Super Mario Odyssey Review

So I just played Super Mario Odyssey.

Earlier this year a game came out called Yooka Laylee. That game was marketed as the return of collectathons from the early days of 3d platformers. Meanwhile at Nintendo, Miyamoto was making Super Mario Odyssey and telling Yooka Laylee to suck it.

Super Mario Odyssey is the culmination of 20 years of Nintendo making killer 3d platformers. The puzzles, challenges, and secrets are so varied and so much fun that it made me reconsider my opinions on earlier Mario games. Running around collecting Power Moons and purple coins made me change my perception of how games should be played.

When I started playing I wasn't super impressed. I was just blitzing though the story going from kingdom to kingdom. It wasn't until I started collecting moons in kingdoms that I had already passed that it clicked. Usually when I play games I like to make it through the story and move on. With Mario the best parts are in the post game.

The biggest mechanic that Odyssey added is Cappy. Cappy is a sentient hat that Mario uses to control various creatures throughout the game. Using it to run around as a goomba or a weirdly realistic T-Rex is delightful.

One of the complaints I've heard about this game is that it's easy. Anybody that says that hasn't gotten all the Power Moons. There are some controller throwingly difficult challenges in this game if you find them. As a game that kids play they obviously couldn't make it too difficult to beat Bowser. But they totally recognize that some people playing have probably played a Mario game before and made getting everything sufficiently challenging.

Overall I loved Super Mario Odyssey. It was the second best game that Nintendo made this year. I set it down after collecting 504 power moons. I give Super Mario Odyssey 48 out of 53 silly hats.