Rating of
5/5
One Of Super Mario's Greatest Games
dbarry_22 - wrote on 12/19/17
Super Mario Odyssey does an excellent job of blending old school Mario with a whole new adventure making one of the best games in recent memory.
If I had to describe Super Mario Odyssey in just a few words I'd say it comes across as the first true sequel to Super Mario 64. While there are many differences between the two games the basic concept is similar. You go to several very large levels where you can take on several tasks or goals in a open 3D world adventure. I bet those who've played a lot of Mario would say Super Mario Sunshine was the real sequel to Mario 64 and while I can't really argue a whole lot about that, I simply didn't like that game very much and it really didn't remind much of Mario 64 so there!
The story of Odyssey isn't all that surprising. Bowser kidnaps the Princess and is going to marry her so he's going around the world stealing the necessary items needed for a wedding. Mario is chasing after Bowser trying to save the day and in order to do so he resurrects an ancient airship he finds named the Odyssey. The one weird quirk to this whole thing is that Mario's cap is now alive and that guy's special woman is actually on the Princess's head so he joins Mario is his quest and that's where Mario's interesting new abilities come into play.
Cappy, which is the name of the life form that has inherited Mario's hat, really makes this particular Mario adventure fresh. Mario can attack creatures by simply throwing the hat. He can then jump on that hat if he wishes while thrown for a boost and most importantly he can take control of over life forms by hitting them with the thrown hat. This means you can take control of goombas, piranha plants, and other different enemies and use their abilities to help you along the way. This provides unique puzzles which really varies up the game play at times which is great.
In Super Mario 64, you obtained stars by completing a certain task. In Odyssey, it's Moons. The reason for getting a bunch of moons is pretty simple, they supply power to the Odyssey airship which helps you chase down Bowser. In each Kingdom (basically a big level) there are story elements that you must complete and also you have to get additional moons in each stage in order to get enough to move on. Basically if you do minimal exploring while taking on the story aspect of a Kingdom you'll accomplish this with ease.
The kingdoms in this game are diverse and fun. One stage is a giant desert, another is a snow filled field. There's a big island where you spend time underwater and on the beach and there's even a luncheon kingdom where food is the main theme. Some kingdoms have bright vibrant colors and others have a more subdued monotone feel. The music kind of has a jazzy feel to it and it reminds me a bit of the Mario Kart 8 soundtrack. I felt the graphics, environments, and music were all top notch.
The game play of actually moving Mario around is smooth and easy. Almost never was I mad at the game for a stupid camera angle or not being able to make Mario do what I wanted. Obviously if you want to 100% the game you're going to encounter some difficult moons to obtain and it'll be a challenge to make Mario do a particular action but really the game is easy and fun to control.
Obtaining moons in this game is addictive and fun. It's kind of the whole point of the game. If you just want to beat the game you can do it pretty quick and you can avoid a whole lot of what's out there. This game wants you to explore every nook and cranny to find all the moons. Each kingdom has a couple ways of getting hints too so really you shouldn't have to race off to the internet to figure out what to do. Sometimes you'll have to take on a boss to get a moon, sometimes it's as simple as talking to a particular NPC or ground pounding a certain location. To put it simply some moons are incredibly easy and simple to get while others are more tucked away and require more of a challenge for Mario to get there. Either way I had a great time finding them all.
Odyssey did a wonderful job of incorporating older games in the series. This is really the first time I recall Mario doing this. In other Super Mario games the general idea is that it is it's own game and it doesn't ever pay homage to older games directly. Odyssey embraces and I loved it. There are a lot of 2D pipes you can enter and there's a small challenge in the old school NES Super Mario Bro's environment. Also you can also encounter the Mushroom Kingdom from Super Mario 64 as well. These kind of things made me like this game even more.
The bosses in this game are pretty easy along with the basic enemies you'll encounter along the way. If you do fall off a cliff or lose all your health you don't lose lives anymore, you lose coins. Dying simply takes away 10 coins from your total, you no longer have to worry about extra lives. While I thought that odd at first it works remarkably well. It provides incentive to take on difficult tasks and since you can rack up coins relatively quickly in this game you almost never have to worry about a "game over" screen.
Even after you beat the main story in Odyssey, more kingdoms open up and more moons become available in each kingdom providing many more hours of entertainment. It took me over 30 hours to beat the main quest (and I really took my time) and I ended up with over 70 hours into the game when it was all said and done. I put more time in this Mario game than maybe any other on the first run through which is really saying something.
This is really a 1 player game but a second player can join in and take control of Cappy. I never did that so I can't really tell you how well it works. There are also an online element to this game. There's a leader board for various challenges in the game. Most of them are koopa races which you open up post game. There are others like a jump rope challenge, a race car challenge, and a snowy bouncy ball race. I enjoyed checking out my friends times and trying to beat them. While I hated the jump rope challenge I found most of the others quite entertaining and fun.
There are only a couple minor things I complain about in this game. For example, you won't be able to get all the moons on the list in a particular kingdom on this first go around. You just can't. There a some moons that aren't accessible until after you beat the game. To me this makes no sense because when you beat the game even more moons are created in each kingdom making the list even longer. Why they didn't plan a little better and make all these unavailable moons on the new list post game boggles my mind. Also I found the jump rope challenge and beach volleyball challenges annoying. They just weren't my cup of tea.
All in all though I had the most fun playing this Super Mario game since Super Mario 64 making the most fun Mario game I've played in 20 years. That's a pretty impressive feat considering I've played a lot of Mario in my day. If you own a Switch this is a must buy because I think this game is high on the list of best games of all-time.
5/5
