Super Mario Odyssey, the most anticipated Nintendo Switch game of the moment is finally here! I still remember my first moments with a Super Mario game, it was Super Mario 64 on my very own Nintendo 64. Super Mario 64 is one of the reasons why I love gaming this much, the game gave me surprise after surprise and remained my favorite Super Mario game up to this point. Now, I’m afraid Super Mario Odyssey has become my favorite in the franchise, everything about it is just pure fun!
Bowser has a plan (again)
Just like in every Super Mario game, Bowser wants to kidnap Princess Peach. At the start of Odyssey, he already managed to kidnap her and is forcing her to marry him! Mario can’t allow this of course but isn’t able to rescue the Princess out of the monster’s claws. Luckily for Mario, Bowser also kidnapped Tiara, a mysterious being from the Cap Kingdom who is forced to become Princess Peach’s headdress in their wedding.
What Bowser didn’t know was that Tiara’s brother isn’t afraid to fight. Cappy, partners up with Mario in order to rescue both Princess Peach and Tiara. To make Mario feel more comfortable, Cappy transforms into the iconic red hat we all know and love. If you’ve seen screenshots or trailers of this game before, you know Cappy is the main gimmick of this game but in all honesty, it’s far more than just a gimmick. Let me explain that for a moment.
Cappy is far more than just a gimmick
Every time Nintendo releases a new 3D Mario, they are looking for a new innovation. In Super Mario Sunshine, we were able to mess around with F.L.U.D.D. while Super Mario Galaxy gave us different planets and gravity to discover. Super Mario Odyssey gives us Cappy, the crazy hat that enables you to take control over your enemies. I must be honest here, this didn’t have the same effect on me as the first time I played Super Mario Galaxy. Galaxy was impressive from the start and I always wondered how Nintendo could ever top this formula. I was disappointed with Cappy at first. It was just another one of those forced gimmicks that would change the gameplay too much. Boy, was I wrong! Cappy turned out to be the best thing that could ever happen to a Super Mario game!
A truly CAPtivating game.
The idea behind Cappy is simple, throw him at your enemies and become this enemy. It’s a fun way to discover the new kingdoms since some of the enemies enable you to reach a point you couldn’t reach before. For example, while discovering an underwater kingdom, it might be a good idea to take control of a Cheep Cheep. Since this is a fish, you don’t have to worry about running out of air underwater. Things like this open up tons of new ways to discover the world of Super Mario Odyssey and it’s a lot of fun for sure. Finding the creatures you can capture and learning how to use them is the best part of the game for sure. There are tons of enemies and other creatures in the kingdoms, finding them all will prove a challenge but I’m sure a lot of gamers are up for it! What I like most about this capturing, is the fact that you’ll see the red hat and mustache appear, resulting in hilarious creations. Watch out! Since enemies will also spot the hat and mustache, they’ll keep attacking you!
Control everything just the way you want
A game like Super Mario Odyssey gives you a lot of freedom to discover everything just the way you like it. The same goes for the controls. This game literally gives you all of the possible ways of controlling it. You can control it with disconnected Joy-Con controllers, where you can throw Cappy around using the motion controls of the controllers. Not your style? Hook them into a Joy-Con holder and continue swinging them around to make Cappy move. Of course, you can switch this option off but honestly, the motion controls worked surprisingly well. If that’s not your thing, you can go for the Pro Controller, which, eventually, I ended up returning to time after time. You can still fling Cappy around but I preferred using the classic joysticks to throw the little guy around. It doesn’t really matter what controls you’ll pick, they all work extremely well and it’s not hard to tell that this is a triple-A production from one of the best Nintendo teams. Playing in co-op also allows you to pick your personal favorite controls, even the separated Joy-Con controllers will do the trick perfectly right!
Variation is key
Now, let’s talk about the best part of the game, the amount of variation. At first sight, you might think this game isn’t that big. And truth been told, with only 15 Kingdoms (and 2 secret ones), this isn’t the biggest game out there. You can easily finish the story in around 10 hours but don’t make the mistake to think it’s over yet. The post-game is by far the biggest part of the game and will leave you behind surprised time after time. In every world, you’re able to gather Moons, the more Moons you collect, the more Kingdoms and secrets you discover. The amount of Moons is just crazy and collecting them all will eventually take you over 100 hours of extremely satisfying gameplay for sure. The Kingdoms all have their own unique setting, unique enemies and surprisingly innovating secrets.
Right from the start, the game already offers tons of variation. At one point, you’re running around in a beautifully crafted 3D environment while at another point you entered a pipe which transformed you back to classic 2D Mario gameplay (where you can’t use Cappy). Besides that, you’ll also face some of the most impressive bosses ever and have to fight the Broodals from time to time. These Broodals are Bowser’s wedding planners and are tasked to take a certain object from a certain kingdom, it’s your job to stop them! Fitting these fights into an open sandbox game is brilliant and truly turns out to be amazing. It really doesn’t stop there. From T-Rexes chasing you on your motorcycle to fighting giant worms with tanks, this is the most creative Super Mario to date.
Collect everything
This brings me to the last point worth mentioning. Seriously, there are tons of things I could say about this game, but the best way to find out is to play it yourselves and fall in love with it just the same way I did. What I was trying to say here is that Super Mario Odyssey offers plenty of content to have the time of your life. This is a classic collectathon game that once more shows you why Super Mario remains the king of the genre. From Moons to coins (two types of them) and even costumes, stickers and other collectibles. If you want to have it all, you’re probably still playing this game next year. It’s packed with content and nostalgia. I liked the different costumes a lot and I wanted a matching outfit for every kingdom, which forced me to look for the Kingdom-specific coins in a certain area. There are 100 of those found in every world and I’m already sure the completionists will want to find them all. Discovering secret after secret never gets boring and collecting everything will keep you occupied for the coming months. The best part is that you can snap a picture of everything you do with the great selfie camera so you can share your favorite moments with your friends!
Conclusion:
I must be honest here, Super Mario Odyssey caught me off guard. I was convinced that no Super Mario could top Super Mario 64 or Super Mario Galaxy but I was wrong. Super Mario Odyssey is the perfect Super Mario game on the market and dares to innovate without ever losing the heart of a Super Mario game. Fans will recognize the thousands of winks towards the older Super Mario games while newcomers will play the perfect game right from the start. Mario goes on a crazy journey in Super Mario Odyssey and takes you with him. You’ll sometimes feel very small in new Kingdoms while other places will make you feel king of the world. What all Kingdoms have in common, however, is the fact that all of them will make you happy to be there. If a game manages to do this, it’s no surprise it deserves my perfect score, a score I don’t give that easily. Hats off to you Mario, you did it again!
