Its core gameplay gimmick, although it quickly ceases to feel like one, is the magic hat companion who lets you take over various enemies and items in the game. It’s actually a bit overwhelming when you first visit the catalog of actions and think, wait, isn’t this a Mario game? And that’s before you start putting your hat on things! The well-known triple jump, long jump, crouch jump, and so on are all present, alongside a dozen other actions. The game controls like a dream second by second, though it may take a bit to get a handle on all the new hat-related controls. There are coins, piranha plants, Toad, and all the usual fixins. In Super Mario Odyssey, you travel around the world in pursuit of Bowser and the perennially abducted Peach, collecting “Power Moons” to fuel your hat-shaped craft, the titular Odyssey. (That’s part of why this review is short on screenshots and videos I don’t want to spoil a thing.) It’s-a new Mario, againįirst, though, let’s dispense with the ordinary review stuff. Now Nintendo can proudly say that it has delivered a true-blue sequel to Mario 64, and while there is little surprising about the overarching structure and style of the game, it is more surprising on a moment-to-moment basis than any game in recent memory. Similar plaudits can be awarded to Super Mario 3D Land and World, which heavily favored the SMW side of the family. Their themed worlds, each stage unique in its challenges, to be tackled more or less in linear order - it’s a winning formula and they’re great games in their own right. But those were more like hybrids between Super Mario World and Mario 64 than a real successor. Its collection of mini-worlds, each hiding a handful of stars allowing further progression, laid the foundation for future 3D Mario games, notably Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel. Not just the controls, which were the first to really get 3D movement right (and arguably still among the best), but in the density of gameplay ideas: locations, enemies, obstacles, and ways of combining those things to make each stage feel new and fresh. Those of you who have played Mario 64 likely remember what a revelation it was at the time. It does this, however, not by reaching back to the NES (at least, not most of the time) or even SNES, but the N64.
Super Mario Odyssey succeeds in a very similar way, feeling both brand new and comfortingly familiar, while setting the bar for gameplay on the system. In a way it reminded me more of the original Zelda than any of its successors the extreme freedom afforded the player in the first game turns out to have been a concept employed well ahead of its time. It did it largely by giving its players the freedom to go wherever they wanted and do whatever they wanted - and making sure that wherever they went and whatever they did, it was fun and rewarding. It achieved that in spades, leaving recent Zeldas and AAA open-world games in the dust. When gamers rushed to buy the Switch earlier this year, it was, in the near term at least, on the promise of a Zelda game that looked to be the freshest in years, yet at the same time return to the series’ roots. It’s an essential for all Switch owners, and highly recommended for any gamer with a heart and a memory. Super Mario Odyssey is a embarrassment of riches, never failing to surprise for hours and hours and maintaining an unflaggingly positive feeling the entire time. It’s almost unnerving how good Nintendo is at its job - at least, when the wizards there choose to apply themselves.
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