s inception and now there’s Cappy inĀ Odyssey.
Mario’s jumping and leaping move set isn’t dramatically changed from what we’ve seen in his previous 3D adventures but he can now throw Cappy like a boomerang off his head. Cappy can interact with environments to smash obstacles to unveil coins, or collect coins. He can even provide a temporary platform for Mario to bounce off of, but the Cappy mechanic which is most significant is when he’s used to CAPture (heh) enemies. The game calls it capturing but it’s essentially possession. Remember, Cappy is a ghostly entity, and Mario games have a history of flirting with the creepy and even the macabre on occasion.
Everything is instantly more adorable with a Mario mustache.
Captured enemies are controlled by the player and come with their own unique abilities, whether that’s jumping higher than ever as a frog or blasting through the air as a bullet bill or firing your cannon as a tank. I had a conversation with a coworker fairly recently about how Mario has been translated into so many different genres and now that he can inhabit tanks I guess he’s also touched third-person shooters, as well. Encountering and capturing enemies provide a ton of unique variations for the gameplay, though I could wish the enemy population was much more dense so that choice-making was less confined to solving individual puzzles and platforming linearly.
One of the best moments in the game comes at the end when Mario (spoilers:Ā highlight to reveal) captures Bowser in order to escape the Moon. I was on cloud nine that whole time.
The big thorn in the side ofĀ Odyssey’sĀ gameplay is its reliance upon motion controls, that persistent relic from the Nintendo Wii. Here, the motion controls are less front and center, and you’re fortunately not required to point a remote at the screen the whole time, but they are still unreliable and thoughĀ OdysseyĀ presents them as optional, that’s really not the case.
When starting up the game, you’re treated to a screen that welcomes you to “try playing with detached Joy-Con controllers”. Doing so is comfortable (in the proper seating arrangement) and the set up allows you to access unique motion control features like throwing Cappy with a wave of a Joy-Con and causing him to home in on enemies. You’ll miss often otherwise. This, and a few other features, are too convenient to play the game without them, all but forcing you to “try” these “optional” controls.
The problem is that it shoots the Switch in the foot. The Nintendo Switch was marketed on its versatility. You could play it on your tele. You could play it in the car. You could play it on the loo.Ā Super Mario Odyssey was marketed as a flagship title for the Switch, one of the biggest exclusives of 2017, but rather than show off the versatile features ofĀ Nintendo’s handheld/console hybrid,Ā OdysseyĀ is built to confine you to one specific mode of play with detached Joy-Cons. You cannot competently play it in handheld mode. Shaking the entire tablet to get Cappy to home in on enemies does not make for an enjoyable experience. This is less stupid when playing with the Joy-Cons connected together, though shaking an entire traditional controller immediately seems inappropriate.
I therefore had to playĀ Super Mario Odyssey on TV mode with detached Joy-Cons the entire time. I didn’t have much other choice. On my lunch breaks, I chose to enjoy other titles in handheld mode while sitting in my car. Not only does the return of and reliance upon motion controls seem somewhat antiquated,Ā stillĀ clumsy, even for the ambidextrous and capable Joy-Cons, they actually limit the capabilities of the Switch itself. That’s just no good, especially for one of the biggest games to hit the Switch in its launch year, typically the kind of game that would demonstrate the hardware’s capabilities, not detract from them.
But hey, at least there’s an awesome photo mode! Love that SNES filter.
Ā Accessibility: 10/10
The thing about motion controls that leans toward the positive at least is that they generally tend to feel intuitive. Shaking a Joy-Con to get Mario to spin-throw Cappy felt like an extension of my consciousness more so than if a shake made Mario jump. The developers did seem to attempt to dial in to some kind of muted second fiddle for the place of motion controls, though the game’s recommendation of them is more like a requirement. Otherwise, I don’t see how a Mario game with this kind of singular focus narratively, mechanically, structurally could be at all inaccessible, especially considering most of us have played a Mario game at some point in our lives andĀ Odyssey presents itself as a natural extension of the platforming that has come before it.
Speaking of which, the 2D side-sequences are a surefire pleasure. I’ve never seen anything quite like this before. It’s a nice callback to Mario’s 8-bit origins but it’s implemented in such a way that it feels like an organic progression of the level design.
