Super Mario Odyssey

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I really don't know what to think of this game.. when I saw it last night I was intrigued with some of the level designs. But looking back and seeing Mario looking like a cartoon character in a real world environment and making little dust clouds when he ran, wearing cartoon gloves, having an awkward size body compared to everyone else. It looks way too inspired by Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Space Jam.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

it looks like it's a mix of real world and Mario world. It looks great to me. Mario Sunshine was amazing, hopefully this will be just as fun. 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[Sledgstone 8,672]

This Mario game looks genuinely fun. I loved Mario 64 and this play style is very reminiscent of that while having all the new hat powers, vendors and upgrades. Looks great.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Its kinda hard to describe what it is. It plays like M64, but its nothing like it. Its very exploratory from the videos I've watched, you'll have to check them out on YT, they're all 30 min long on the 2-3 levels they showed off. I'm pretty excited about it though. It's the closest to a sandbox Mario game we've had yet... and I'm always a sucker for exploring.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

This guy's reviewing voice and tone sounds like one of those 90's consumer reports car reviews.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Not going to lie... I'm a much more tempted to buy a switch compared to the when the wii or Wii u were launched. This Mario game looks amazing. 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

So far this review is pretty spot on. My favorite part of this game is the 2D puzzles in Mario 1 format. They do interesting things with it, while its 2D it can wrap around a column or other odd shaped terrain. I was in one kingdom that had a bunch of them, while another had one or none. I kind of wish there was more consistency to it.

The possession mechanic is awesome. From Bullet Bills to a new tank enemy, it reminds me a lot of Kid Chameleon. For the most part you can stay in control of the possession indefinitely.  Things like Bullet Bill, it will end when you crash into something, or he detonates.

My only gripe is that some of the boss fights are WAAAAAY too easy. The review isn't lying. Some of these bosses can be defeated in 20-30 seconds. The mechanics are cool and easy enough to make you have to hit the boss double the amount of times you're required. Each kingdom has a boss, but they aren't pivotal to the zone besides the fact that you probably can't leave until you defeat them, but if you go straight to them and take them down, you still can't leave until you collect enough moons to power up your ship. This is what you spend most your time doing. Exploring and finding hidden moons. There are ones in obvious places, hidden ones. and ones that require puzzles or mini games to get. There might even be another hidden boss.

Here is an example of a hidden boss. This was probably one of my 3 favorite so far, but its the only one that's not a spoiler so its worth watching.

 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I'm pretty close to beating the game. The boss battles have become better, a lot of the bosses are recycled with new and harder mechanics or arena hazards. This game is really really good, but damn motion controls are forced on you for some of the cap throws. This means you can't really play in portable mode if that matters to you, because you'll be flinging the screen around. Thankfully they aren't moves you need too much of, but you still need them at times.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I hate motion controls. So Mario has 3 hearts per life? Is there any core upgrades like in Zelda games? Beating specific bosses increases your heart poll? Doing some achievement gives you a hat throwing distance upgrade? I saw there are outfits, are there any specific ones that give you stronger abilities or is it all just for fashion?

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

The outfits are mostly fashion. There are some that can be bought with normal coins, and some with kingdom specific purple coins that are more difficult to collect. The purple coins will buy you an outfit themed to that kingdom and there is usually a locked door an NPC will only let you into when dressed in said outfit.

You only have 3 hearts per life, you can find and/or buy a power heart that will give you 6. This is mostly a waste to buy because the game is so easy, you'll only need 3. If you die, you only lose 10 coins and get to start at a pretty decent checkpoint. Most of the time you'll drop those 10 coins like Sonic loses his rings, and can pick them all back up. The 6 hearts are only temporary and they go away if you lose them. You can refill them with standard heart drops as long as you don't drop to 3. Sometimes you'll get a power heart and fall to your death losing the extra 3 without ever getting to benefit from them.

There are no upgrades. I beat the game yesterday, and there is still a lot to do after you finish if you like to explore. I rage quit after I hit a pretty tough 2D puzzle that had a lot of bullet bills flying everywhere while there was a map hazard that you pop you out of the 2D mode into 3D and caused you to fall to your death.

Breath of the Wild is the superior game and its not even close... of course not much comes close to BoTW. Its a masterpiece. Odyssey is great, Sunshine is still my favorite, but Odyssey is definitely a step in the right direction for the series. The sound and music was amazing. The Metro Kingdom and Sand Kingdom were my favorites. It seemed more time was spent on their development than the others.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Is there a potential for Nintendo to release new kingdoms as DLC? Or would that throw off the plot in some way to have new worlds getting introduced at this point?

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

There would be no point really. The purpose of the kingdoms is because you can only travel so far with the power moons you gained from the last one to track down Bowser, so you keep going from kingdom to kingdom to gather more moons to go further. With how the industry is going, Nintendo might be the only company that will still make single player adventure games that don't have DLC.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I started playing around with this again. The end game consists of a new set of Moons in each kingdom. Some are floating around in different spots, and some are brand new puzzles added via a new hole to fall into. The biggest challenge is a really long gauntlet when you unlock enough moons. It's something I'll never bother to complete. It consists of many recycled boss battles and hazardous puzzles. If you die you have to start back at the beginning. There are no check points, and from what little I played of it, there are no refills of your heart meter. So you gotta make it through only getting hit 2 times, there is no shop to buy the extra ring of hearts in this area.