It's time for another review by yours truly, Pengu! And in this review, I'm choosing a game that's becoming a quick favorite of mine, Super Mario Odyssey.
Now, this is not a perfect game by any means. Like most games, it has its share of flaws. Most are pretty minimal to the point of mainly just being personal gripes, while a very small few are flaws that I saw as a bit bigger, even though they may be a bit more personal bias once more. So I'll be going through section by section, picking the game apart. Some such as gameplay will be a noticeably longer since this is a game that relies on many different styles, and some such as Storyline will be mentioned in spoilers when I begin going into my personal thoughts beyond the simple plot.
So with those in mind, let's begin!
The Story 7/10
Alright, so the simple plot to this is that Bowser has kidnapped Peach (again), and this time he's going to force her to marry him. As Mario, it's up to you, with the help of Cappy, to save Peach from Bowser. Like always, it's a pretty cut and dry plot of defeat-bowser-save-peach. However, there are some good little bits about this story...but also some not-so-good bits.
Spoiler
First off, the side antagonists are great, and help in my belief that Super Mario Odyssey is basically one giant love letter to Super Mario 64. Firstly, the antagonists are rabbits, of all things. In Super Mario 64, one of the annoying sidequests was occasionally chasing rabbits to get a key. In Super Mario 64 DS, this was bumped up a bit and even included in the beginning. Since then, chasing rabbits has been an odd side-staple for major Mario games (Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario 3D world both had them, for example). But for Odyssey to build on that and make them actual antagonists was a wonderful thing.
In this game, the main rabbit antagonists are known as the "Broodals" and they come from the moon. They're drafted as Bowser's "Wedding Planners" and each is pretty unique and entertaining in their own ways. Think of them as the Koopa Kids, but less of them (there's 4, plus the leader) and a little less annoying.
One of the biggest gripes I have is that there's no explanation as to how they even hooked up with Bowser. Did he somehow know there was a church on the moon, and that there was a colony of intelligent rabbits that prided on being Wedding Planners on the dark side of the moon? Did they find him and give him the idea for his plan? One thing that bothers me in games is plotholes, even small ones like this.
Speaking of that, as much as I really enjoyed the overall story for the game, the ending bothered me. Since this is completely in spoilers, I'll say this: DO CLOSE THE SPOILER TAG IF YOU DON'T WANT THE ENDING SPOILED.
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Still reading? Alright then, so in the ending, Mario naturally knocks out Bowser and saves Peach. Afterwards, Mario and Peach have a moment, and it looks as if Mario is about to FINALLY propose to Peach, who looks receptive to the idea. But before that can happen, Bowser wakes up, knocks Mario out of the way, and tries proposing to Peach with a bouquet of Piranha plants. Mario then shoves into Bowser and gets more desperate, and it basically turns into a "No, me!" "No, me!" type of moment until Peach shouts "Enough!" tells both of them off, and then decides to leave and be her own person. To which Bowser falls to the ground in disappointment, and Mario leans against him and pats him like "Yeah, she rejected both of us."
Now...there's several problems I have with this ending. First off, I get that they were going for the whole "Peach doesn't need a man to be happy" approach, and honestly if I were faced with that type of scene, I'd do the same thing she did. However...where was this attitude the ENTIRE game that she was being dragged around all these different Kingdoms while Bowser was getting wedding stuff? Does Peach just secretly enjoy being kidnapped and subjected to this kind of stuff (which I'm starting to believe she does)?
Second, this was something completely out of character for Mario. Again, I get that they're trying to show how much he feels like he deserves her more than Bowser does (and of course, because it's "funny"), but news flash: HE DOES. He's saved her on multiple occasions from the guy and from other villains, and he's the one she calls out for. She's shown that she cares for him, and as mentioned, even seemed receptive to him about to propose to her before it was interrupted. Considering all of that, why would he resort to a bicker like that with a guy who's the equivalent of a psychopath and bully? In what instance does that even make sense?
It's just things like that that bother me, and prevent me from giving it an actual top rating.
Other things are cliches I've seen happen in later Mario games.
Like mentioned, ever since SM64, they've incorporated rabbits as a chasing tool, which is fine...and this game even added them as villains. However, other cliches aren't as...eh, good. When the game is trying to make a moment more dramatic, but does something identical to a previous game, it diminishes that drama for me.
