Wow… Super Mario Odyssey (SMO). What a game! After experiencing the horrid nightmare of Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, I was sorely yearning for a proper new Mario game. And man oh man did Nintendo deliver. I would preface this by saying that I have never been the biggest fan of Mario’s 3D adventures. In fact, 3D platformers in general have never been my cup of tea, I will always prefer sidescrolling platformers (you can imagine how awful the “64 era” was for me). That’s not to say I couldn’t find enjoyment out of Mario’s other 3D games, just that, they’ve never been my favorite. All that said, I have never enjoyed a 3D platformer as much as I have enjoyed SMO. It is hands down, the best 3D Mario game I have ever played.
The premise of the game is simple, as all Mario games are. Bowser has once more, kidnapped Princess Peach and Mario chases after them to save her. In the opening cinematic, however, Mario is battle Bowser atop his iconic airship, and gets knocked off. While Mario goes plummeting down towards some unknown land, his iconic hat is torn to shreds by the airship’s propellers. When Mario comes to, he finds himself in the Cap Kingdom, a strange land inhabited mostly by hat-shaped ghost-like creatures. One of these “hat ghosts” (shaped like a white top hat), named Cappy, approaches Mario and explains that Bowser has kidnapped his sister (along with Peach). So, the two decide to team up, and the adventure begins.
Now hat-less, Cappy decides to take up home on Mario’s head taking the form of Mario’s iconic red cap (Minish Cap, anyone?). Cappy is much more than just headgear, however, as he provides Mario with a whole new set of mechanics to work with. Using Cappy is the main premise behind MSO, and is its main iterative hook. The biggest mechanic that Cappy provides is of course the “Capture” (see: possession) mechanic. Whenever Mario throws his hat at a hat-less enemy (or NPC or certain inanimate objects), Mario captures them for a time (some captures are on a time limit, and others last as long as you want). When captured, Mario becomes the enemy. He controls its movement and actions. This opens up a whole new world of options for gameplay mechanics. Capture a hammer bro, and you can now throw hammers which can break certain objects. Capture a Podoboo (or lava bubble for you more modern types) and you can traverse through lava with ease. And so on.
On a personal note the capture/possession mechanic in games has always held a fascination for me, and I’ve seen it used so little. The first game I ever programmed and published by myself was a game called Village Vengeance. The idea behind it was that you were a ghost seeking revenge on the village that wrongly killed you. But as a ghost, you couldn’t do anything, so you had to possess the villagers, using them to seek vengeance on themselves. They were used as unique mechanics and a resource. I’ve always liked that idea, switching up the mechanics of a game by becoming the enemies and environments around you (unlike Kirby, who just borrowed the abilities), so this game certainly got my attention early.
I’m very pleased to say that the mechanic works. And it’s surprisingly never over done. Only certain enemies in any given area (kingdom) can be captured, so you’re given ideas on what enemies you can use to solve any given puzzle, and what enemies are simply obstacles in your path. That line of what can be captured and what cannot is sometimes a little blurred, sadly. As a given rule, if an enemy is wearing a hat, it can be captured (by first knocking off the hat with Cappy, then hitting them with Cappy a second time). But there are some hatted enemies that cannot be captured (mostly bosses) and their hats are simply boss fight mechanics. I understand that, as like most games, boss fights usually throw the game’s rules out the window, but it is a little disjointing, regardless.
Speaking of boss battles, they’re a bit of a mixed bag. In lieu of the Koopalings (whom I’ve always loved, and sorely missed in this game), the player is forced to face off against the Broodals (hat wearing, wedding planning bunny rabbits). Each of the four Broodals fought with their hats in unique ways, and the fights were fine, until I was forced to do the same fight 2-3 times each. They got stale, fast. And I can’t help but feel that Nintendo would have been better off with the Koopalings (since there are seven [eight if you include Bowser Jr.] of them, and only four Broodals, I wouldn’t have been forced to repeat the same fight as many times). Some boss fights (non Broodal fights) made clever use of the new capture mechanic, by forcing Mario to fight the boss using one of the new enemy types and its unique abilities. This added some fun spice to combat, forcing the player to think of fighting in unique ways. The Bowser fight itself was pretty fun too. As I said before, Mario 64 was never my jam, and that included the infuriating Bowser fights. Aiming for some far off bomb, swinging Bowser by the tail… No thanks. In SMO, the fight consists of Mario countering Bowser’s own hat throw, and using his hat (which is equipped with mechanical boxing glove arms) to knock Bowser off the arena three times. All the while dodging fire blasts and ground pounds and other attacks. It made good use of Mario’s new abilities.
