Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario Odyssey

Where to start where to start … because damn what are we looking forward to Super Mario Odyssey for the Nintendo Switch. Maybe it’s good to take a look where we are coming from concerning Mario games in the past few years before we’re going to look at this new adventure.

A trip down memorylane

In recent years, there have still been quite some Mario related games. That is if you take into account all the games Mario featured in. If we look at real concrete single player 3d games like Super Mario Odyssey, we really need to go back to the Wii. Of course we have had games on the Wii U in the New Super Mario Bros setting in 2012 and Super Mario 3D World in 2013.

But these games when compared to Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 on the Wii are Mario games of a totally different magnitude. Please understand us correct, the Wii U Mario games were good and fun but they were meant to be a multiplayer experience more than a real single player like the Galaxy games.

In addition, Mario has obviously has appeared in a lot of games, from tennis to party Mario did it all but now it’s time to become a single player adventure hero once again!

Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario Odyssey for the Nintendo Switch is almost there, less than two days at the time of writing. This new Mario adventure undoubtedly promises to be one of the main hits this fall, and that with a successful Switch Year with titles like Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 and an unexpected hit like Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle.

You would almost think that after all those years of adventure Mario has undergone the whole universe. More or less literal even in Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2. But nothing is less true, because in Super Mario Odyssey our Italian friend will travel  the world in what may well be his greatest adventure ever!

The story behind Super Mario Odyssey

In Super Mario Odyssey, Bowser finally tries to win Princess Peach for himself by marrying her. Mario obviously wants nothing of that and he has to do everything to rescue Princess Peach.

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Unfortunately, Bowser seems to have the upper hand this time and throws Mario of of his flying ship and flies away with Princess Peach still on board.

But Mario is getting empowered by a brand new character in the Mario universe called Cappy. With the new found friend Cappy Mario still looks to save the day. With the help of Cappy, literally a hat with eyes, Mario can carry out all kinds of new moves. Mario can throw Cappy in all possible ways to hit objects and enemies. Cappy can also be used as a platform to jump in order to get to even more secrets!

But Cappy still has a special skill and that’s his biggest of all: the capture ability. When Mario throws Cappy into an object, character or enemy who are wearing no headgear, Mario can take the shape of the item or person.

This is a totally new skill in Mario games in general that will provide a totally new gameplay experiences.

Together they join forces to go after Bowser to spoil his plans.

No paper hat

The capture move creates a new way when it comes to solving puzzles as well as exploring the game world. If it looks like a distance can not be covered just use Cappy as a platform or watch what Cappy can do with anything in your direct environment.

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This is something we’ve been doing with Mario games for 30 years, but in Super Mario Odyssey it’s even possible to take the shape of a Lava Bubble with the capture move and just swim across the lava to the other side. Whichever way you take is fine but it all makes the gameplay so enormously creative.

And how strange the capture move may sound, after using it  two times it’s like you’ve always used it. Super Mario Odyssey is full of all kinds of enemies, old and new! Have you ever wanted to walk around like a Goomba? Now you can!

Mario fans will soon see patterns of enemy attacks, and know what they after taking over a shape with Cappy.

It’s like you are on a vacation

From what we have seen and played from Super Mario Odyssey we can figure out that there are a fair number of different Kingdoms and each Kingdom is inhabited by another kind of life form.

In any case, you start in Cap Kingdom where you learn the gameplay basics that you need to explore the world in a fun way.

Power moons … power moons everywheeere

The way you explore the Kingdoms differs from level to level. New Donk City and Seaside Kingdom are giant open spaces in which the player is free to explore, while Luncheon Kingdom is a bit more straightforward, but develops further as you achieve certain goals.

super-mario-odyssey-preview-power-moonsWhat all Kingdoms have in common is that they feel gigantic and the game invites you to explore them all searching every nook and cranny. Mario’s goal in Super Mario Odyssey is to collect as many Power Moons as possible so that his ship’s Odyssey has enough power to reach Bowser’s location.

Super Mario Odyssey has a lot of power moons to collect, and we also mean an enormous amount. In a calculation done by Nintendolife, they came to a MINIMUM of 600 power moons. The first thing we said here; power moons are the new koroks. The game features more power moons alone to discover than there were Shines, Stars etc in all previous Mario games combined.

Fortunately, Super Mario Odyssey clearly shows what Power Moons you already have and how much you still need. Some Power Moons are clearly portrayed by the game and you will find them by yourself following the path of a Kingdom. But an unknown number of Power Moons are well hidden in all corners and holes of the Kingdoms and require the player to really search … everywhere.

A trip of massive proportions

Like a real traveler, Mario can score a matching outfits in every Kingdom. You can buy them at the Crazy Cap souvenir shops with trusty old Mario coins or local currency. This local currency is purple in color and has a different shape in each Kingdom.

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The outfits you can score for Mario are always surprising and often refer to other games from Mario’s history.

Through all those collectibles we have once suggested that this Mario seems a bit Banjo-Kazooie-ish, something that’s not a bad thing in our book because who does not love our past Rare bear and bird?

Outro

Super Mario Odyssey promises to be a very big and fun adventure. The return to open worlds with opportunities for exploration and collection reminds us of the older Mario titles we have already mentioned in the introduction of this preview and we welcome that with open arms.

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Just two more days (at the time of writing), before we will compeletly ignore the outside world (bye social life) and we will try to explore this game completely. Yes, we even have taken a day of  from our day-to-day job specially for Super Mario Odyssey, just that shows how much we look forward to this title.

We will try to make a full review of the game in the course of next week but considering the number of collectibles … maybe we just need some more time.

Are you looking forward to Super Mario Odyssey? Are you getting it day 1? Have you pre-ordered it? Feel free to let us know!