This is the first Mario game I've ever completed except for the GBC Super Mario Bros Deluxe and the GB Mario Land 2 (and the NES Super Mario Bros 3 on an emulator, with save state spamming, if you can count that).
I've tried to get into a variety of other Mario games, and they generally don't hold my attention long enough to finish. I really respect the craft and the design of the whole thing, but they seldom really click in a meaningful way. After sticking with Super MArio Odyssey, I am thinking that that may just be an expectation problem on my end. Of course I've always known there's minimal story to the main platforming entries, but I don't know that I ever internalized that as a core expectation.
These are games for games' sake, short bursts of digestible challenge in varying degrees, sometimes puzzling but rarely frustrating. Returning to SMO after a 9 month hiatus (I first started playing the game in the hospital waiting for my son to be born, then put it aside as life got busy), I forgot just how enjoyable the experience of exploring and hunting down moons could be. I finished the main game, and I am fully energized to continue collecting until I feel satisfied. I doubt I will ever do everything, but that's okay. I'd much rather pick this up for 20 minutes if I was bored than a lot of other things.
My final note is that I'm also 31 years old, and really impresses me that Nintendo has been able to maintain this series in such a childlike way while offering so many different things to so many different ages of player.
Maybe if I play more 3D Mario games my review will change, but SMO has given me a lot of casual enjoyment that I feel I'm missing sometimes in a world of short thoughtful indies and big story games.
I've tried to get into a variety of other Mario games, and they generally don't hold my attention long enough to finish. I really respect the craft and the design of the whole thing, but they seldom really click in a meaningful way. After sticking with Super MArio Odyssey, I am thinking that that may just be an expectation problem on my end. Of course I've always known there's minimal story to the main platforming entries, but I don't know that I ever internalized that as a core expectation.
These are games for games' sake, short bursts of digestible challenge in varying degrees, sometimes puzzling but rarely frustrating. Returning to SMO after a 9 month hiatus (I first started playing the game in the hospital waiting for my son to be born, then put it aside as life got busy), I forgot just how enjoyable the experience of exploring and hunting down moons could be. I finished the main game, and I am fully energized to continue collecting until I feel satisfied. I doubt I will ever do everything, but that's okay. I'd much rather pick this up for 20 minutes if I was bored than a lot of other things.
My final note is that I'm also 31 years old, and really impresses me that Nintendo has been able to maintain this series in such a childlike way while offering so many different things to so many different ages of player.
Maybe if I play more 3D Mario games my review will change, but SMO has given me a lot of casual enjoyment that I feel I'm missing sometimes in a world of short thoughtful indies and big story games.