Well I had a lot of time trapped in Tennessee for a business trip this past weekend. From flights, to just nothing to do out here, I've had time to play the shit out of Mario Odyssey. This game man. I never thought I would be so into a Mario game every again.
TL;DR: Mario Odyssey is fucking great.
But it's greatness does come at a price. Everything about Mario Odyssey strikes me as a call back to Mario 64. From the way the worlds work, to all the secret little areas and mini levels. Basically the set up for Mario this time is Bowser is planing a wedding....a wedding to Princess Peach. Of course since this is gamings most famous kidnapper, the wedding isn't Peaches idea.
So Mario and his new friend...a parasitic hat, go world to world chasing Bowser. Along the way you will hunt these Moons (which replace the typical stars that Mario normal collects) which you used to power your airship and allow you to reach new areas. And boy there are a shit load of these things. Unless the 101 stars in Mario 64, Mario Odyssey asks you to collect 800+ moons.
To collect all of these moons, you'll fight bosses, platform your way around puzzles, do time trials, find secret areas, and more. Individually none of the moons are all that hard to find, nor are the puzzles required to gather them difficult. All in all Mario is a fairly easy game, until you get down to the last few moons per zone where the hunt for moons becomes a pain in the ass. Yet despite each moon being easy to get, each moon is still fun to get to, each little mini puzzle is fun to solve and especially if you stumble across it. You get a weird joybuzz when you find a moon you weren't expecting to find.
Traveling around the maps, doing these little puzzles, fighting the bosses, all of it is just fun.
My only problem with Odyssey is that the sheer number of moons feels dumb to me. I get you want a lot of collectibles, but there are extremes to this. Nintendo is obsessed with big numbers apparently, with 100+ shrines, 900 seeds, etc in Zelda. Though I guess comparing them, Mario is reasonable with ONLY 800 moons. With the sheer number of moons, you get into the problem I mentioned above in that find the final few moons in a given area boarders on annoying as you will have mentally exhausted yourself in trying to think of the last little corner of the map that might have the star you need.
I wish the experience was a little more substantial too, the game can feel repetitive as you go from world to world to collect X amount of moons which powers up the ship to get to the next area, then go to the next zone, repeat.
Admittedly you gain a bit of freedom later in which you'll get a choice of zones to tackle, and after the "story" you'll be free to travel wherever you want to hunt the rest of those moons.
Ultimately these are just nitpicks, and in small does Mario is some of the most fun I've had all year. There has never been much more to Mario, but I feel the shallowness of Mario is the only thing holding this game back from perfection.
9/10! If you have a Switch, get this game.
TL;DR: Mario Odyssey is fucking great.
But it's greatness does come at a price. Everything about Mario Odyssey strikes me as a call back to Mario 64. From the way the worlds work, to all the secret little areas and mini levels. Basically the set up for Mario this time is Bowser is planing a wedding....a wedding to Princess Peach. Of course since this is gamings most famous kidnapper, the wedding isn't Peaches idea.
So Mario and his new friend...a parasitic hat, go world to world chasing Bowser. Along the way you will hunt these Moons (which replace the typical stars that Mario normal collects) which you used to power your airship and allow you to reach new areas. And boy there are a shit load of these things. Unless the 101 stars in Mario 64, Mario Odyssey asks you to collect 800+ moons.
To collect all of these moons, you'll fight bosses, platform your way around puzzles, do time trials, find secret areas, and more. Individually none of the moons are all that hard to find, nor are the puzzles required to gather them difficult. All in all Mario is a fairly easy game, until you get down to the last few moons per zone where the hunt for moons becomes a pain in the ass. Yet despite each moon being easy to get, each moon is still fun to get to, each little mini puzzle is fun to solve and especially if you stumble across it. You get a weird joybuzz when you find a moon you weren't expecting to find.
Traveling around the maps, doing these little puzzles, fighting the bosses, all of it is just fun.
My only problem with Odyssey is that the sheer number of moons feels dumb to me. I get you want a lot of collectibles, but there are extremes to this. Nintendo is obsessed with big numbers apparently, with 100+ shrines, 900 seeds, etc in Zelda. Though I guess comparing them, Mario is reasonable with ONLY 800 moons. With the sheer number of moons, you get into the problem I mentioned above in that find the final few moons in a given area boarders on annoying as you will have mentally exhausted yourself in trying to think of the last little corner of the map that might have the star you need.
I wish the experience was a little more substantial too, the game can feel repetitive as you go from world to world to collect X amount of moons which powers up the ship to get to the next area, then go to the next zone, repeat.
Admittedly you gain a bit of freedom later in which you'll get a choice of zones to tackle, and after the "story" you'll be free to travel wherever you want to hunt the rest of those moons.
Ultimately these are just nitpicks, and in small does Mario is some of the most fun I've had all year. There has never been much more to Mario, but I feel the shallowness of Mario is the only thing holding this game back from perfection.
9/10! If you have a Switch, get this game.