For instance, ever since the original Paper Mario, some of the main games have taken to this formula:
Bowser interrupts something >>Mario goes to Attack Bowser >> Bowser has some hidden trick>>Mario Loses >> Mario is woken up by new Ally >> Mario embarks on adventure with new ally.
Examples:
*Paper Mario: Bowser interrupts a party. Mario fights Bowser, who has the Rod of Dreams which makes him invulnerable. Mario loses and is blown out of the castle and sent falling. He's woken up by a Goomba kid, who ends up joining him on his adventure.
*Super Mario Galaxy: Bowser interrupts a festival. Mario goes to save Peach from Bowser, but is surprised by Kamek Koopa who blasts Mario off of the castle and sends him falling. He's woken up by Luma, who ends up joining him on his adventure.
*Super Paper Mario: Peach is kidnapped by the antagonist. Mario attempts to fight, but is rendered unconscious by the antagonist. Mario is woken up by a Pixl named Tippi, who ends up joining him on his adventure.
*Paper Mario: Sticker Star: Bowser interrupts a Sticker Festival. Mario attempts to fight, but is knocked unconscious due to Bowser having extra power due to a sticker. He's woken by a Sticker Fairy named Kersti, who ends up joining him on his adventure.
And in this new installment, Bowser kidnaps Peach (surprisingly, it starts DURING the kidnap this time, as opposed to right before). Mario attempts to fight him, but Bower's hat has some tricks, and Mario loses. He's sent falling to his death, and is woken by a hat named Cappy. I think the only neat thing I found about this whole encounter is that when Mario falls, he of course loses his hat. Bowser steps on it and then tosses it away, where it's shredded by his ship's propeller. Now...that shredding moment was actually pretty awesome.
However, another problem is that they play this cliche more than once. When you fight Bowser in the Cloud Kingdom, you of course win this battle. But he of course, gets away. You attempt to give chase, but knocks you down once more, again sending you falling to your death. Once again, Cappy wakes you up on the strange new place you've fallen to, and the adventure resumes.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
As if that wasn't enough of that cliche, they do it again. After you get past the next set of Kingdoms and attempt to go after Bowser directly, he pops in with a flying dragon (of all things), destroys your ship AGAIN, sends you falling to an unknown world AGAIN, where Cappy gets your attention...AGAIN.
It's like this game really loved playing that on repeat.
And again, while overall the story was pretty decent, it's bits like that as to why I can't give it a top score. If it downplayed on the cliches, I would have bumped it 1.5 points higher. Likewise, if it wasn't for the various plotholes including the ones I've mentioned, that would have been another 1.5 points higher.
So now that I've gone on and on about the story, let's get to the area where the game actually almost made it. The gameplay!
Gameplay 9.5/10
Now, I'll jump right onto one of my favorite mechanics in the game...possession (or as the game calls it, "capturing")! If I had any personal gripes about this, it's that they spoiled it way too easily in the trailers. This is a mechanic I would have loved to have been surprised by when I played the game, but instead already knew it was there because of the trailers showing it. Granted, I understand that it builds hype for the game, but imagine people's surprise and amazement for it if they hadn't known about it beforehand.
But in this game, if an enemy isn't wearing a hat, they're open to being "captured," except for a select few that will just die when they're hit by Cappy. Likewise, this includes some NPCs, objects with a green "?" knob on them, as well as other things you'll encounter in the game. Some were pretty underhyped that deserved more attention in the trailer (the stretching Caterpillars and Pokey birds, for one), while some that were shown in the trailer were used once or twice only (such as the taxi cab which only serves as getting you to a sidequest). Overall though, it was a very welcome new mechanic to the franchise.
Outside of that, the way Mario moves and jumps is identical to past games (except now he can also roll after a long jump). He still wall jumps, does a triple jump, can dive, swim, long jump, and all that good stuff. His punching from titles like Mario 64 is replaced by his hat toss, which the direction can change depending on how you shake the Joycon controllers (and can be spun around as well). He can also gain certain attacks depending on enemies that he captures, such as spinning around as a fish. His health bit from games like Super Mario Galaxy returns, with a standard "3" hits before he's incapacitated, or a temporary 6 (which goes away if it hits 3 again) if he finds a life heart.
