700+ moons in, and while the big bombastic fanservice set pieces are nice, it's the little fanservice touches that I'm enjoying most. The way the 1up theme plays in halves when you pause and then unpause. The tinkly music box version of Jump Up Superstar that plays when you bounce on the Odyssey's globe. The way Mop It Up's record is at the top of basically every Friend leaderboard by a wide margin.

999 woop woop pic.twitter.com/bO5t7qFUFa

— nate (@EatThePennies) April 4, 2018

I don't care that the yellows don't quite match, this is my preferred uniform for Mario.

So yeah, Nintendo made the Super Mario 64/Sunshine followup I was 100% sure would never happen, and it's a 10/10 and I loved it. I still think Zelda gets my 2017 GOTY, but Odyssey is a very close second in a year where Sonic Mania basically made all my dreams come true, so that's pretty good I guess


Scattershot thoughts:

-- The stiffer controls from the Galaxy-3DL/W era are gone, Mario finally has good loose momentum again. I love the downhill speed/rolling and how it keeps up if you keep jumping as you land, with that understanding of momentum and flow Super Mario Odyssey is basically the best professionally made 3D Sonic game so far.

-- Normally silly mid-air maneuvers in 3D platformers kinda rankle me (don't get me started on your garden variety mid-air jump), but the hat-throw/dive thing actually manages to feel good.

-- The game will bring you to question everything you thought you knew in life because the water levels are actually some of the better stages.

-- The capture gimmick is pervasive without wearing out its welcome (and is a huge boon to the aforementioned wonderful water levels) while also not overshadowing Mario's super fun core moves.

-- Environmental themes are varied and fresh, for the most part, even when they're more generic like Seaside Kingdom and Snow Kingdom they still have enough fun details to be memorable.

-- The clashing visuals like Mario and real-ish humans are a fresh change of pace at their worst and really gorgeous at their best, extremely pleased that it's not the same old bland, sterile, plastic-y stuff from the NSMB and 3D Land/World games.

-- Playing dress up with Mario is fun, Peach in various travel-wear is delightful, if you think less of me for this you can catch me over here not giving a damn.

-- The freshly styled Bowser World was such a cool surprise that I didn't mind that it's way too blocky and sprawly in design (3D Mario like 2D Sonic should be full of slopes and other interesting terrain, not flat tracts of land).

-- The best character in the game is the koopa troopa who believes Trace Walking is the sickest sport around and basically calls you a casual if you decline his invitation to experience the thrill of it. I desperately seek his approval.

-- Close second is the shiba inu puppy with a fedora. It takes a special kind of man to pull off that hat, and this puppy is the ultimate man.

-- Luigi's Balloon World is neat in theory, but in practice everybody just hides the balloons in the same 2-3 locations for the most part. It's still a nice addition because otherwise farming coins would be a hassle.

-- If I want to nitpick I think the game had maybe too many "filler" moons that weren't that interesting to find or grab. But I'm assuming they were intended to be more like BOTW's korok seeds, where the quantity was more to make the world feel full and give people more possibilities to get enough of them, not really intended to keep 100%ers feeling fulfilled throughout.

-- Moons for the most part though were fun scenarios and setups even if they weren't difficult, the photo ones in particular were a good way to gimmick a system feature into a game.

I arranged Steam Gardens from Mario Odyssey for my school’s jazz band and we played it at our concert! from r/NintendoSwitch

This is amazing. I want this recorded professionally. Then added to the game as an alternative track for Steam Gardens.

@r_hjort The best track in the game, no doubt.

I got 114 jumps in Jump Rope! I couldn't even manage to get the damn thing started before!

@nate38
The 1up theme plays? Wtf??

@carlosrox

I could barely break 60 and then got 420 a couple weeks ago.

No joke, 420 jumps, and then I messed up.

So when you say you could barely break 60 was your previous record, for instance... 69?

I could never get very far in the jump rope and volleyball before getting bored and nodding off. The volleyball in particular is soooo sloooow.

I cheated at volleyball by using 2p Cappy. Not an ounce of shame.

And I haven't even tried the Volleyball once :D

@r_hjort@Mop it up

Yup, arguably the best track in the game.

I do really love all the subterranean themes. This includes the Caves, Ruins, Another World (?), etc.

@Secret_Tunnel
There's always a bigger fish isn't there. Ugh.

@nate38 I kind of feel like they expected people to do this, otherwise they would have limited it to one player. I wouldn't call it cheating, especially when there was an actual glitch that allowed easy max scores on jump rope. That's what I would consider cheating.

Woah, Dunkey's getting good.

@Secret_Tunnel Yeah Dunkey seems a lot better at games than other Youtube personalities I've seen.

引き続き、マリオとキャッピーの世界を巡る旅『スーパーマリオ オデッセイ』をよろしくお願いします！ pic.twitter.com/yfYUkatCYB

— スーパーマリオ オデッセイ (@mario_odysseyJP) October 26, 2018

I wonder what they'll do with the next Mario game. I mean, I doubt I could have come close to predicting Odyssey, so I have no clue, but I wonder. I guess it would either be at the tail end of the Switch or on the console after that.

@J.K. Riki

I would love to see a beautiful, hand-drawn 2D Mario platformer that breaks a bunch of platformer rules. Specifically, a sequel to Doki Doki Panic with tons of personality and humor and new playable characters (Wario and Yoshi! And Bowser as an unlockable!). Call it Super Mario Panic and really play up the Mario 2-ness and the cartooniness of it.

@TriforceBun

Dream of dreams!

Makes me hope (but also dread) if we'll ever see another hand-drawn/sprite 2D Mario game. Feels like after the leap to 3D models they never looked back. (At least I can sit and stare at the Paper Mario games!)




This but with Mario, please!

If they're making an Odyssey 2 then it could come out next year.

@Mop it up

You think they would? I mean, we got Galaxy 2, obviously, but I hadn't even considered them doing a direct sequel! I guess I'd be okay with it. Since there was hardly any cohesion in Odyssey it would pretty much feel like an all-new game rather than a "two."

@J.K. Riki

It's possible. Consider that EAD Tokyo's last two Mario sub-series both ended up getting sequels (Galaxy and 3D Land). Plus there's the fact that we haven't gotten any level-based DLC. 2019 would seem a bit soon IMO, but 2020 would be feasible if it has a similar development cycle as Galaxy 2.