Ā Challenge:Ā 8/10
The majority ofĀ Odyssey’sĀ content lies after the credits roll and it is there that you’ll find some deeply worrisome challenges. It took me quite a while to best the quintet of bosses but besides that there are several platforming trials that I just couldn’t complete. I left and decided to come back later.Ā OdysseyĀ is far from the hardest Super Mario game ever released but you’ll probably need a guide if you plan to 100% this beast.
Ā Replayability: 10/10
With just short of a thousand Moons to find,Ā OdysseyĀ is the biggest Mario game yet. I’m not sure they’d ever even want to go bigger as collecting that many Moons becomes quite daunting, if not tedious, by the end of the game. I do love how much post-game content there is: more kingdoms to discover, more content to unlock, more secrets to find, more costumes to buy. One such costume costs 9999 coins. Yeah I’ll have that by 2018. No, really. I expect that I shall. That’s because at the time of this writing I’ve got about 450 Moons, so I’m going to still be collecting a lot more coins as I collect a lot more Moons.
Purple coins are other collectibles to keep an eye out for. They represent local currency that are kingdom-specific. These are used for special costumes, such as those which are necessary for grabbing all the Moons. I don’t know why, but dressing up Mario is one of the best parts about this game. It was one of the first things I wanted to do in each kingdom. Don’t pretend like a zuit suit Mario doesn’t tantalize you!
Ā Uniqueness: 8/10
Nintendo is constantly fighting a war with itself between innovation and formula. Both attributes are clearly visible across their history. While they constantly emphasize new ways to play, they also consistently rely on their previous successes, often with little to no changes. This ensures some measure of success but I’m sure it also accounts for why some folks believe they’re stuck in the past.
The Cap Kingdom and Cappy are great additions to the magical Mario universe. Capturing enemies is an interesting way to bring in the variables for this quest. I don’t know ultimately how appealing and how persevering Cappy will be in the Mario mythos (I’m guessing this will be unique toĀ Odyssey) but it’s just one more slight embellishment to a franchise which hasn’t evolved much over time. Again,Ā Odyssey feels quite new while at the same time never leaving the safety of the kiddie pool.
Ā My Personal Grade: 9/10
While Odyssey may be the perfect sandbox Mario game to some, I hesitate to call it a true masterpiece. Motion controls that stick it to the Switch aside, it is no small wonder that Mario is Nintendoās leading character, their Superman, their Mickey Mouse, their Bugs Bunny. Yet unlike so many leading characters throughout entertainment history, Mario has not fallen to the wayside. Not yet, if ever. He has proven that he is malleable. He can be reinterpreted again and again and again in dozens of different settings and genres.Ā OdysseyĀ is not the all-consuming shock-and-awe masterwork that I feltĀ Breath of the WildĀ to be for Zelda, but it’s an enjoyable, delightful, happy,Ā fun little/big distraction from the real world. That’s exactly what games should be.
Hats off to Nintendo.
Aggregated Score:Ā 9.0
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Hi Well Red! Lord C here! (It Begins!)
So, 1stly, quality stellar work as always, very well done & hooray.
But now, to business:
SM64thruGalaxy2=All Awesome!!! (Exceptin Sunshine, but we covered that! *Grins*)
I’m heavily interested, like always, in buyin this (& a switch obvs!) like always (still haven’t started Galaxy1 or 2 0r Super Paper Mario (Wii) & nowhere near finishing Smash Bros Brawl (haven’t even bought Smash Bros Wii-u yet *Sobs*) but, unlike Sunshine, I don’t feel like Odyssey’ll let me down like sun did, especially hearin how you describe it (heard t’song before & yer right, it’s damn catchy! *Grins*)
I look forward to aquirin this (maybe BOTW too!? Even tho as prev mentioned, it scares us with it’s hugeosity! *Gyargle* also, weapon breakin is an arse, dealt wi it in Dark Cloud, didn’t enjoy it then, will not ever in future! *Frowns* But def buyin Xenoblade Chronicles X & Bayonetta 2 on wii-u b4 it/they vanishes/go!)
KUDOS!!! (Onto next comment!)
Great review! I was fortunate enough to receive a Switch as well as Super Mario Odyssey for Christmas, so I’m excited to start playing! I haven’t had much free time since the holidays though, so I’ve been playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe here and there! š
Nice! Congrats on getting the fastest selling console in US history! I love the Switch and MK8D! We should race sometime. We did it once with a bunch of bloggers. Good times!
