Dec 152017
From the moment Super Mario Odyssey was announced, I wanted it. I wanted it the moment people caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a Mario 3D platformer in the Switch announcement.
For that matter, I waited through the entire Wii U’s life cycle for a Mario game more in the style of 64/Sunshine/Galaxy, so I’ve been hoping for this game for a long time.
And Super Mario Odyssey did everything I wanted it to do.
This is the sort of 3D platforming I loved in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine (and Super Mario Galaxy to a lesser extent). I did miss the sort of hub world Sunshine had, but Odyssey made up for it by giving a lot of worlds almost their own mini-hub areas.
At first I felt like the lack of a hub world made it feel less unified, but once I thought about it, I realized that the worlds in Super Mario Odyssey actually feel more fleshed out and significant than the worlds from the previous games, at least to me. I like this style, and while I still would love a central hub, I want to see more Mario worlds like these in the future.
(And it’s hardly a story-driven game, but it had some entertaining NPCs and I especially enjoyed seeing visitors from one kingdom in another.)
I also loved searching all over each kingdom to collect all the purple coins and using my coins to buy new costumes and decorations for the Odyssey. And of course, it was fun to find Power Moon after Power Moon. There are so many Power Moons!
I wish there were a few more of the “story” Moons with a specific objective, but overall it worked well. A few people have compared Super Mario Odyssey to Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie in terms of exploration and getting Moons, and I like that comparison.
Oh, and Super Mario Odyssey also has one of my favorite incarnations of Bowser’s Castle so far.
Really, there’s only one thing about Super Mario Odyssey that disappointed me…
Oddly enough, capturing things didn’t feel as central to the gameplay as I imagined from the early trailers. It was entertaining, but it felt like just one small tool in a game mainly about exploring, collecting, and completing challenges.
And a game like that is exactly what I wanted from the next 3D Mario game! All in all, Super Mario Odyssey was everything I wanted it to be. Have you played it yet? What did you think?
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Odyssey is my favourite 3D plumber platformer, so there’s that.
Capturing ended up just being one part of the plumber’s repertoire, and it’s nice (gameplay-wise, not in terms of “my world is doomed”) that Cappy has a lot of functionality outside of just capturing stuff. He’s not a one-trick hat.
I would say you think it feels like a small tool because it was like the early Kirby games in that each captured enemy could really do one thing instead of having a multitude of abilities. So my favourite capturable enemies were Pokio the bird and Gushen the water-bubble dude, since those ended up being very versatile for abilities.
I also appreciated how natural using Cappy felt (aside from the moves that required motion controls).
Ah yes, Pokio was a good one. I also liked capturing Cheep Cheeps, because then I could swim without fear of drowning. xD
Oh.
Yes.
Motion controls were forced on us. And they felt unnatural and unresponsive.
(I tried submitting this comment in all-caps and WordPress said it was spam.)
The hat spin was possible without motion controls, but that method felt even more awkward to me.
There were also several motion-exclusive actions when in capture form, like Pokio’s adorable spin.
(Which can turn into a spin attack.)
I don’t think I ever tried that. I generally used motion controls only when I had to, or to make Mario climb things faster.
Yeah, I think they wanted you to gradually embrace motion controls the further into the game you get.
Yeah, that makes sense. They did remind me I could play with the Joy-Cons separated every time I started the game. xD
YEAH THAT WAS ANNOYING.
I was thinking that the forced cutscenes when switching kingdoms were a result of loading times, but then at the end there no longer are cutscenes, so…
(I just ended up leaving the game on and the Switch in sleep mode whenever possible.)
Forced cutscenes when switching kingdoms? Do you mean the part inside the ship where Cappy gives you a random tutorial fact?
Yes, I do mean that.