Video Game Review - Super Mario Odyssey

Its been a while since we had a 3D Mario platformer like this. I mean yes we have had 3D Land and 3D World, but they felt more like playing a 3D Super Mario Bros. game more than a game with no time limit and largely focusing on finding a certain amount of objects. The last main stream Mario game that did that was in fact Super Mario Galaxy 2 so yeah its been a long time. Though despite the wait, we got several great Mario games in that time and for the most part, they were great. So the question most people had before this game came about was how do you top Galaxy and yet somehow, Nintendo did just that. They topped Galaxy and went back to basics by giving us a non-linear sandbox game that feels like playing 64 and Sunshine all over again. So let's see how Nintendo did it:

So as it is with most Mario games, Peach once again gets kidnapped by Bowser. Only this time, with the intention of marrying her. So to do that, Bowser goes across many kingdoms to steal things for the wedding while using his own troops and hiring other troops to take care of Mario, the only person who is not invited to the wedding. As such, Bowser beats Mario easily and destroys his iconic cap in the process. Meeting with a hat being called Cappy who is after Bowser for his own but similar reasons, Mario and him form a partnership to find Bowser and stop the wedding from happening. So in the game, you largely play as Mario, but using Cappy as and when you need to. All of Mario's jumping abilities are here with Cappy giving Mario some new abilities such as the possession of objects like frogs, trees and even Goombas. Cappy can also pull things from the ground and give Mario an extra jump too among many other things to. There are lots of places to explore and unlike previous Mario games, you can collect as many items as you want in each kingdom without ever having to go back and forth as you do it. Those items are known as Power Moons and moons are nothing new to the Mario games, but they have never been used at this scale before. You can collect them in many ways such as just going through the main story, complete side quests or even take on some Sunshine like puzzles. And yes even though we do have worlds that use elements that are well known in Mario games (elements like snow, sand and grass), there are some new ones too and even with the overused ones, they just look and feel very original. As an HD game, it is presented very well and while it may not be at the scale of what Breath of the Wild was, it does allow players to get a ton more freedom than any other Mario game before it (well maybe with the exception of Maker). In the place of items like the super mushroom and fire flower, Mario can spend yellow and purple coins to dress up into almost anything from his boxers/swim shorts (as seen on the internet) to many of his iconic costumes such as the builder from Maker, his blocky appearance from 64 and even Diddy Kong and his own brother Luigi. As it is with the games these days, the game is packed with references to many of the old Mario games such as Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong.

Yeah there is a lot to cover in this game because it is just so packed. It is a fantastic game that was worth the wait. It may use stuff that previous games have used, but adding some new characters and making every world different but full of stuff to do makes us even forget that there are some familiar elements in the game. Having this much freedom in Mario games was always something that people wanted for a very long time instead of going back and forth and now we got it. But the question about whether its better than Galaxy or not, is an easy one. It is better than Galaxy or at least its on par with it. Sure its no Sunshine or 64, but it is a very good game that fans old and new will love. It is missing some characters from the series, but the game makes up by giving us the chance to dress as those characters and a variety of new characters to meet. So overall, its a very good Mario game and another reason to buy the Switch. 9/10