Cool, that sounds fun! I don’t have super kart racing skillz, but it’s fun to play anyway!
I’ve really enjoyed my time with the game so far. I was a big fan of 64 and enjoyed the subsequent entries, but felt they were missing something (maybe just nostalgia). Odyssey seems to have hit closest to 64 and I’m happy about that.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me! This one seems especially like it’s a game that is catered to those who loved SM64. It’s like just a bigger version of that game with more polish and modern graphics. I think it jumped the games in between and takes its cues most directly from SM64.
900? Holy cap, Batman! That’s a TON of post-game content. I’m in shock.
I actually saw one article last night that mentioned 999 moons? I don’t know what to believe any more. I just broke the 700 barrier last night, so I’ll know for sure soon enough!
I’ve enjoyed it a great deal but I’ve been left, ultimately, a bit disappointed by the lack of stages. 17 of them, several of which barely have anything going on, and many more are rather small and there’s little to explore.
The nature of the game is to pile in and collect those moons, and there’s a vast amount there, but despite loving the opening stages I’ve been left sad to see it’s not turned into the sprawling adventure I was hoping for. It’s quite a condensed experience, but crammed full of fun ideas… but I wish there had been twice the amount of stages with the moons spread across that lot.
Still, I’ve had a blast playing it, no denying that, but I’m about to call it quits on it already. Hopefully, some DLC will add more levels.
Conversely, I found the amount of kingdoms pretty great, the amount of moons staggering, but I didn’t like how tiny some of the kingdoms were (Ruined and Nimbus come to mind). Other kingdoms I flat out didn’t enjoy (Lake and Luncheon). I adored the new Bowser castle in this one, for what it’s worth. It would have been interesting to see Nintendo embrace a full on open-world Mario with this gameplay structure, though the progression aspect would probably be too contrary. Luigi DLC, ftw!
Odyssey is absolutely āfull of lifeā and had that ājust one more starā mentality that you mentioned. Unfortunately I have not found the connection you mentioned to the GC or Wii games, but itās interesting how reviews are all over the place in that regard. Everyone generally seems to love the game and the reviews speak for themselves but what is all over the board is this connection!
It was a bit more of an acquired taste for me, as the black and white kingdom was kind of a depressing opening. The vibrant colors fading into view in the next kingdom did it for me but really took a few more levels to feel like I was playing the successor to Super Mario 64.
Where Odyssey absolutely murders it (in the good way) is in the post-game. The whole game youāve just finished in Story mode gets new life breathed into it, and you can spend 5 minutes or 5 hours running around getting dozens and dozens of Moons. Itās got that momentum you speak about, in spades. Itās the perfect collect-a-thon to this Mario guy from way back who has been unimpressed with the 3D installments since Sunshine!
On a side note, Iāve found great success with the Pro Controller and with the console held normally in handheld mode, even with the handheld controls. Shaking the whole console feels a little awkward but you get used to it fast. Personally Iāve never tried the āmanufacturers suggested controller setupā because my opinions on the convenience of motion controls are on par with my opinions on yelling FIRE on airplanes. In short, Iām against them. Call me old school or whatever.
Iāve made my opinions on Breath of the Wild widely known, but the one area where I see varying opinion will be whether Odyssey helped out the 3D Mario franchise moreso than Breath of the Wild helped the 3D Zeldas. Hmm!
Great review as always, Well-Red Mage! Glad to get back into the āreading long game reviewsā thing, this was an awesome one to get back into it with š
Mah boi! So good to see you back in action! I hope you enjoyed your special time and experience some real marital happiness! Thanks for checking out this review. I saw you were playing it as well. I’ll try to take up a couple points.
I think any connections between Odyssey and its predecessors is vague evolution at best, something you can see increase in scale with each game, beyond it essentially just being a bigger version of SM64 and Galaxy. Same gameplay structure and all. With one of the secret post-game worlds, it seems the connection with SM64 was what they had in mind most. The post-game is indeed where it’s at! Did you not enjoy the Galaxy games?
One thing I forgot to mention was how there were a few kingdoms in the game I hated playing (similar to my experience with SM64 back in the day). I didn’t like the Lake Kingdom, for instance, and I also felt that the Cap Kingdom was a drab, Tim Burtonesque way to open a game like this.
Awesome review!
I am loving Odyssey, but I agree with you that there are some punctual issues here and there that stop it from being the Mario franchise’s equivalent to Breath of the Wild.
