Review #577: Super Mario Odyssey

 The gift that keeps on giving.

 I grew up with Mario. Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. Arcade NES ports were games I spent countless hours on, but nothing compared to how much of my childhood I invested in
Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World(Famicom bootleg). Mario 64 was my first brush with 3D, and one of my favorites on the N64. But then the PS2 and backwards compatibility came along and I jumped ship. Mario Sunshine? Skipped. Mario Galaxy? Didn't care. Mario Galaxy 2? I bought into the hype, and why I liked the game quite a bit... I was severely disappointed. I wasn't too interested in Odyssey, but hey, the Switch is a young console, and there isn't a whole lot of exclusives, so.... I gave it a chance. And I fell in love with Mario all over again.

 You know the drill already, Bowser kidnaps Peach. But this time around, Bowser is planning a wedding and thrashes Mario in the very first opening cutscene. But a ghostly hat, Cappy, posses his hat and vows to help Mario rescue peach... and his sister tiara. The game is over 10 large worlds long, with a few smaller worlds here and there. It doesn't sound like a whole lot, but there's a ton of different moons, this game's version of Stars, to collect. 880 moons, as a matter of fact. You only need a few, about 10-15 in order to progress to the next world, and there're a few moons that are very easy to find so it never feels like you're being held back from progressing against your will. Having 880 different moons also means that each world has about 50, so there's a ton of different things to do and find on each. It really is the gift that never stops giving.

 But it doesn't stop there! Death is a slap in the wrist this time around, Mario can only sustain up to three hits(Six if you find the power up) before dying, but the only penalty is a paltry 10 coin fee. Since the game doesn't run on lives anymore, coins are instead used in shops to purchase different costumes for Mario. Each world also has 50 or 100 devilishly hidden purple coins that can only be spend in the world they are found in, and they are used to purchase even more costumes or decoration for the Odyssey, Mario's ship that carries him from world to world. Super Mario Odyssey is a very meaty game, and there's no shortage of stuff to do and find.

 That's WHAT you do in the game, but HOW do you do it? Well, Odyssey plays a bit like a Mario 64 in that you are thrown into large but self-contained worlds that you're free to explore at your leisure. Mario has all his usual assortments of moves and then some. Jumping, triple jumping, side jumping, crouch jumping and wall jumping are all in, alongside Mario's 3D trademark: The ground pound. There're a bunch of new, and honestly unnecessary moves, like the punch-jump, by jumping after a ground-pound, 'catching', by pressing ZL and B on the air and a few others I'm probably forgetting about. Lastly, Mario lost his three-punch combo and his spin-attack, instead, throwing Cappy, with the B button, is his main form of combat...

 Kinda. While Cappy can defeat smaller enemies, it's also able to posses enemies and objects. While it sounds like a gimmick at first, the developers went out of their way to craft all forms of fun objectives to complete with the different forms Mario can assume. Posses a T-Rex and lay waste on smaller enemies and rocks. Posses a stone-creature-things with shades that can see invisible roads... but only while moving slowly and wearing his shades. Build a giant tower of Goombas to seduce a female Goomba. Posses a friggin' manhole cover in order to open up the way to a secret area. Trust me, there's a lot of fun stuff to do there.

 As good as everything is, and it really is good, I'd lie if I said I didn't have a few issues with the game's controls. Firstly, the Switch's analog stick isn't the best, a few times I found myself wishing I could have a more precise radius of movement. Secondly, hiding a few moves behind the ZL button. Y'see, in practice, ZL and ZR are used to crouch. But the special moves, such as the air-catch, can only be done with the ZL button. And finally, every enemy you can possess has a function that requires you to shake the joystick. Motion controls rarely are any fun, but if they are mandatory they are the absolute pits. Bad form, Nintendo, bad form. Motion controls suck, stop trying to force them on us!

 Mario is no stranger to multiplayer, but Odyssey implements it a little bit better than Galaxy 2 did. At any point a second player can pop in and play as Cappy. Cappy can't take damage, but it can hit stuff(Or posses stuff), ground pound enemies or switches and collect coins or hearts for Mario, albeit not moons. The second player can also move around while Mario is possessing an enemy, so you can seamlessly switch into another enemy or collect stuff from afar thanks to a second player. Disappointingly, there're a few sections and challenges that are Mario only, but they are few and far between.

 Super Mario Odyssey made me feel like a kid again, and there's no better praise I can give the game. Everything it set out to do it it succeeded with aplomb. And in an era of half-finished games and day-1 patches, not only is Odyssey a complete game, it'll also last you way longer than your average game, with tons of objectives and in-game unlockables that'll keep you coming back for more.
 10 out of 10