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- #101
I'll just make this into a general review thread, I suppose. I beat Odyssey, so I may as well talk about it :P
The music and graphics in this game are top-notch, some of the absolute best I've ever seen in a Mario game. The controls handle pretty well, and the new mechanic, Capture, let's you control enemies and objects that range from cool to hilarious and it's a lot of fun. You can control returning enemies like Goombas or Cheep Cheeps to things like a freaking T-Rex or a taxi. The kingdoms are all beautifully designed and it never feels like there isn't something to do, ranging from a food kingdom to a frozen desert kingdom to the metropolitan area run by Pauline, who sings the very catchy "Jump Up, Super Star!" And costumes! You can dress up Mario however you want with various pieces of hats or outfits, some even calling back to previous titles. Once I got the 64 Outfit, I never took it off except for when a Power Moon called for another outfit.
The main problem I had actually comes from the Power Moons themselves. In previous games, you hopped into an area, selected a mission with a name hint, and then it shows you were to go. The fun came from finding out how to get there. Super Mario Odyssey does do this, but only for the main missions that happen in a linear progression, which I think happens only, what, twenty times? There are a whopping 999 Power Moons in the game, more than there are Koroks in Breath of the Wild. I don't remember how much you actually need to beat the game, I think 150, which is not anywhere close to the full count. The rest of the Power Moons are scattered, with the only clues you get for them being from Talkatoo, Hint Toad, or amiibo. It quickly became this extravagant fetch quest that I ended up getting very bored very quickly with it after I beat the game (some Power Moons are post-game only, btw). It's the same problem I had with Breath of the Wild, it was a lot of aimless wandering. You are rewarded for the wandering, most certainly, but the game just felt like it dragged on way too long. After 836 Moons, I didn't feel like finding any more.
But regardless of how you feel about how the Power Moons are handled, the rest of the game's content is incredible. I don't think it has Super Mario 64 or Super Mario Galaxy beat for me, but it's definitely deserving of being one of the best Mario titles.
Super Mario Odyssey
Going in to Super Mario Odyssey, I saw many people saying it was a return to form to the Super Mario 64 or Super Mario Galaxy format. Even Nintendo made this connection, separating these from Sunshine and the 3D Land/World games. But after playing even just the first kingdom, I could tell this was just going to be its own thing. There are still end level objectives to collect, in this case being the Power Moons, but they don't behave in the same way. In 64 through Galaxy 2, you are brought back to the hub world after each objective, and going back in will often lead to changes in the level for each mission. Here in Odyssey, almost everything happens at once, and you can keep collecting Power Moons without being brought out of the level. The levels do change after you collect a Multi Moon, however.
The music and graphics in this game are top-notch, some of the absolute best I've ever seen in a Mario game. The controls handle pretty well, and the new mechanic, Capture, let's you control enemies and objects that range from cool to hilarious and it's a lot of fun. You can control returning enemies like Goombas or Cheep Cheeps to things like a freaking T-Rex or a taxi. The kingdoms are all beautifully designed and it never feels like there isn't something to do, ranging from a food kingdom to a frozen desert kingdom to the metropolitan area run by Pauline, who sings the very catchy "Jump Up, Super Star!" And costumes! You can dress up Mario however you want with various pieces of hats or outfits, some even calling back to previous titles. Once I got the 64 Outfit, I never took it off except for when a Power Moon called for another outfit.
The main problem I had actually comes from the Power Moons themselves. In previous games, you hopped into an area, selected a mission with a name hint, and then it shows you were to go. The fun came from finding out how to get there. Super Mario Odyssey does do this, but only for the main missions that happen in a linear progression, which I think happens only, what, twenty times? There are a whopping 999 Power Moons in the game, more than there are Koroks in Breath of the Wild. I don't remember how much you actually need to beat the game, I think 150, which is not anywhere close to the full count. The rest of the Power Moons are scattered, with the only clues you get for them being from Talkatoo, Hint Toad, or amiibo. It quickly became this extravagant fetch quest that I ended up getting very bored very quickly with it after I beat the game (some Power Moons are post-game only, btw). It's the same problem I had with Breath of the Wild, it was a lot of aimless wandering. You are rewarded for the wandering, most certainly, but the game just felt like it dragged on way too long. After 836 Moons, I didn't feel like finding any more.
But regardless of how you feel about how the Power Moons are handled, the rest of the game's content is incredible. I don't think it has Super Mario 64 or Super Mario Galaxy beat for me, but it's definitely deserving of being one of the best Mario titles.
| Pros | Cons |
| Incredible graphics and soundtrack | Power Moon fetch quest |
| Capture mechanic is hilariously well done | |
| So many costumes to wear |