As far as Mario is concerned, the rest of his mechanics work just as you’d expect them to. This is certainly not Mario’s first 3D game, and with that pedigree, comes certain expectations, all of which are fulfilled perfectly. Mario still has his usual repertoire of moves: the triple jump, the side jump, the long jump, the wall jump, the back flip, the crouch, etcetera. Along with that, though, there are a few more additions. For the first time (I believe) Mario can use a rolling mechanic while crouched (now out doing Sonic in Sonic’s limited moveset), he can also spin (how useful…), and can now get an assisted boost jump by ground pounding first. But more importantly, Mario can use Cappy for much more than just capturing. A skilled player will find that Cappy can help “break” the game’s levels. By throwing Cappy out in front, Mario can use the hat like a springboard, accessing areas otherwise unreachable. This is especially useful while using it in mid air. By throwing Cappy mid jump (or wall jump), a player can leap for the floating hat, and bounce off of it, then perform another mid air leap. This gives Mario an unprecedented freedom in his exploration. And Nintendo realized this. As a clever nod to industrious players, the developers have hidden stashes of coins throughout the game in areas that “should” be unreachable. It’s just one of the many little touches in this game that make it so amazing.
Speaking of those touches, the game is fully loaded with “juice.” For those not in the know, juice is the term used by developers to mean little extra touches to make a game more special. It can be something as simple as the sound effect you hear when getting a coin, or something as extravagant as the reward you’re given for collecting the game’s 999 power moons (which are the collectibles for SMO, much like stars or shine sprites), but I’ll touch on that later.
SMO is like a love letter to all previous Mario games, it is seeped in nostalgia just as much as it is in innovation. You will be hard pressed to find a Mario game (excluding offshoots like sports/racing/RPGs) not referenced in SMO. From Mario’s first appearance in the original arcade Donkey Kong game, to WiiU’s Super Mario Maker, they are all referenced in some way or another. There are certain puzzle rooms where you can’t use Cappy, reminiscent of those awful puzzles in Super Mario Sunshine, where you couldn’t use F.L.U.D.D. There are small pixelated stickers of Cat Mario, Cat Peach (Mario 3D World), and Rosalina (Galaxy) scattered about that give coins or hearts when hit with Cappy. There are rocket ships that can be captured that seem an awful lot like the rockets from SMB2. The Mushroom Kingdom is an homage to Super Mario 64 in so many ways, including one room that is literally pulled directly out of that game. There are areas that mess with gravity like in Super Mario Galaxy. You can stack Goombas like in Super Mario Maker. Not to mention all the remixed old Mario music. And on and on and on. SMO truly is a celebration of all Mario games.
I think my favorite nod to the past is in the game’s pixelated 8-bit sections. Very early on in the game, you are presented with a pipe that looks very blocky and pixelized. Not anything like the normal pipes in the game. Once you enter, you a treated with a new camera angle, showing that Mario has become a part of the 8-bit styled wall. You’re then tasked with getting through the small 8-bit section in order to progress through the area (usually to scale up a wall or to get across a large chasm). The 8-bit sections are not as simple as they first appear, though. There are often secrets hidden around a corner, breaking the otherwise known rule of a 2D sidescroller being on one plane. The gravity is often played with in these areas as well. Sometimes you’ll need to walk on the ceiling to cross a gap, or jump from circle to circle (kind of like Super Mario Galaxy’s planets) to get through the area.
The very best 8-bit section by far, though, is in New Donk City. The area itself is a giant homage to Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Country, but after finishing that area’s “main quest,” the player is treated to one of the most magical gaming moments I have experienced in years.
Before moving away from the topic of reference juice, I will mention that the game contains a ton of different costumes for Mario, many of which are incredible nods to Mario’s past (some of which are incredibly obscure). Note that the costumes don’t really do anything (although a small few are power moon quest related), none give Mario any special powers (like in past Mario games), that is left to Cappy this time. They’re simply just for fun. And that’s fine by me.