Thank you for reading! What would you say is the biggest thing that prevents Odyssey from being Marioās Breath of the Wild?
It’s a wonderful game with excellent level design, but I don’t think it raises the bar for the franchise as a whole.
It’s a subjective matter of awe-inspiring gameplay twists. I think that when it comes to the open-ended segments (the kingdoms themselves) Mario Odyssey beats both 64 and Sunshine with a certain ease, dare I say. But when it comes to its more linear segments, I do not feel it beats Galaxy and Galaxy 2.
Breath of the Wild, on the other hand, beats all previous Zelda games in terms of overworld design and sidequests while revitalizing the concept of dungeons and the franchise’s storytelling ways.
I think it is a standard to be followed in pretty much all gameplay areas of the Zelda franchise. Odyssey falters a bit on its more linear moments, but that is also because it has some tough-to-beat competition when it comes to that.
Agreed. Odyssey felt like a successor while BotW felt to me like a breath of fresh air. I think my only meaningful complaint against BotW was that there weren’t any massive dungeons. Though definitely, these franchises have a long history of amazing classics so they stand among giants.
Exactly. That’s the difference between them.
I agree regarding BotW’s dungeons, and I also think their interior could have been more aesthetically different: they all looked the same from the inside.
But those are pretty much all my complaints regarding BotW, and I am sort of glad there are a few issues because that means a sequel could be even better!
I almost cracked today, I’ll probably crack soon. I always enjoy the mainline Super Mario games. The Wiimote play doesn’t deter me at all. Honestly, I don’t get the disdain for the Wii’s controllers. They basically brought WASD + Mouse to console. Albeit not quite as good but close. And Nintendo generally makes the most of whatever tech they use so I’m sure I’ll enjoy it fine. Great review!
Are we talking crack as in buying the full Switch system or you already have it and just want Odyssey?
As for motion controls, the Wiimote is ancient compared to the refinement of the Joy-Cons. I’m mostly glad I didn’t have to point a shaky cursor at the screen, otherwise the motion controls are well implemented, they just prevent the Switch from capitalizing on its marketed versatility. I think that Nintendo shouldn’t drop motion controls entirely, as they can provide unique ways to play that traditional controllers can’t, but at the same time it seems like it will take extra effort to cause the Switch and motion controls to truly gel. No handheld mode seemed a bizarre choice.
Getting the console, and the game. š
I doubt youāll be disappointed.
I admit that the first thing I did upon booting up the game was disabling the motion controls. That being said, I thought the game was pretty near perfect for the most part as well. I also gave it a 9 instead of a 10. There’s certainly a lot of replay value here so I’m gonna keep on trying to nab all of the stars until Tuesday. Then Sonic Forces will take the center stage spot away, but I’ll keep playing it on the side. I definitely wouldn’t mind some DLC for this game like new levels and such as long as the prices aren’t crazy or anything.
Luigi DLC! Free-LC is more like it and we’ve seen that from Nintendo. I’d be all in on that.
Aye, that’s about right with Crash. Croc was closer to Spyro and was originally supposed to be a 3D Yoshi game. Odyssey certainly looks more like what I was looking for.
Well then I hope you get to try it. I just reached yet another post-game tier of content tonight and I’m blown away by how much is in this game.
Excellent. That’s got to help immensely in terms of replayability.
I’m almost sold on this, and am tempted to try it out the next time I visit the gaming centre near me. The problem I’m having is that it’s compared so often to Mario 64 … I didn’t actually get on with that. Granted I only played it briefly for the first time this year, and further play may yet occur, but I personally didn’t click with it like I expected. My question then is this: what are the biggest differences between this and 64? Has anything specific been refined and improved upon?
Yeah I’m not sure what my reaction would be to SM64 if I played it for the first time now instead of back in the day, when it was new and magical. The collecting structure is still there but consider these differences: the controls are tighter, the graphics are of course better, the level design is much more intricate and vastly improved, the camera work is lightyears ahead of the clumsiness of early 3D, there’s more of a reliance on referencing classic Mario games past, and the sheer scale of the collectibles means you’ll pick them up quicker and there’s more to do, oh and the Cappy mechanic is a significant improvement on the rather limited powers up comparatively in SM64 (Metal Mario is awesome but you can only find the power up a handful of times). Odyssey is just a perfectly refined game, minus the “optional” detached Joy-Cons mode. It’s not the best game on the Switch imo but it’s a stupefyingly great one.
