Super Mario Odyssey
6 months in the making and here we go...
For years I had never played this game, I only got it.. 6 months ago anyway. Everyone would tell me "how can you NOT have played it?!" I just always had other games to play and uh money, but once I finally picked it up, alongside another game (I will review later), I got to playing that night.
Now, first impressions weren't a thing. I had seen plenty of gameplay. Not enough to spoil the fun, no not at all, but I was aware of the artstyle and general story. Still, it is amazing to me that this game looks so good! Mario and the rest of the world has a more realistic approach to it than something like Super Mario Galaxy would have had, with tons of detail being put into every aspect of the game. The sound design is incredible too, the sound effect from throwing cappy is really satisfying as well as capturing creatures. They put a lot of care into even the rarely used voice and audio clips. Colors are vibrant and lighting always fits the mood of the story, as well as music being used really well to convey what is happening. It strikes me a little odd when characters like bowser are talking in his own "language" but subtitles show up to tell what he is saying. I understand that getting the story across can be difficult, but its a little jarring sometimes. At least he isn't straight up speaking english though like Super Mario Sunshine...
Presentation-wise, a 4.5/5. Beautiful looking and sounding game, with amazing colors, lighting, and music to fit the mood and help get the story across.
Now, Mario games have never had strong stories, it's really never evolved from saving the princess. It's something built on that, saving the princess in space, or just a castle, or from... jail? I don't know what was going on in Sunshine still... Regardless, all this is to say that Mario Odyssey's story is just what you'd expect from Nintendo. I like how there is a driving force behind bowser taking peach this time, being that he wants to marry her (although we don't get why he wants to marry her??) However, there is no hard hitting story beats or even any development, which makes me not really care for these new characters very much, since odds are we won't be seeing them in any future games again. There are quite a lot of cutscenes for story, which are all skippable luckily. It's not like they don't add anything, again it is cool to see a reason behind bowser taking peach and to see them expand on it, but they don't intrigue me, I feel like I could pick up on what's going on through just playing the game, the cutscenes help get it across but they aren't generally necessary.
Story-wise, 3/5. While it is interesting to see bowser have a reason to take peach this time, it's still following the same story beats as most other mario games, which really doesn't get me super invested into this new world and these new characters enough.
The best part about the VIDEO GAME of course is the gameplay, and Mario Odyssey knocks it out of the park! For one, controlling mario is a breeze, and easy for everyone to pick up with basic movements like jumping, long jump, cap throw, dive, roll, and more. There is a skill ceiling to his movement too. If you can get really good at moving around you can skip a ton and make huge jumps with ease. It's super smooth no matter how good you are at it. The camera is almost always on point, with a few points where it can get awkward no matter how you move it, its a step up in terms of past games i think. Of course, we can't leave out the main gimmick being the capture mechanics, being able to capture and take over the body of whatever you do capture. The abilities you gain from the captures are super fun, and most of them are extremely unique, but I will say it might sometimes be slightly over used? Sometimes they give you a capture that you use once and never again and its only for one moon, but that's really the only issue I have.
Gameplay-wise, a 5/5. Controlling Mario is so smooth and feels nice, with a low skill floor and high skill ceiling. Captures and cappy entirely adds a whole new dimension to the game which makes it a ton of fun to explore and run around. Short of a few weak captures, it's a extremely well developed aspect of this game.
Overall: 4.8/5. Super well polished game, impressive all around. Gameplay is so strong but doesn't carry it at all. The game has insanely well designed worlds and moons which provide a genuine challenge at some points, and 100%ing the game is so tough that it gives you reason to play for a long time. I would love to see more games like this come from Nintendo, one of my favorites in a long time!