The concept of lives is out of the game. If Mario falls, he loses 10 coins if you're not playing in the game's "Assist Mode," which will only take out 1 health module if you fall, you get 6 health as opposed to 3, and arrows lead you to your objectives. Anytime you die, you lose 10 coins, so you never have to worry about getting 1-up mushrooms to keep playing.
Speaking of coins, each Kingdom also has a Cap shop called Crazy Caps. In this shop, you can spend 2 kinds of currency: The normal golden coins which were once used for giving you lives, or the various types of purple coins that you'll find in each Kingdom. Golden coins will get you a Life Heart, Moons (only one for each Kingdom, and multiple anywhere after you've beaten the game), and occasional random costumes. Purple coins will get you Kingdom-specific costumes and souvenirs. While you can get and use Golden coins anywhere, you can only use specific purple coins in the kingdom that you've obtained them in.
And speaking of costumes, there's a large variety. As of writing this, I've gotten 26 hats and 27 outfits. This is only including 2 post-game costumes (so 2 hats and 2 outfits). This is also considering that I haven't bought all of the in-game costumes yet (I'm missing 2 sets).
So we're talking in game, that's about 26 different outfits and hats to choose from (so about 52 different varieties). Post game, so far there's about 13 new costumes, and there's still more I haven't unlocked...but I'm going to guess that the total amount of costumes will be just shy of 50.
So really, you're going to have a lot of choices for Mario outside of his traditional coveralls and red hat. He can be a Clown, Pirate, dapper gentleman, Caveman, or whatever you basically want him to be. None of them will alter his moves, though some will completely alter his look.
Outside of those, there's a constant shifting variety when it comes to gameplay. Sometimes you might capture a Tank and have to progress through an area carefully, shooting enemies with your cannon. Sometimes you might have to race your way through. In fact, Racing is one of the more common sidequests you'll find in this game, as is something called "Trace Walking," where you'll be shown arrows following around a specific path, and you'll have to recreate that path as accurately as possible (as, of course, the arrows disappear and you have to guess). In New Donk City, there's even a jump rope (reminding me of FF9), and you have to hit a specific number of jumps to get the prize. However, as you might guess, the longer you jump, the faster it progressively gets to make it difficult.
And finally, I can't get into Gameplay without discussing the game's other exceptional feature: the shifting from regular to 2D flat. On many occasions, you'll stumble across a green pipe. When you step into it, you'll go into a 2D flat world where you'll have to go through obstacles. This is used wonderfully throughout the entire game, and I love the seamless shifting for both you as well as enemies. When you step out into the regular world, the shift is instant. Likewise, if any enemies (such as a bullet bill) go through as well, they immediately shift to their 3D form and take on their normal habit of following you to kill you. It's a wonderful callback to the original Super Mario Bros, and it's possibly my other favorite feature next to the Capturing.
But while this is all great, we have to talk about the game's lacking feature...
Length: 6.5/10[/u]
Now, Mario was never the longest game to play through. But playing games like Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy, and the like definitely did take their time. You were always forced to get specific amounts of stars to really progress, and the further along you were, the more stars began to stack up in requirement to progress. There were also lots of areas to go through, as well as bonus/hidden areas.
In the main story, Super Mario Odyssey lacks in length. At most a world may require that you only gather 18 moons to be able to move onto the next Kingdom, although you'll have to finish the main story for each Kingdom first. At average though, you'll more likely have to gather just 8-10 moons to really move on to the next area.
Before the post-game content, there are a total of 12 worlds, and 2 "main" boss worlds (though there's a boss in each world). Taking away post-game moons, the biggest worlds had between 60-69 moons, while the smallest held 15 (the beginning and final areas). Average-wise though, you were looking at roughly 30-40 moons per level, which then doubled once the game was beaten.
Unlike past games, you wouldn't have to leave a world and then come back to get specific moons: all are accessible when you enter (unless it's a post-game moon), and the level doesn't end when you get one. I mean, really, the Kingdoms aren't even "levels." Think hub areas like Sonic Adventure, but many more enemies and much more styled like a normal Mario game. Some of the worlds are larger, some are smaller. But even then, we're talking a game that can be beaten fairly quickly in the manner of a day if one only gets the required amount of moons in each area (and there's the existence of Multi Moons which you'll get at LEAST one of in each Kingdom...and those act as getting 3 moons).
