It's the Mario game that most understands the character's status as the ultimate video game icon. The structure is simple and has been repeated since 1985, but the decision to transform Mario's "world to world" visits into a trip around the globe (with a tour guide) is brilliant.

While I was playing Super Mario Odyssey I couldn't stop thinking about how it's a game similar to One Piece (it'll make sense, I promise). Firstly because: it's a lot about recognizing that the strong feelings you have while playing come much more through the journey than through any conclusion that may exist (and One Piece may end someday, but Mario never will).

Secondly, because like the Gear 5 transformation, it's a game almost entirely about the malleability of Mario's body, how he reacts to the environment, and vice versa. One of the best feelings you can have playing Super Mario Odyssey is catching one of the many Moons and thinking "was it supposed to be done like that?". It doesn't matter how you arrived at the goal, it matters how you played with the geometry of the levels and Mario's moveset.

It's bizarre to write so many words about the thematic importance of a Mario game, but the fact is that this game is very concise and rounded in what it wants to discuss about the character. It's a celebratory game about recognizing Mario's place in the global media canon, and in doing so it needs to recognize the most primal aspect of the character: he's an actor, a jack of all trades; He's a plumber, a kart driver, a tennis player, a doctor, he's Mario.

In this game, Mario is Bullet Bill, Goomba, Hammer Bro, Yoshi... Mario is whoever he needs to be when the situation demands his messianic presence. At first glance, the mechanics of transforming the game into 2D (several times) may seem out of place, but it is building precisely towards this point of adaptability of the figure of Mario.

Mario saved video games with Super Mario Bros., of course, but Mario is also Jump Man; his first appearance is not even in his own game, it is in the Donkey Kong franchise. How could THE video game icon, who was born in a franchise that is not his own, not take the freedom to visit any place? to transform into whoever he wants?

Super Mario Odyssey is a manifesto about freedom, it's a game full of expression and charisma in every corner, it's there to remind you to always be or do what you want. The game ending on the Moon is especially symbolic, because if for human beings visiting it was a moment of great evolution and celebration, for Mario it is another Monday. But it's another Monday that he can only have thanks to having grown up and matured with humanity. Mario has already had two games exploring planets, but the Moon's ambition is palpable; after 32 years Mario was finally able to see planet Earth from there. It's time to realize how great his achievements are, how many people he reached over during his journey.

"Thank you, Mario. It's been an honor walking a mile on your head".

this game has a fascinating gameplay loop, either you can't lead the flock and cry as they fail to maneuver anything short of an automated mario maker stage or you're the dipshit in turn who can't construct anything

being of the latter variety this is what the sequence of events in an average playthrough looks like every once in a blue moon

1. involuntarily made shaman

2. proceed to try to link two planks together (they will not link)

3. switch to balloons (they flew away)

4. blast everyone out of the map with cannonballs

5. receive eight unanimous death threats in chat

6. uninstall game

the french still got it

love it to bits but also why is this game so weirdly imposing for what on paper sounds like a super chill concept

one the one hand you have oak with the passive hook that consists of "take some pics of pokemon as they frollick in their natural habitat, help me with my research" which quickly morphs into

"oh but it's on rails hop onto my rickety transportation module of questionable origin and go pelt the little shits with pester balls, they like apples oh ok here HAVE ALL THE APPLES x 100 drown them in the fucking apples I have for you today NOW CENTER THE SHOTS HNGGGGG UNACCEPTABLE DO IT AGAIN BITCH

BLOW UP THE ELECTRODE AND GIVE ME PERFECT SYMMETRY WHEN YOU COMPOSE THE SHOT OF THE BLAST"

and then somewhere along the way we ran out of places to visit so now we're revisiting all the old levels taking photos of optical illusions to then fight mew in a shadow realm with a bubble that's impervious to cameras or some shit but shhhh is ok just bask in the magnificence of the moment

certainly didn't help that I had the german version which only excuberated the terrifying nature of Oak's rants and I later found this was a common mistake for a lot of PAL region residents who had parents that mistakenly bought it for them as kids because it was poorly labeled

as a catch the fruit player any opinion I hold on this game can immediately be discarded

quality fodder for degens who have and will never know the touch of a woman but felt chronic masturbation was not speeding up their nerve damage beyond the rookie numbers they were seeing at the time

all in all the skill ceiling is so high you'll find the only barrier the top ranking players are unable to surmount is the reinforced fencing at their nearest elementary school

The closest we'll likely ever get to a true Ape Escape 4. Ape Escape: Big Mission is a Japan exclusive PSP spinoff. If you are an Ape Escape fan, do yourself a favor and play this game! Don't be scared by the fact that it's in Japanese language only. This game can VERY easily be played even if you don't understand a single bit of it.

The story has Specter shrinking down Spike, Natalie, and the Professors lab to a miniature size. He's also kidnapped the Professor, Aki, and the previous protagonists Jimmy, Kei, and Yumi. Now Spike and Natalie need to pilot the miniature lab to save their friends and family and return to normal size.

