 |
| Super Mario Odyssey (2017) |
High above the skies of Peach's Castle, Bowser kidnaps Peach for a wedding, destroys Mario's cap and sends him blasting off again. He lands in the Cap Kingdom where he teams up with Cappy, whose sister Bowser also kidnapped, to traverse the planet and save the two. Yeah, it's not a very fleshed out story, but that's par for the course with Mario games. In fact, I'd honestly be more disappointed if a main-series Mario game did have a super complex and compelling story. The gameplay is pretty standard for a 3D Mario game. You've got your jumping, your rolling, your long-jumping and backwards-jumping. Oh, uh, except for this one new ability: Cappy. Cappy makes this game. When Mario tosses Cappy out, not only can he jump off of Cappy to gain extra height and length, but tossing it into specific enemies allows Mario to possess them, gaining their unique abilities for as long as Mario wishes. To win the game, you must collect Power Moons which are the energy source for the aptly named 'Odyssey', and are scattered throughout the game's multiple kingdoms. Each kingdom also has its own set of unique Purple Coins, and collecting all of these are also necessary for some Moons and for 100% completion. Collecting these and regular coins also allow you to buy new costumes for Mario and Cappy, which are mainly there for cosmetics, but some are also required for certain Power Moons. Coin grinding to buy every single one for 100% completion wasn't fun, but that's not for everyone.
 |
| Cascade Kingdom |
This game looks incredible. The attention to detail is staggering, but what's impressive about that is how cartoony the game remains. The colours are vibrant and they just pop off the screen. You know you have a good looking game when I played the majority of it in handheld mode and it still blew me away. I think I only played about an hour of this game using the TV, and the game never felt worse for it. Each kingdom has a very distinct look and feel to it, and that helps to make the 'world' of Super Mario Odyssey feel so much bigger than I thought possible. The soundtrack is also phenomenal. Just as the look of each kingdom is unique, so too is the music for each kingdom, and what you end up with there is a multi-genre soundtrack that's up there with some of Nintendo's best. I was unsure if the music in this game could rival the soundtrack in the utterly outstanding Super Mario Galaxy OSTs, and while I do think those games have better music overall, this game came very, very close. Cascade Kingdom, Sand Kingdom, Luncheon Kingdom, Wooded Kingdom, Madame Broodal Battle, Bowser Battle 2, Lost Kingdom, Underground Moon Caverns, the sensational 'Jump Up, Super Star!'... there is hit after hit after hit in this game. I don't think I've ever finished a game and then downloaded its soundtrack so quickly once I had. All in all, the presentation of this game is perfect, and the perfect showcase of the sheer amount of love and care that was put into this package overall.
 |
| Metro Kingdom |
Odyssey controls wonderfully. As I said above, the standard 3D Mario gameplay is all here and it still controls great. Jumping around these worlds as Mario feels great, and I found myself just jumping around when there was no need to, as is standard in classic 3D Mario. Where this game comes into its own is with Cappy. Tossing Cappy around is wonderful, and what on the surface is a simple tool to break things and possess enemies becomes the most powerful method of getting around the level once you get really good with him. The long jump, cap toss, dive, bounce, cap toss, dive combo is godlike, and the things I've seen people do in this game to utterly break levels and shortcut their way to victory is especially good when you consider it wasn't an oversight by the developers and was specifically coded into the game for that very reason. The enemy capture system is another stroke of genius by the developers, as its a clever way of varying up the gameplay without making it come across like a gimmick. I can't think of a single capture off the top of my head that I disliked, though there were obviously some I preferred to others. The game does a fantastic job of teaching you how to use a new capture the first time you encounter one, and the levels are designed around exploiting every little thing a capture can do.
 |
| Luncheon Kingdom |
Speaking of which, the objectives in this game are insane. There are 880 different Power Moons in the game, and I know hearing that can be off-putting, but for the most part, actually collecting them isn't too difficult. The hardest part is finding all of them, but the game actually gives you two different methods of assistance on this front. One marks a Moon's location on a map, and the other gives you the name of the Moon, which often can give you a good indication of the objective. There are a lot of Moon objectives that repeat in the Kingdoms, such as finding Captain Toad in each area or stacking Goombas, but with 880 Moons, it would be nearly impossible, and oddly less fun, for 100% of them to be vastly different to each other. The drawback is, of course, not all of them can be winners. There are some Moons that are pathetically easy (such as when they're just out in the open) and some Moons that are infuriatingly hard, and not in the good way (jump-rope and volleyball come to mind). Don't even get me started on the Hint Art Moons because I want nothing to do with them. On an unrelated note, the boss battles in this game are great. A lot of them have you utilising a specific capture, and this leads to some of the most unique boss battles I've played in a long time. Most of them are repeated at least once throughout the game, but they always stack the difficulty in some way that doesn't make it feel like too much of a rehash. There's a specific boss towards the end of the game that genuinely made me question if I was still playing a Mario game. The amount of variety and environments and sheer gameplay on offer here really make this game feel like a true adventure.
 |
| Bowser |
Super Mario Odyssey (2017) is appropriately titled, as it's a globe-trotting adventure that felt immensely satisfying from start to finish. Completing this game really felt like an achievement, as I felt like I'd gone on a long trip and returned home the better for it. Not bad for a 100th review. 9.5/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment