Hmm, the secret Deep Woods area isn't nearly as exciting as finding it was. Kind of not much interesting stuff to do there so far.

Finished the second jump rope challenge!

My "strategy" was to do precise button pushing before it gets to top speed, and then when it gets to top speed, just start mashing the button as fast as I can (one handed, I was using split JoyCons.) I didn't expect it to work, but it did, first try! In fact, at around 80 or so I stopped looking at the screen because it was just distracting me, so I did the last 20 or so blind.

I don't know the game has a minor pause at 100 or if subconsciously I gave up or if I was slowlyyyyy moving towards failure and finally hit it or what, but despite thinking I would keep going for as high as I could get, I lost at 101.

@Zero

Haha, I failed at 101 as well. Coincidence?

Same here! 101 and done.

I've finally figured out the long hat jump technique and messed around a bit with the foot races. I didn't expect to get into them because I don't think as myself as very competitive, but once you figure out a good route to get decent times, it gets kind of addictive! It puts me in the same frame of mind as when I played SSX3 or the time trials in F-Zero GX on the GameCube: restarting over and over again whenever I mess up, hoping to get a near perfect run eventually.

I think I shaved something like 3 seconds off my time after taking this screenshot. But it's the only course where I'm near the top of my friends list. Should be fun to try and do better on the others.

Oh just a random little detail that I love. In New Donk when the band is playing, hit one of the members and listen closely. And then try the others. Whoever you hit, their instrument makes a weird noise and then they stop playing for a second or two until they can recover.

Neat little detail!

The 2 kingdoms after New Donk are also pretty awesome and super stunning visually.

Yup. Seaside Kingdom is the one to beat. This is fucking awesome.

It is gorgeous, huge, and filled with variety.

So I just beat all of the Broodals on the Dark Side of the Moon (heh), and that second mech fight was more fun than the first. Hammer Bros. make everything better! Also, there's a Life-Up Heart right before you ride the wire into the large carrot hidden in one of the fruits. Throw Cappy and make your life easier. Gravity makes that whole sequence really tricky.

I still adore this game.

I googled the volleyball challenge and found a very easy way to get to 100. I guess I'll put in in spoiler mode if anyone wants to try to do it on their own. You'll find the video pretty easy if you google it yourself, but basically what you do is go into two player mode and just control Cappy the whole time. He moves very fast and doesn't have the momentum issues Mario has. I got it on my fist try doing it this way.

Man, 100%ing a kingdom feels like a feat. Some of these bigger ones, like Sand Kingdom, are just stuffed with things. How do you guys spend your purple tokens? I always save the ship decal for last as a sort of trophy saying I 100%ed that kingdom (or at least got all its tokens).

Great game. I can't see myself fully 100%ing it too often, though, due to the sheer thoroughness required.

@TriforceBun

I did the same. Prioritizing costuming over trophies.

Though I did also 100% it earlier this week as well. It was a feat though Nintendo certainly seems to do it fairly this time around, unlike the blue coin hunting of Sunshine.

@TheOldManFromZelda
Not sure if you're having the same type of problem as I did, but everything fell into place for me -- almost literally -- once I started using the ground pound attack more often, to reduce my floating-around-like-a-dork-time.

@r_hjort

Yeah, I'm just not very accurate with it. Frustrating.

Went back to this after days of essentially nothing but Doom and Bomberman, and oh my god it's so good. For a moment I wanted to log in here and change my score to a perfect ten. The controls are so bloody good, and some of the worlds are such brilliant playgrounds. Also, to channel my inner Carlos: The photo mode is amazing.

Just "finished" the game, aka beat Bowser. What an ending! I don't think I remember such an epic ending in a Nintendo game, outside of maybe a Metroid one. Wow. And then after, going to Peach's Castle? I felt like a little kid again. I wanted to live there.

Now off to 100% it I guess! Will enjoy every moment of doing so. I will sign up now for an Odyssey 2, if you so will it, Nintendo.

Welp, I've found all but six of the Power Moons:

1. Secret Path to Lake Lamode
2. Secret Path to Some Other Place That I Can't Remember
3. World Waper (aka find all 10 secret paths)
4. Souvenir Savant (aka buy 40 souvenirs, aka find 100% of the purple coins for a handful of worlds
5. Jumprope 100 Times
6. Volleyball 100 Times

...all of which sound really monotonous and not fun to get, so I guess this is where I call the game officially done! What a ride.

I've also heard that if you buy extra Power Moons until you have 999 of them, you get a special little ending cutscene too. And I'm also definitely not doing that.

I "finished" the game as well. A pretty neat ending, although it didn't feel quite as powerful as some past Mario endings... maybe because it felt super easy? I dunno.

BTW I knew about the power moons that get unlocked RE: the metal boxes but for some reason I had thought there were only like 5 or 6 per kingdom... the ones still blank even though Hint Toad has no more hints. But nah, it has nothing to do with those, a BUNCH of new stuff gets added! So now I'm slightly confused what all of those ones were that were blank... stuff you can do before beating the game but that Hint Toad has no hints for?! Or do those only open after you beat the game too?! I think the Koopa Races are some of them?

So yeah, on the one hand it's pretty cool that there is still a ton to do. On the other hand like half of the new moons or so per stage are literally just go to an X on the map and grab the moon. Which feels a bit like... ug, why? If this were a different type of game I'd maybe relish getting to run all over the worlds and experience them again, but I've already been all over every little corner of these worlds multiple times. Kind of wish they had just added the new challenges / pipes / etc. and not a bunch of just random collect-a-thon moons as well. It's not like the game even needed THAT many new moons!

I feel like maybe taking a little break and coming back when it will feel a little more fresh again. But I probably won't, because the game is addicting...