So yeah, it's a game that can be beaten fairly quickly.
However, the game does have other tricks up its sleeve, mainly in...
Replayability: 10/10
You know what the main thing to grab in this game is? Moons. You know what the game isn't lacking in? Moons. There's roughly 600 moons, if not more, that can be found in this game. Yes, you read that right, 600, if not more. I say that second part because post-game, you can buy multiple moons in the store, and it's seemingly unlimited if you've got the coin. However, for moons that you actually find in your adventures during and after you've beaten the game, you're looking at maybe just shy of 600, if not exactly that or more.
This is definitely a game that challenges that completionist that wants 100%. There are challenges in the game that require a lot of concentration (such as the jump-rope sidequest in New Donk City), but the real difficulty comes specifically from when you've beaten the game.
Spoiler
When you beat the game, you unlock a new world, specifically Peach's World. From there, you can earn Moons based on achievements you've made in the game (such as walking X amount of steps in game, doing X amount of a certain quest, and so on). You can also earn moons by re-challenging bosses found in paintings in various towers (complete with Mario 64 world-entering sound effect AND music), or doing any of the various puzzles or timer challenges around. Keep in mind, some of the timer challenges are the most challenging the game has to offer.
If that's not enough, you'll unlock a new world once you hit 250 moons...known as the Dark Side. There, it's basically a Tower challenge where you'll re-fight each of the Broodals individually. They'll be more difficult that you've faced them before, and you'll have the added difficulty of moon jumps, so you have to time your jumps just right. Lose against even one of them, and you'll have to start over from square one.
If THAT'S not enough, you'll unlock a second new world once you hit 500 moons, known as the Darker side. There, you'll face against the toughest gauntlet of challenges: a long and excruciatingly unforgiving level that really tests everything you've learned in the games. If you die, you have to start over right from the beginning as there are absolutely no checkpoints. Think Crash Bandicoot's Stormy Ascent, but cranked to an 11.
As far as replayability goes, there's an exceptional amount to do to keep the game going for a good while, and even once you're done, you may find yourself wanting to start over to see if you can do it again.
Did I mention the game has vocals? Because it does. It's rare in a sense, but it exists, and mainly in two of the songs in the game that are done with full lyrics (the most known being above in the video). But if you watch the video, you'll hear that it even has someone announcing the song before it's sang, and this is an in game announcement. So you could say that this is the first Mario game since Super Mario Sunshine that has had actual vocals...but it's definitely the first Mario game to have vocal-music, let alone in game.
Outside of that, the music has been pretty well done. The music I found fit the Kingdoms beautifully (I still love Cap Kingdom's theme for some reason), and overall I was very impressed. The switch from normal to 8-bit retro when you enter the 2D world (outside of the above example) was also really well executed.
Sound-wise, the game also has very lovely sounds. The sound of the moons sounds pleasant, the sounds of the different creatures goes from cute to amusing, and overall I really had no issues whatsoever with this aspect. I think overall in the sound/music department, Super Mario Odyssey did exceptional. My only overall gripe was with the male New Donk City resident voices. For some reason, they thought using a voice-changer to lower their voices sounded good, when in reality it sounded awful and weird.
Graphics: 9.5/10[/u]
So, you might be saying "WAIT WHY IS MARIO GETTING SUCH A HIGH SCORE?"
And to that I say: Because this game juggles with multiple art-styles.
First, there's the usual cartoon-ish graphics that Mario is known for (which is still beautiful in this game):
Next, there's the 2D style:
Then there's more realism for certain enemies (such as the above dragon):
The downright absurdity of certain areas:
And again, the more realistic approach of others:
Really, this game juggles a lot of different character, enemy, and location styles at once. Aside from a small gripe of the New Donk Citizens looking off (though Pauline looked fine), I thought once again, the game really flourished in this area.
Overall: 8.7
Overall, it has its flaws as I mentioned. But it's still a phenomenal game. It's probably one of the best Mario games I've played since Galaxy...hell, I dare say it might even be slightly better than Galaxy in aspects. If you're a fan of Mario, I absolutely, completely, without question recommend that you play this game and give it a shot. While it may be a quick breeze to get through the main game, if you're a fan of sidequests and post-content, this game definitely delivers. Take my advice, buy a switch, and give both this and Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild a play.
