Super Mario Odyssey: A Mario for a New Generation of Gamer

Nintendo has been releasing Mario games for decades, starting with the flagship of the platforming genre with Super Mario Bros. for the NES system. Since then, Nintendo has made dozens of games in the main franchise and even branching off into couch co-ops with games like the Mario Party and Mario Kart games. Everyone who knows anything about gaming has heard about Mario. This new iteration of Mario, though, Super Mario Odyssey has targetted a whole new audience in the gaming community: a younger generation who didn’t grow up the OG Mario.

Super Mario Odyssey opens with a fantastic scene — one where Bowser has kidnapped the Princess. Classic Nintendo. This time Bowser aims to marry her, trapping her in hold matrimony by an entity that inhabits her tiara, a hat being from the Cap Kingdom whose name is Tiara. With the help of some anthropomorphic rabbits, Bowser moves across the world, stealing things that so easily align with his desire to marry.

Mario and his hat companion, Cappy, race to beat Bowser to the Moon, of all things, before he marries Peach. Along the way, Mario and Cappy leapfrog across the different kingdoms of the world and collect coins, moons (not stars in this game), and all manner of enemies. Boasting a 900 moon count, Super Mario Odyssey is a fairly expansive game.

 

As far as mechanics go, Odyssey has the most fluid Mario controls to use. It’s more like the controls from Sunshine, but significantly better. There are times when the camera movement is clunky or slow, but those instances are rare, as it seems Nintendo took extra care to program automatic movements of the camera for better visibility in tight spaces. (Great examples of this are in New Donk City.) There’s also an insane amount of moves, with Mario’s new Cappy ability, not to mention the possessions of a wide variety of creatures. This helps to add a little more verticality to Mario’s movements and the ability to reach more diverse areas in the worlds.

 

Speaking of the possessions, Odyssey has incorporated a new mechanic. Using Cappy Mario can possess enemies in the different worlds, including at one point a T Rex charge through the world demolishing things in its wake. Each creature has its own move set, generally no more than the d-pad and 2 other button inputs. It makes these encounters simplistic and easy to move around with the creatures. The array is vast, but nothing nearly as exciting as controlling the jump man himself.

 

There are quite a few words in this game, including the Mushroom Kingdom and the Moon. New Donk City is perhaps the most fleshed out of all the kingdoms, with Pauline as mayor. It’s an excellent race through the city to fall the moons, and it’s the one kingdom that has more potential as an exciting concept.

 

The replayability on this game is relatively low. If you shoot for the 900 moon count, then you’ll be moving through the kingdoms multiple times. Unless you really want to play again, it’ll probably be only one or two playthroughs for most players.

 

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I’m going to cover why I was disappointed in Odyssey. That’s not to say that I didn’t like this game, it was great. It was beautifully made and exhibits all the crazy antics that are associated with the Mario franchise. But it wasn’t much more than that. Some of the “kingdoms” were needlessly vacant, and it’s a waste of space on the map.

My biggest disappointment was the Lost Kingdom, where Mario literally battles a dragon, then leaves. The moons, though plenty, only have about 200 moons that have any real difficulty. Too many can be categorized as “hey, look, I found a moon? I guess.” moons that do nothing other than promoting moving through the otherwise bare sandbox.

 

The reason why I said I’m sure it’s targeted for younger audiences is its accessibility for younger players. My 5-year-old son LOVES this game. He’s played through it no less than 3 times, managing along the way to turn on the Assist Mode, which I’m still not sure how he did or that it was available before he found it. But it’s captivating and fun, and he’s interested enough to keep playing.

He’s collected nearly every moon, every outfit, every sticker for his ship. The game shows him the fun and nostalgia that sparked people’s love of Mario from the very beginning, so I can’t be more than a little irritated that I find it really easy and at points a little lazy. Nintendo can do better, and I hope that they keep producing more games, but will reach further to fill those gaps in their gameplay.

 

Despite my few complaints, Odyssey has been a hit across the board, with an average rating of over 95%. It’s still a fantastic game that you should check out, at least once. Or, if you are a gamer and have your own little ones now that are big enough to pick up a controller, it’s a great game to jump into with them, letting them explore the brightly colored world and get their first introduction to the mustachioed man.