darthvadern's: Super Mario Odyssey - Video Game Review

Today, the 27th of October 2018, it's been exact a year since Super Mario Odyssey first was released! A mario game for the Nintendo Switch and one of the two first video games I got for the Nintendo Switch (the other one being Mario vs. Rabbids: Kingdom Battle). Unlike most video games, I had no idea what the gameplay was in Super Mario Odyssey before I played it. This made it even more exciting for me since it was something completely new for me, and it was so exciting! So here's my review of Super Mario Odyssey.

Mario, the one video game series that almost always succed with their video games. Rarely do they make bad games, and it shows! There isn't a single main series mario game that I dislike! The only one I hated was Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. And New Super Mario Bros. 2 was somewhat dissapointing as well, but that's not what we're talking about! We're talking about the BEST main series mario game, yes, that's right! This is probably one of my all-time favourite mario games! It's so unique and different from other Mario games! Even the story is somewhat different! Sure, it's still the same Peach gets kidnapped cliché, but there's more reasoning behind it this time! Because Bowser wants to marry Peach and he has set up his own wedding for him and Peach, and it's Mario's job (obviously) to save Peach (Ok but doesn't that sound awfully similar to Super Paper Mario?). But wait, that's not all! Mario has got a new ally! Cappy, a bonneter from the cap kingdom who can posses other people, and he goes with Mario on his adventure, because Bowser also kidnapped Cappy's little-sister, Tiara, who is a tiara (obviously) and according to Bowser Peach's wedding tiara. You see how unique the story is? It might not be the type of story like in Superstar Saga or Dream Team Bros., but it's great for a mario platformer! It's not often we see stories in mario platformers that have more reasoning behind the villians actions! Overall the story recieves a C+ from me, because while unique and fresh for a mario platformer, it's still not the type of great story seen in most Mario RPG's.

When you've got a great story for a mario game you definitly don't want to ruin a game with gameplay, and fortuanely, the gameplay here is just excellent! You've got Cappy which you can capture other enemies with and do things you couldn't do before, like not slipping on ice, or spitting chunks of goop everywhere. It's so fun! And none of this wouldn't have been this fun if it weren't for the controls! Oh man are the controls near-perfect! I honestly can't think of anything negative about the controls because they're THAT good! Even the camera is excellent! It's not like Super Mario Sunshine where you could only move the camera at certain times, here you can rotate all you want and it's great! You can even take pictures in the snapshot mode and it actually works! You can change the angle and filters and it's awesomne! On top of that, it is going to take a while for you to complete the whole game because there's so much you can do! I'm not even done with gameplay! There are even costumes in the game! You can basically dress up Mario as a clown, or a pirate for example, there so much costumes here so the possibbilites for how you want Mario to look like is almost endless! Gameplay gets an A+!

However, gameplay really only feels great when you also have good level design and creativity, and luckily this game also has that! The level design and worlds are among the best seen in a mario platformer! This game might have some grass, desert and lava worlds, but they're so unique and wel-done so it feels like a different thing! The desert world is a mexican arena with temples and ruins, the grass world is a prehistoric dinosaur area with visually impressive graphics, and so on! I love it! Each world offers something new and each has their own unique boss battles (aside from a very small minority), and each world has its secrets! This game's level design and worlds are near-perfect! Only a HYPER small minority of worlds were underwhelming! It recieves an A+ from me because of how creative the worlds can get!

Of course! I'm going to look at this game's soundtrack as well! In my honest opinion, Super Mario Odyssey has some of the absolute best soundtracks in the whole mario franchise! The only game surpass this game in terms of music is Super Mario Galaxy! But that isn't really saying much. Each song in this game offers something different and unique and it's excellent! Some of my favourite songs from this game are Honeylune Ridge: Caves, Steam Gardens, Bowser's Castle (first one), Cascade Kingdom, Torkdrift Battle, Ruined Dragon Battle, RoboBrood Battle, Forgotten Isle and Run, Jump and Throw! 2. All of these songs are comparable with Super Mario Galaxy's soundtrack and it shows how great the soundtrack in this game was! Soundtrack easly gets an A+ from me!

I might be making this game sound abseolutely flawless, but that's not true at all! As excellent as this game is, there is one major problem I have with this game, and that would be the fact that this game does lack replay-value! This is kinda sad honestly because all Mario games before this one have replay-value and can be enjoyed anytime you replay it no matter what (even the New Super Mario Bros. series had replay value), but since this game is designed completely differently from other mario platformers, once you complete the game 100%, this game can't be replayed the same way in your heart because it lacks replay-value! It's not like other mario games when all youreally do is simple missions, no, this game is about thinking and explorations, and when you've completed the whole game you most likely already know where every thing is and it doesn't feel the same. Luckily, there is a minigame in the game called Luigi's Balloon World, which is basically hide and seek, you hide balloons and find other people's balloons they have hidden, and you can win so much coins from it! This is fortuanelyl a reason to paly the game even when you've beaten the game since that mode offers a bit more replay-value, unfortuanely the minigame can get boring after a few months. So yeah, replay-value in my opinion is worth a D-, and it's the only main mario game in my opinion to lack replay-value.

Overall Opinion: To be honest, this is probably one of the greatest games ever made! Sure, it does lack replay-value, but it has a great story for a mario platformer, and the gameplay, level design and soundtrack are near-perfected! They are about as good as you can get! Especially the gameplay! It's easly the mario game with the best gameplay because it has been perfected so much! This game is a must-buy for any Nintendo Switch owner out there! It's near-perfect!

Score: 10/10 or 98%

Other Info:

Console: Nintendo Switch
Year Released: 2017
Metacritic Score: 97 and 8,9

IMPORTANT INFO: My next review will be Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon which will most likely be released before Halloween, if lucky it could be released either on the 27th or 28th of October, so don't be suprised if you see another video game review by me just a few days after this one, until then, see you

Comments

I played a bit of at the switch demo at my store. It's good gameplay. Another game I'll probably pick up for the switch. - B1ueNew (10/27/2018)

I beat the game at my cousin's house, believe me, you will not regret it. - Drawbox (11/1/2018)

Not bad - iliekpiez (12/22/2018)