Every new Nintendo system has to have a Mario game and finally for the Nintendo Switch we have Super Mario Odyssey. If you're a gamer chances are you've been waiting for this game to arrive for a really long time. The idea of a new Mario game is something that's sort of celebrated by the entire gaming community. Even if you don't own a Nintendo platform right now the chances are pretty good that you started playing video games with one of the games from the Mario franchise. And even if you hadn't, the long lasting legacy that this franchise represents is something that really no one can ignore. So with all that being said is Super Mario Odyssey a really good game or is it something that doesn't live up to the hype? Well let's find out.
The story for Super Mario Odyssey is very much like every other Super Mario game. Princess Peach has been kidnapped and Mario has to save her. That's essentially how every Mario game goes and this one doesn't rock the boat. There is one thing that changes up this time around. Unlike the last group of games where Mario largely did the whole adventure on his own in this one you're accompanied by Cappy, a little sentient hat that allows you to take over and control enemies and interact with the world in a new way. This is single handedly the fundamental change in this game. It's what defines it over the other Mario games. There's new abilities and new moves and the relationship that Mario has with Cappy is spread about the entire experience. And while Cappy does have dialogue and his own personality there's nothing there that's really groundbreaking. It's more or less about the interaction Cappy and Mario have together in the gameplay environment rather than the story.
Speaking about those environments well the graphics in this game are the best I have ever seen on the Nintendo Switch. The game has a really cool art style that sort of changes from world to world. Each world has a certain look and they do feel completely unique, not like they've stolen textures from one world and brought them over to another. If you were to take a look at one screenshot from a world and compare it to another it would almost feel like you're looking at two completely different games. There are so many tiny details and Easter eggs hidden throughout every single world that it really warrants exploring everything just for the visuals alone. There are a bunch of costumes that Mario can wear that are both new and taken from older Mario games which is something I didn't think I'd be into that much. But it kind of pulled me in especially near the end when you get some really cool costumes. But that aside not everything in the world visually fit together. There are some characters and elements that just feel kind of weird. When Mario is walking beside the real looking humans in New Donk City I just couldn't accept that. The character models just look out of place and I don't know why they chose to do that. Pauline, the mayor of New Donk City, looks fine. She's got much larger eyes and has a design that kind of feels more natural with Mario's design. While every other resident feels like they're from a completely unrelated game world. At least in New Donk City it makes sense because you're in a cityscape world, I guess. But there are other moments in the game that pulled me out of the experience. I really didn't feel like I was playing a Mario Brothers game anymore which was kind of off-putting.
But what might pull you back is the soundtrack. There are amazing orchestral pieces that are played throughout the game that feel so perfect for the worlds that they take place in. There's also tons of sound effects that add a good audible texture to every universe and makes it feel just that much more alive. When you're in New Donk City it feels like a city. When you're in the desert it feels like a desert. That's what makes a soundscape work as well as it does. This may be the best soundtrack that they've ever implemented in any Mario game they've ever made. Exploring the story, sights and sounds of Super Mario Odyssey is one thing but this is a video game and the gameplay is primary. And that's where things get a little bit interesting.
While the game borrows heavily from many of the entries in the Super Mario franchise I would argue that it primarily focused on borrowing elements from Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy. The exploration gameplay you had in those two games is here as well but with Cappy you have the ability to take over enemies and that fundamentally changes the way you play the game. Instead of having a suit that gives you powers or something like that Mario can take over enemies directly and steal their abilities — which feels more like Kirby. This mechanic is endlessly enjoyable and a joy to play. Every single world you go to can feel like a completely different game and really does make this Mario game feel unlike any other Mario game that's come before it. There's a couple of worlds that are smaller than others but the majority of them feel really large. What I like about that is that there's a lot to explore and a lot to get into. Even after I would complete a world enough to continue on to the next world I still went back to the previous one just to explore a bit more and to collect a couple more items here and there. The majority of fun I had in this game was really in the gameplay. There's some great boss battles, great exploration, great platforming and it really made you feel like the more you played the more you learned and the more fun you had with it. And to me that's the sign of a really good 3D platformer. And it also did 2D gameplay really well with the NES inspired Super Mario Brothers sequences. I dug those a lot. They're not really complex but they’re still fun to play.
In terms of gameplay there's really not much to dislike in Super Mario Odyssey but the only time I did have any real issues was with its controls. I'm not a big fan of motion controls and as far as I could tell there was simply no way to turn motion controls off. Even in the options menu where it does say you can turn off motion controls what it's actually turning off is certain camera controls at specific points in the game. The majority of my time with this game I was playing with a left and right Joy-Con separately in each hand. That way whenever I wanted to do some kind of spin attack really quick I could just shake one of my hands and easily access my primary attack and lock on mode with Cappy. And that's important because the lock-on mechanic makes the game drastically easier and a lot more fun to play. There are certain abilities and moves that are limited to motion controls which in my mind is a mistake. Because the moment you go to play this game in portable mode with the Joy-Con attached to the Switch itself well those motion controls still need to be done so you have to shake your Switch in your hands. Which I think is a really bad thing to do when you're walking around and using it in public. It feels totally unnatural to play that way and I almost feel like I'm going to drop the Switch which I am not happy about. You can also play with a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller which I personally believe has a far better layout than the left and right Joy-Con even when they're in the Joy-Con Grip. But even with the pro controller you still have motion controls so you're awkwardly shaking your hands around just to activate certain abilities. I personally feel that Super Mario Odyssey really didn't benefit from having motion controls so maybe in the future an update will get rid of it and allow us to remap those really specific motion features with a button press. But until that happens this is the game you have to play and you have to play it this way. My recommendation is using the left and right Joy-Con in each hand separately because that was the way I enjoyed playing it the most. And even though I don't like motion controls they did work in that layout.
Whenever someone would ask me what was the number one game they should get on the Nintendo Switch I would always say The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. But that game is an action experience and it's very tailored to a specific group of people that enjoy that kind of gameplay. The game is really big and very long and I think it lacks the casual appeal that Super Mario Odyssey has now demonstrated. This game has so much to see and so much to do and I think the gameplay is a lot more appealing to a wider audience out there. Super Mario has always appealed to a wider range of people and I think Odyssey lives up to that. This is the game I would say people should buy first when they get a Nintendo Switch. That's how good this is.
Super Mario Odyssey is easily one of the best Super Mario games ever made and that's no small achievement. And when you take into consideration that this game is rivaling and surpassing some of its previous entries that were on home consoles, and the Nintendo Switch is basically a portable system, I'd call that pretty amazing. Nintendo has done the unimaginable and they made it work. A portable mainline Super Mario Brothers game that feels like it was something released on a full scale home console. This is a game not to be missed.
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