My favorite thing about 3D Mario games in general is how adventurous
they feel, linear or otherwise. Whether it's exploring the large
sandboxes of 64 and Sunshine, or discovering the next weird planet or
local in Galaxy or 3D World, there's something so effortless about how Mario's 3D outings so effectively make you want to discover everything the game has to offer. And while I do generally prefer the more linear 3D Mario games, I don't think there's a single game in the series that screams "adventure" as much as Super Mario Odyssey.
Super Mario Odyssey was probably one of my most hyped games ever. I remember waking up super early to catch up on the Switch Presentation only to discover there was a brand spanking new 3D Mario game, and it looked amazing. Being an silly kid, I was kind of hoping for a game that would capture the same magic as the Galaxy games, and Odyssey... definitely wasn't that. But despite Super Mario Odyssey not being exactly what I was hoping for, it still lived up to the hype for me and I adored it regardless. To this day, it's probably the game I think of when I think of the Switch as a whole.
Super Mario Odyssey very quickly established itself as a big adventure for Mario. The very first cutscene has Mario suffer a pretty rough defeat, being flung off an airship with his hat ripped to shreds, all as Bowser flies off with Peach to get married (geez Bowser, didn't you learn anything from Super Paper Mario?). Now, Mario has to travel the world to stop Bowser, so the game feels like a grand globe-trotting adventure as Mario explores a ton of kingdoms outside of the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario Odyssey's kingdoms are all-in-all pretty fantastic. They're large, densely packed with collectibles, and an absolute blast to explore. And on top of that, they're also varied. Each kingdom in Odyssey feels entirely different from the last in terms of atmosphere, mechanics, and even visual style, with some kingdoms ranging from hilariously hyper-realistic to silly low-poly. The Metro Kingdom deserves special mention for being a pretty large city you can explore in its entirety, and it's filled with rooftops to jump across, buildings to enter, and incredibly memorable story beats.
Another thing I like about Super Mario Odyssey is that it does a nice job at toeing the line between having an engaging start-to-finish campaign and keeping itself open for collectathon exploration. Each kingdom has a few sequential story missions you can do when you're playing through the campaign, and these missions introduce you to the kingdom's mechanics and often culminate in a very fun and inventive boss fight. These missions often use Nintendo's tried-and-true four-step level design, and it's really impressive how Nintendo managed to implement that kind of thoughtful stage design into open collectathon worlds. But you don't need to do these missions, as you only need to fill a Moon quota to progress to the next kingdom, and Odyssey's kingdoms are populated with them. And once you get to the postgame, there's even more moons that pop up and even more kingdoms to visit, all of which you're left to explore entirely on your own. While I will admit that there are a few too many filler Moons in Odyssey, that's a miniscule gripe compared to how addictive finding Moons are in this game. And it helps that there are a ton of masterfully designed linear bonus rooms in each kingdom to keep things fresh.
But I didn't even get into the best thing about Odyssey, the movement. Super Mario Odyssey has the best movement out of any 3D platformer I've ever played, bar none. The sheer amount of freedom in control you have is remarkable. You got all the standard stuff like wall jumps, side flips, backflips, long jumps, and triple jumps, but you also have a roll, a spin that lets you jump higher, a dive, the ability to jump out of your ground pound, and all of these moves chain together incredibly seamlessly. With enough skill, you can go pretty much anywhere, even places that may seem out of bounds. Hell, in some cases, Nintendo may even reward you from going out of bounds with coins. On top of all that, you also have Cappy, Mario's new hat friend that he can toss. Throwing Cappy can let you stall in the air a bit and hit enemies like Galaxy's spin, but you can also throw Cappy and jump off him, which expands on your movement potential even more. And leave it to Nintendo to never make the most of a mechanic because you can also use Cappy to possess and play as nearly every enemy in the game. There are a ton of these captures, but they're pretty much all fun and polished to play as, and are utilized really well whether it's for a unique puzzle or those aforementioned boss fights. On the gameplay front, Mario Odyssey is second to none as far as Mario games are considered.
Super Mario Odyssey is also stuffed to the brim with things to do. I already mentioned the massive amount of moons (over 800!), but there's also several regional coins you can find in each kingdom to buy souvenirs for your ship, tons of purchasable costumes some of which even having their own unique effects, detailed written tour guides for every single kingdom in the game, a photo mode so good it got reused in other Mario games, and a bunch of surprisingly robust minigames complete with online leaderboards. And we got even more stuff in free updates like the incredibly addicting Luigi's Balloon World minigame and a charming little mini campaign that utilizes the Labo VR. But sometimes, I don't even want to engage with any of that stuff. Sometimes, I like to pop in Odyssey just to aimlessly run around because the movement is just that fun and inherently satisfying.
Super Mario Odyssey's presentation is also top-notch. While I always found Switch games to look somewhat inconsistent, Mario Odyssey's visuals still hold up really well. Mario himself is incredibly detailed and expressive, all the environments look super lush and somehow blend together despite their different styles, and the lighting is incredible. And as per the usual, the soundtrack is very good. It's not Galaxy levels of good, but it is still incredibly strong and filled with now-iconic tunes, particularly Fossil Falls, Steam Gardens, Mount Volbono, and especially one of the few vocal themes in the series, Jump Up Super Star. As a matter of fact, the moment where this track places in-game, during an incredibly fun and visually-stunning love letter to the Donkey Kong arcade game, might just be one of my favorite Mario moments of all time.
Super Mario Odyssey is just plain magical to me. It's a game with such top-notch core gameplay and such masterful world design that it makes the simple act of moving your character around an absolute joy, even without all the fun bosses and story missions, rewarding exploration, and polished presentation. Even if it's not my ideal 3D Mario game, Super Mario Odyssey absolutely nails what it's trying to be: An incredibly fun, breezy, unpredictable, and charming adventure around the world.
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