If I had to compare the gameplay to another game that's more modern, I would say it's like Mario Odyssey. The twist here is that instead of controlling Mario you can only control the cap that possesses things. That's this game in a nutshell. When you begin a level, you start off piloting the small lab and need to locate an Ape to possess and control before your battery runs out. From there, you move through a linear level swapping between apes with different abilities to clear platforming challenges. Catching apes feels almost exactly like it does in the console games, and playing as them feels like the different gadgets you use in those games as well. If you decide to play this game here's the basic controls so you understand what you're doing since everything will be in Japanese. X will always be jump no matter what you are controlling, triangle will always be the capture/unpossess ape button, and square and circle will always be the attack or special move button depending on what your ape specializes in. That's basically the gist of it and what you'll be doing throughout the whole game. Easy as hell to get!

Soichi Terada composed the soundtrack for this game and honestly, it's some of his best work for this series. If you don't want to play this game because it's japan exclusive then at least give the soundtrack a listen.

There are a few nitpicks. Sometimes the game spawns WAY too many enemies at once in some rooms and you can easily be overwhelmed. Also for some reason, the game only lets you have 2 lives and no more then that. A baffling choice but you likely won't be dying too often. If you get nervous feel free to save state. Further, when you are presented with an obstacle you are almost always given the ape needed to proceed through it, so it feels like there's not really much challenge in finding the apes like you do in the mainline titles.

Overall, this is a very good Ape Escape game and it's a shame it was never translated. It feels like a culmination of the previous games, bringing back all the protagonists from series history and having them work together against Specter and the Freaky Monkey Five by controlling all the apes they've fought before. If you are an Ape Escape fan that's hungry for more content, please play this game! You'll see what I mean when I say it feels like it could be the closest to an Ape Escape 4 that we'll ever get.

TNA Impact released around the time where TNA was probably at their peak with one of the greatest rosters in pro wrestling, shows being viewed by millions of people with people even hoping and thinking that TNA would at one point become an actual competitor to the WWE which why TNA's first video game was highly anticipated since it's not only TNA's first game but it was also the first major non WWE game in quite a while. TNA Impact released in 2008 and received luke warm reactions at best and is nowadays even viewed by some as a "bad" wrestling game. the game's roster selction while offering a lot of TNA's strongest draws at the time is a bit too slim and there are no female wrestlers found the matchtypes are also very bare bones with only 9 matchtypes that also don't offer a whole lot since every match in theory is a hardcore match so no DQ's though the only weapons at your disposal are a couple of chairs that lay on the ground. no tables and no chairs. the abscence of content is only a little understandable since it was TNA's first game and the first major non WWE in years so both TNA and Midway couldn't be quite sure how successful the game could become which is why I get that Midway tried to play things safe since every dollar you'd spend on feauteres could be a dollar you'd potentially lose. still a ladder match and having the ability to also use tables wouldn't have hurt. plus there aren't nearly enough moves in the game. a lot of wrestlers share at least 2 or 3 moves which does make them all play very similar to play. even though TNA Impact is very lacking in content and was very much begging for more variaty I still think it gets way too much hate since it's far from being bad. visually the game is simply stunning even today, the core gameplay is despite the lack of movesets, matchtypes and things of possibility still very smooth since it runs on 60fps and fun even. it's very arcady and I love it for that you can even catch people mid air with a dropkick when they try to pull off a top rope move which is awesome and it surprises me that no game prior gave you that ability. the moves also all feel so impactful, chairshots are straight up nasty with the way the wrestlers sell them, the ultimate x matchtype is also a lot of fun and probably one of more unique ones since no other wrestling game feautered it (probably bc it's a TNA original made for their X division so it wouldn't make sense to feauture it in a non TNA match or game), the story mode while feeling like it was written by Vince Russo while he was on a heavy drinking binge is also actually enjoyable. despite the difficulty spikes and the lack of arenas (which why TNA? like c'mon you got PPVs like No Surrender and Victory Road yet none of them are featured in the game) it still offeres an entertaining story that doesen't take itself seriously and the reversal system while unrefined is really cool with the player being able to reverse reversals there are moments where you will see a chain of reversals happening which is awesome shame though that timing on a lot of these is weird. TNA Impact had a lot of potential there are many puzzle pieces of a fantastic wrestling hidden throughout. puzzle pieces which could have been put together as one in a sequel which at one point was planned but unfortunately Midway declared for bankruptcy not long after however some of that potential was realized since the same development team then went to work on WWE All Stars which has TNA Impacts DNA all over it. TNA Impact is a flawed but earnest attempt which in my eyes didn't fail. is it as good as the WWE games that came out during the same console generations or even as great as the WWE games that came out the generation before that? no. but it remains a very unique game of it's kind that can deliver the Smackdown or rather the Impact!