That’s good. For me, the controls send a little clunky, the camera was a pain, and I want find of the level design in what I played. I think that subconsciously comparing it to the original Spyro, Crash Bandicoot and Croc – which probably had similar issues but are aided by the nostalgia of playing and enjoying them when they were new – didn’t help. It sounds like Odyssey improves nicely on the formula though, which makes it a lot more tempting.
Yeah bearing in mind it’s one of the earliest full 3D platformers, it’s one of the better selections from that era but a lot of early 3D was a huge mess. Heck, I played Epic Mickey years later and it wasn’t much improved in the camera department! I played a little Spyro and I think that’s probably a decent comparison from the era. Crash was like a 2.5D game at some points right? Like side scrolling nearly? SM64 was a milestone and Odyssey refines that so it may be the ticket into that realm that you’re looking for if SM64 was a miss.
I’ve played a lot of games this year, including Breath of the Wild, and this is my favorite by far. It is just a joy to play. And I found that it encourages exploration unlike any of the previous Mario games. The designers really seemed to think about how the player would push the game and reward you for doing it. To me it seemed very much like their approach with BotW, keep exploring there are rewards everywhere, even on top of that thing that serves no purpose but we know you are going to try to get there anyway so have a moon.
To note I didn’t play the game at all in handheld mode, as I generally don’t utilize it as such (although I never played with the joycons detached either, instead opting for a pro-controller) so the motion control aspects never really bothered me but I can totally see where it would be an issue in that mode.
Interesting! What was your biggest complaint against Breath of the Wild? The weapons durability system? That’s what I tend to hear most. With Odyssey, I found the decision to cut into the Switch’s versatility baffling, though that didn’t necessarily impede my direct experience with it other than I couldn’t play it as often as I wanted to. I don’t think it’s doable to play this in handheld mode though haha!
Otherwise my biggest complaint is how repetitive collecting so many Moons eventually becomes. I really want to get all of them but I find my enthusiasm is wearing down. It’s something I’ll keep coming back to hopefully, maybe collect a chunk at a time. The meaningfulness of the hidden secrets that urge you to explore is great, though, like you said. I think Odyssey is amazing but it didn’t grab me as much as Breath of the Wild. It’s up there with the top three games I’ve played on the Switch! š
The durability system is probably my biggest complaint with BotW and my enjoyment of the game probably would be exponentially increased if it had a more traditional weapon upgrade system. That said, I felt there was an aimlessness to much of the game. It is obviously by design, the game wants to you to approach it however you want, but I could have done with a little more direction. It’s one of the reasons I think I prefer Horizon over it.
Anyway back to Mario, I think the main game is easy enough (just getting the requisite power moons to advance) that you could probably finish most of it in handheld mode but anything outside of that is probably a tall order.
How I’m going to approach the end game stuff is that I’ll keep coming back to it over the next few months. Get a few (or not so few) moons in between playing other things (and my gosh do I have a load of other things to play still). I think that will mitigate the repetitiveness of it, kind of like searching for all the Korok seeds in Zelda.
I just reached 500 Moons in Odyssey and there are some really challenging post game trials that I feel like you’ve got to have the homing on Cappy for. Did you miss with him a lot while playing? I tried playing without the motion controls and came away thinking they were pretty necessary for being optional.
I dropped out of looking for all the Korok seeds. The payoff and incentive didn’t seem worth it and it was too random, too much of it to sift through. I’ve empathized with the complaint over the durability, though it didn’t personally bother me. I enjoyed BotW more than Odyssey, ultimately. I wonder what I would’ve thought if BotW had emphasized playing with the controls a certain way as with Odyssey.
I want to buy a Switch for this. It’s hard to justify it for one game (I know there are other great ones, but this is the one that I genuinely want) but it’s equally hard to deny the charm of it.
I believe you and I talked about the Switch earlier this year and I likely recommended that you wait until the end of the year. The Switch/Odyssey bundle would be great to pick up and there have been some great exclusives since March. If you’re into indie games, the selection on the Switch is top notch and the system’s versatility is truly great. I take it out of the house with me nearly every day.
Iām thinking of holding back until the inevitable post Christmas price drops.
Unless someone gets me one for the 25th that is!
I’m writing Santa right now… š