Speaking of quests, though, I should probably talk a bit about how the game is structured, because it is certainly different from other Mario games. Unlike Mario 64, where you were set upon getting one star per level, per world, SMO is a much more open experience. As the name would suggest, you travel to many different locales known as “Kingdoms.” When you get to a new kingdom, there is always something going wrong. Bowser and his minions have done something to screw the place up, and it’s up to Mario to fix it. This is all a part of the “main quest” but, after you resolve the problem Bowser caused, the kingdom changes (sometimes drastically), you’ve suddenly got a whole world to explore as you see fit. And man does this game encourage exploration. Normally, I would be turned off by that, I don’t usually care for massive exploratory games. But Mario does it right, no kingdom is ever too big, and no matter where you go, there’s always something to do. As I mentioned before, you can collect upwards of 999 power moons in this game, so of course the kingdoms are chock full of activities (like jump roping, beach volleyball, racing, etc.), places to go, and puzzles to solve. But it’s in the way that the kingdoms continually change that I found the most interesting. Even the most diligent player cannot get all 999 power moons before beating Bowser (and the game). In fact, you’ll only be able to acquire about 500 of the 999 before the final showdown. After the credits roll, though, you’ll discover that all of the kingdoms have even more to do. For a completionist, SMO is either a dream or a nightmare. Because there is just so much to do in this game, it’s ridiculous. That said, though, I never got bored with hunting down power moons. There was always just enough challenge and fun to keep me going until the very end.
And I’ve got to say, that last power moon is a doozy. In what I can only describe as SMO’s “Trial of the Sword,” Mario is presented with a gauntlet challenge the likes of which I’ve never seen in a Mario game. With no checkpoints, the player must make use of pretty much every skill and capture ability learned throughout the game to overcome one platforming challenge after another. The fact that there were no checkpoints did bother me, as the game has otherwise been so incredibly forgiving (plenty of checkpoints, heck, they even did away with game overs this time, instead, just taking away ten coins, before putting you right back into the action). But once I completed that last challenge, I felt a sense of gaming accomplishment I’ve not felt in some time. It really does put all your skills to the test in a near perfect way. And I found it to be a perfect finale in skill.
Once I found all the power moons I could, though, I did get bored for one very specific and extremely odd reason. As I said, you can collect 999. But in all the kingdoms, after solving every puzzle and getting every moon, your total will only be around 880-ish. That leaves roughly 119 moons missing. How do you get them? You buy them… for 100 coins a pop. Grinding that many coins was in no way fun. It was tedious and boring, and it just baffled me that the developers would make such a strange decision in an otherwise fantastic game. Of course, it wasn’t the only bad decision they made.
For all the game’s fantastic points, it gets a few things irritatingly wrong. For instance, for the first half of the game, while traveling from Kingdom to Kingdom, Cappy will insist on reading the action guide (the move set manual). I already read it when I started playing, I don’t need Cappy telling me how to perform a long jump for the fifth time. There are also plenty of other NPCs that will constantly ask if you’ve read the action guide. Constantly. Yes, it’s important, but if a player chooses to not read it, constantly bringing it up won’t change that. In fact, I skipped through dialogue while travelling more than once because I was so sick of Cappy trying to teach me how to play.
I would also remark on the game’s bizarre art direction, or lack thereof. I’m no artist, but even I was put off by the constantly changing art style. There was no cohesion from one kingdom to another, and even within some kingdoms, the art would clash between cartoon and realistic. It was very jarring, and not at all appreciated.
And my last major complaint, Cappy. Not mechanically, but the character himself. He is not a silent sidekick (I’d love to see one that is). He often seems to have the need to voice his opinion, which would be fine, if the text bubble appeared ANYWHERE other than where it does, which is right in the middle of the dang screen. Cappy often caused me to fail because I couldn’t focus on the task at hand, because he was attempting to give unwanted advice on said task, blocking my view. It was very irritating. The only benefit I found from his advice was when I entered specific puzzle rooms, he could tell me whether I was missing any power moons or purple coins (each kingdom’s unique currency). That was helpful.
Once you do finally collect all 999 power moons, don’t expect anything too fantastic. You are rewarded with small things along the way, new outfits, new hats, new kingdoms, more difficult boss fights, etcetera. But once all is said and done, Mario is told to go back the Mushroom Kingdom for a surprise. Upon arrival, you’ll find Peach’s castle now has a giant top hat on it (because if course it would). Once you climb up on top of it though, you’ll find a small pole to throw Cappy on, in doing so, you’re treated with a view of the castle, while fireworks shoot off, and the original victory jingle plays. It’s small, it’s simple, but the game is full of small simple little rewards, and this, too me, seemed like the perfect way to end it. A clever nostalgic nod to Mario’s roots. I’d already seen the ending, experienced the amazing last battle, and the escape that followed was fantastic. This was simply the cherry on top. For me (much like was the case in Breath of the Wild, collecting all those Korok seeds), it wasn’t about the reward, it was about the journey. And SMO gave me one heck of a journey.
There’s probably so much more I could say about the game, but it would all amount to pretty much the same sentiment, SMO is an amazing game. Even its faults aren’t enough to take away from the sheer enjoyment I got out of playing it. Once again, Nintendo has outdone themselves, and I cannot wait to see how they top this accomplishment.