Super Mario Odyssey is a game for the Nintendo switch. I personally received my copy on Christmas day, after my SO decided that I would prefer to wait and make it special. She was right.
Mario odyssey is the 3rd title in the Mario franchise that Nintendo dubs as the “3D Mario” series along with Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. This had led to me having very high expectations for the game as both of these titles hold a very special place in my heart.
The game involves Mario, as he saves peach (again) but with the help from a small hat like fellow called Cappy, that can be used as a weapon but mainly to “cap-ture” (a polite way of saying possess like a spooky ghost) different enemies in the game so you can use their abilities. You go around collecting “power moons” which are used to power your flying hat ship called the Odyssey so you can go save the princess. Along the way, you also get the ability to play dress up (which I love.)
So my personal experience went a little bit like this.
“Finally, after waiting months I can play the new Mario”
“Wow, this looks great. Plays well too. Lots of my old tricks from previous games work”
“That first kingdom seemed small, maybe it gets bigger?”
“This seems too easy, am I that good?”
So to put into context, the only complaint I have about this game is the kingdom sizes. I guess not playing the game for a few months after it was released had caused me to overhype myself on how large the game was. After finishing the game and needing to go back to find power moons it made me realise that the size of the kingdoms was perfect. There are so many small little areas that the game doesn’t throw at you during the first playthrough.
One of my favorite things about the game are the little details. Everything in the game has a purpose, fits in perfectly or is a nod to something else from the franchise. From the background tune of “jump up superstar” being the track from the original Donkey Kong game, all the way down to the Easter Eggs referencing other titles like Mario 3d World in the form of graffiti. Another small detail is the dog in the game. Now and then you can come across a little Shiba dog that will follow you around and show you where to ground pound for treasure. If you throw Cappy near the dog however, it will catch the hat and try to bring it back to you. This gave me lots of entertainment of keeping away from the dog.
Another great feature is the tool for taking better screenshots. I’ve spent hours just running around in the game, pausing the game and taking a photograph of whatever I was doing to get a cool shot.
The first 150 moons in the game seemed very simple. The mindset I have and everyone I have spoken to about this is that to “finish” the game is not difficult. To complete it is.
I personally have “finished” the game in that I have done the main story. I still have two end game parts to complete that have super difficult boss fights and require 500 moons(which are both insanely difficult), but if I choose to fully complete the game I will need to gather 999 moons (which is even more insane)
The game itself has won the family game of the year award, and for good reason. It is a fantastic game. It should have won a game of the year, but it has some stiff competition from another Nintendo title, Zelda: breath of the wild.