🏅94%
Super Mario Odyssey brings the mainline series back to the heights of World, 64, and Galaxy. While I found 3D World to be amazing, the games in the early 2010s before it were in kind of a lull. Galaxy 2 and 3D Land were fun, but the New Super Mario games kept coming out and never really did anything unique. Odyssey comes in here full force bringing an open-world 3D Mario game back. It never stops trying something new and creates a masterful experience.
You are first thrown into the Cap Kingdom which is the perfect introduction to the game. It has an eerie atmosphere creating mystery that begs multiple questions. What is this place? What is happening? What did Bowser do? What are these cap people? What is the Odyssey? It immediately lets you learn all of the basic controls in an open environment that is so much fun to go through. Then it takes it to a new level in every kingdom after that, with improvements in every kingdom. Some create a high energy environment like New Donk City and the Luncheon Kingdom, but you also have more desolate areas begging for more subtle exploration like the Cascade Kingdom and the opening segment of the Snow Kingdom. Whatever this game throws at you in the kingdoms is perfect and you are constantly anticipating what's next, while also enjoying what amazing things are in the kingdom you are in.
One of the major highlights in this game was New Donk City. There's so much to do in just this one kingdom. You can interact with city life, stuff taken for granted in the real world just feels so much fun like the jump rope game and city exploration. The energy here is unmatched with the boss fight, the festival, and the atmosphere created. The whole festival sequence where it goes 2D in a Donkey Kong tribute and you have Jump Up, Super Star! playing is one of the best parts of any game I've played. Odyssey knocks it out of the park at a visual and music standpoint, and just that one part is able to showcase that. The colors, the objects, everything looks amazing. But that also brings me to one small complaint. The whole game, whether it is the NPCs, objects, landscaping, it all has such an animated feel, yet I feel like some of the things in here look a little too realistic and takes away from that. I loved playing as the dinosaur in Cascade Kingdom, but it looked a bit too real taking away from the visual style in my opinion.
There is one other complaint, and that is the moons. Now you may be thinking, how did you love this game but hate the moons? I don't hate the moons. I loved them. I don't like the amount and placement. Some moons were way too easy and obvious. I feel like it takes away the reward when you find some of the harder ones. In Mario 64 and Galaxy, when you found a star it felt rewarding for the player, while here even when it was the same difficulty as a Mario 64 star, the feeling wasn't quite matched just from how easy some of the moons are. Getting multi-moons though, that had the same feeling.
Odyssey is one of Mario's best 3D entries. The gameplay is excellent here, and Galaxy is the only one that beats it. It doesn't match the gameplay of Galaxy, but does any game? Super Mario Odyssey nails everything it goes for and brings the Mario franchise back to the great heights it has reached. It took me almost 6 years to get around to this, but this first playthrough was excellent. I absolutely loved Super Mario Odyssey.
Super Mario Odyssey brings the mainline series back to the heights of World, 64, and Galaxy. While I found 3D World to be amazing, the games in the early 2010s before it were in kind of a lull. Galaxy 2 and 3D Land were fun, but the New Super Mario games kept coming out and never really did anything unique. Odyssey comes in here full force bringing an open-world 3D Mario game back. It never stops trying something new and creates a masterful experience.
You are first thrown into the Cap Kingdom which is the perfect introduction to the game. It has an eerie atmosphere creating mystery that begs multiple questions. What is this place? What is happening? What did Bowser do? What are these cap people? What is the Odyssey? It immediately lets you learn all of the basic controls in an open environment that is so much fun to go through. Then it takes it to a new level in every kingdom after that, with improvements in every kingdom. Some create a high energy environment like New Donk City and the Luncheon Kingdom, but you also have more desolate areas begging for more subtle exploration like the Cascade Kingdom and the opening segment of the Snow Kingdom. Whatever this game throws at you in the kingdoms is perfect and you are constantly anticipating what's next, while also enjoying what amazing things are in the kingdom you are in.
One of the major highlights in this game was New Donk City. There's so much to do in just this one kingdom. You can interact with city life, stuff taken for granted in the real world just feels so much fun like the jump rope game and city exploration. The energy here is unmatched with the boss fight, the festival, and the atmosphere created. The whole festival sequence where it goes 2D in a Donkey Kong tribute and you have Jump Up, Super Star! playing is one of the best parts of any game I've played. Odyssey knocks it out of the park at a visual and music standpoint, and just that one part is able to showcase that. The colors, the objects, everything looks amazing. But that also brings me to one small complaint. The whole game, whether it is the NPCs, objects, landscaping, it all has such an animated feel, yet I feel like some of the things in here look a little too realistic and takes away from that. I loved playing as the dinosaur in Cascade Kingdom, but it looked a bit too real taking away from the visual style in my opinion.
There is one other complaint, and that is the moons. Now you may be thinking, how did you love this game but hate the moons? I don't hate the moons. I loved them. I don't like the amount and placement. Some moons were way too easy and obvious. I feel like it takes away the reward when you find some of the harder ones. In Mario 64 and Galaxy, when you found a star it felt rewarding for the player, while here even when it was the same difficulty as a Mario 64 star, the feeling wasn't quite matched just from how easy some of the moons are. Getting multi-moons though, that had the same feeling.
Odyssey is one of Mario's best 3D entries. The gameplay is excellent here, and Galaxy is the only one that beats it. It doesn't match the gameplay of Galaxy, but does any game? Super Mario Odyssey nails everything it goes for and brings the Mario franchise back to the great heights it has reached. It took me almost 6 years to get around to this, but this first playthrough was excellent. I absolutely loved Super Mario Odyssey.