Super Mario Odyssey review

Eclipsmon Now for my third review, it's time to review Elsherlock's suggestion, Super Mario Odyssey. Last review was Zelda Breath of the Wild, and I guess that now we are doing the other nintendo game of 2017 that was very popular, and often considered the best game of its series yet. Do I agree with that? Some already know, but for those who don't know I will say what I think about that game at the end of the review. Now, Let's get started.

The story begins with Bowser kidnapping Peach yet again, but this time to get married with her. When trying to fight Bowser, Mario got hit really hard, and landed in a mysterious kingdom called the cap kingdom. There he meets cappy, a spirit that looks liek a hat. Turns out, Bowser also kidnapped Cappy's sister to get a tiara for Peach. So now Cappy is posessing Mario's cap to temawork with him, and both decides to put an end to Bowser's plan to get married. Believe it or not, but this game has my vote for the best story of the mainstream Mario games (the RPGs are not mainstream Mario games). Super Mario Land 2 is close, but I prefer Super Mario Odyssey for making the exploit, of having the same kidnapping plot as the other Mario games, but still being really good. Why do I think that? First, Bowser in that game is an excellent villain for a game with a simple story. The fact that Bowser beated Mario at the beginning of the game, really motivate the player to beat him eventually. However, throughout the game you want to beat Bowser more, and more. In every kingdom he goes through he creates chaos just to get an acessory for his marriage. I mean he kidnapps Cappy's sister, just to get Peach a tiara! On top of that, Bowser is very impozing, with great quotes like "It's your happily ever after!". Seriously that quote is one of my favorite in gaming history. Either that or "You kind of let her hanging this morning you know!". Overall, Bowser greatly motivate you to go foward in the game, and that's what great villains in video games should do. Secondly, this game has an higher focus on interacting with other people, and this is a good things, because it makes each kingdom feels more alive. Which leads to the third reason why this game has a cool story, the characters are pretty cool overall. I mean they are not amazing, but for a main Mario game, they're cool. Some of the standouts are the broodals, and of course Cappy. Cappy is by far the best Mario partner in the main series, in both power, and personality. Unlike FLUDD, and baby luma, Cappy has a main motivation for helping Mario which makes him more interesting.

Spoiler paragraph: But the scene that really made me love Cappy is the end of Darker Side, where after doing what is the equivalent of the perfect run from Super Mario Galaxy 2, you are climbing a big building, and Cappy tells you as you are climbing the top how much he liked doing all those adventures with you. This scene is one of my favorite in video game history, since it remembers you that overall, you play video games, because they are fun. I think this is one of the main themes of Odyssey since it has a similar message in the song "Jump Up superstar.

Overall, Super Mario Odyssey is a simple story that is very effective. There are some nitpicks here and there, and I'm not saying the story of this game is better than a Megaman Zero game, the majority of the Mario RPGs or the Undertale series, but I think they made a good job overall.

What about the graphics. Everytime, I play this game, there is always a moment that remembers me how great this game looks. This game is legit so beautiful, that it's the game that I take the most pictures on my switch. Is it the most beautiful game on the switch? Honestly, I don't know, but it's probably up there.

As for the soundtrack, how should I say it? This soundtrack, composed by Naoto Kubo, Shino Fuji, and Koji Kondo is kind of my second favorite video game soundtrack of all time. Yeah just that. But seriously, what an amazing work! You already know how much I like this soundtrack by seeing my list of favorite video game soundtrack, but I will tell it for the people who don't know. Basically, Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 have amazing soundtrack, that would probably be in my top 10 if I didn't do one soundtrack per series, but I prefer Odyssey, because while the Galaxy games have a focus on orchestral music, Odyssey doesn't have any specific focus which leads to more variety. My favorite is probably the theme of the final boss fight which is a great mix of different instrument. I mean, there is a part where an organ transition into an electric guitar. That's great! I recommend to listen to this soundtrack from time to time. Why not while reading this review?

Now it's finally time for the gameplay. Let's start with the controls. A thing a lot of great collect-a-thons (or pseudo collect-a-thon like Mario Sunshine, and A Hat in Time) has great controls were the simple thing as moving around is satisfying. Super Mario Odyssey is far from an exception. There is so many moves you can do. I should already mention that it's the first Mario game since Super Mario 64 to have both the dive, and the long jump, which are both some of the best moves in Mario history. Not only that but it has some new moves as well. You can ground pound and immediately jump to jump high in a fast way, you can roll on the ground to travel fast, and you can even do a dive under water. It's not to mention the moves cappy add. Of course you can throw your cap in many different ways to kill enemies or posess them, but you can also use this cap as a trampoline to get to higher or further grounds. The cherry on top of the cake though is the motion controls. Odyssey as arguably the best motion controls out of any games I played. Not only do they work well, since they are simple, not only are they optionnal so that the people that doesn't like those controls can decide not to use them, but this game gives you reason to use those controls. Basically, the motion controls adds moves to Mario's moveset that are either more powerful version of moves that doesn't have motion controls, like a faster roll move or entirely new moves like different angles to throw your cap. This game is simply amazing to control, and that's why it's a very good game to speedrun.

If you thought Mario controlling greatly is good enough, you can control other creatures by capturing them. And guess what, they control in god way too, and also have some bonus motion controls. Those captures simply add a lot of variety to the level-design. and makes this game distinguish itself from the other games in the series. For me originality is a bonus rather than a necessity. Well, thanks to the captures, Odyssey has this bonus.

Now let's talk about one thing that a few people had criticize. There are too much moons. When people say that they often doesn't know how to explain why it's a bad thing. However, some people explained it better than others, and I came to the conclusion that having too much moons isn't the problem. The problem is having some moons that are so quick and so easy to get that it's not really fun. However, I think there is a good reason for this game to have some moons that feels monotone to get. You see in Spyro and Banjo Kazooie, there are not only things like Dragon Eggs or Jiggysm but there are also gems and music notes. Those latter are use to fill the space between the main collectables. Super Mario Odyssey wants to do the same thing, but since they don't have any secondary collectables, besides purple coins which doesn't make the same job as the gems, and music notes do, the only way to fill empty spaces is with moons that are easy to get. That being said, those moons that are really easy to get, are a nitpick. The rest of the moons are fun to get, and those moons are easy to ignore. Personally, the jump rope and volley ball moons are greater offenders, but it's like two moons in the game so...

Let's now talk about the level-design. This game has the best level-design in the series. There is a lot of variety, and it's part thanks to the captures. This game is easily the best in the series for the exploration. Super Mario 64 had the problem of kicking you out of the level, everytime you get a new star which makes getting some star tedious. Super Mario Sunshine solve that problem by dividing the shines into different episodes, but the thing is now Sunshine is more a regular 3d platformer than an actual collect-a-thon, because you can't explore for other shines on the same level like you could in 64. Sure you can collect blue coins, but if you think that makes it a collect-a-thon, by that logic, the new super Mario Bros games are a collect-a-thon because of the star coins. Odyssey, is the first game in the series to do like Banjo Kazooie and Spyro, and simply doesn't kick you out of the level, after each moons (that would have been a pain if it did), making for great exploration that has no interruption. Making the exploration even easier is the checkpoint system. After activating a checkpoint you can teleport to checkpoint at any time, which is an amazing idea. Not only is the exploration great, but the platforming is great too, especially in the hidden area. This game is both a master of exploration and plateforming, and this is great.

Now it's time to talk about 100 percenting Mario Odyssey. Let's talk about the negative first. Like I said, I don't like the moons of jump rope, and volleyball. Of course, I'm talking about the 100 jumps/balloon throws moons, and not the moons that requires a smaller number which are actually fun. Negatives over. No seriously, I could talk about the fact that all you get after 100 percenting the game is a postcard, but here is a question for you. Since, you've done everything in the game, what is a good reward for 100 percenting the game? So having a reward like this is tolerable on paper. That's where intrinsic reward comes into play. Intrinsic reward is when the reward for doing something is doing the thing itself, and Super Mario Odyssey has an overall great intrinsic reward. That's not to mention the reward you get for doing other things in the game, like the ending of the darker side of the moon, and the costumes you get with the purple coins, which are all great things. The reason why I am a completionist is to experience everything in the game, and Odyssey is a great experience overall.

I almost forgot about the bosses. So the bosses are the weakest part in Mario Odyssey, but it's only because all the rest is so good. I mean, even the bosses in this game are the best in the series, if that title doesn't go to Super Mario Galaxy 2. Sure they are not the most challenging ever, but they are mostly creative, and fun, unlike Mario 64, where the bosses are not only ridiculously easy, but also not interesting at all, with some exceptions. One of my favorite bosses is Robobrood, with its amazing music, and creative concept of using the Pokyo capture to bounce back bombs at it, and then climbing it. I also like that later in the game you can fight harder versions of bosses, and they are actually decently tough.

And that's pretty much all of my review of Mario Odyssey. What's my verdict? Isn't it a little bit oblvious? The story is simple but effective, the game looks good, the music is amazing, the level-design is great overall, the capture mechanic is brilliant, the controls are amazing, and there is a lot of little details that I didn't talk about. For example, a bird lands on Mario's nose when he's asleep! Those little details were not necessary, but they did it anyway, and this is awesome. That last statement is something that games that I give 11/10 does, so yeah, this game indeed get an 11/10. Easily one of my favorite games of all time. Sure it's not perfect, but the positives, heavily outway the negatives.

Next time, we'll do another one of Evan the Nerd's suggestions, Super Smash Bros Ultimate. If you also want to do a suggestion of movies, video games or even series that I could review, don't hesitate to tell me. If I experienced your suggestion there is 99% chance that I will review it.

Comments

Keep doing the good work on the reviews! Also, can you do Mario Kart 7? - visitor (3/26/2020)

Yes, I can do that eventually. - Eclipsmon (3/26/2020)

Good review. - visitor (3/26/2020)

This is one of my favourite video games of all time, and my favourite mario game (excluding the RPGs). Just the overall atmoshpere and gameplay is enough to rate it a 10 because the worlds are huge and visually stunning, and there's so much to do. The biggest flaw though is that you can only enjoy it to its fullest potential the first time you play it, as the moons are scattered all over the place which makes it so interesting to play, but when you're done you know where to look and it loses replay-value. But, the first playthrough is the best experience you can have with a mario game - visitor (3/29/2020)

I first want to say, that I am happy to see people telling their opinions about the games I review. That allow me to see the opinions of others, which is something I love to see on this site, and it can even allow for some cool debates, which leads to what I'm about to say next. I want to say that I disagree that Odyssey doesn't have a good replay value, since I think collect-a-thons (Super Mario Odyssey included) are some of the most replayable games. Thanks to their non-linear level-design based on exploration, you can tackle most collectables in the order you want, making for different routes every time, and a surprising depth about speedrunning them once you know where everything is. Of course I'm talking about casually speedrunning those games, not professionally. That being said, believe it or not I'm happy to see different opinions, because like I said, it makes for some good debates, and at the end we have to accept that everything is subjective. - Eclipsmon (3/30/2020)