It’s been a 1 year and 3 months since Odyssey’s release. Yet, I’m just now making a review of the game. Shut up. In October of 2017, Nintendo released Super Mario Odyssey for Nintendo Switch. In the first three days of its release, it sold 2 million units, making it the fastest selling Mario game in North America and Europe. And, you all know the story about how I first played it. So, I see no reason to keep you waiting. Let’s talk about Super Mario Odyssey. Spoilers, but it’s been almost 2 years, you’ve had enough time. Mario Odyssey begins with a fight between Mario and Bowser on his airship. Bowser is trying to forcefully marry Peach, and according to the internet, Bowser isn’t really breaking laws, but it just feels wrong. Anyway, Mario loses, and gets hit with a White Hat enchanted with Knockback 256, and a hat ghost named Cappy grabs the remains of Mario’s hat and flies off to catch up with him. Mario ends up in the Cap Kingdom, and after a little spook with Cappy, he becomes your hat, and you set off on your adventure. And from there, that’s it. Save Peach, and Cappy’s sister, Tiara, and stop Bowser from committing sexual assault. *put picture of bill cosby here* Super Mario Odyssey plays like Mario 64, Sunshine and Galaxy in terms of controls. In terms of gameplay, It plays like 64 and Sunshine, except for one thing. *shows footage of hat being thrown* You can throw your hat, to solve puzzles, or possess random creatures to also solve puzzles. You can also jump, throw your hat, dive into it, bounce off it, and dive into it again. There’s so many possibilities in this game, it’s overwhelming. The game’s mechanics are so good, that speedrunning on this game is quite easy. Infact, the world record right now is held by a person named Chaospringle, with a time of 1 hour and 24 seconds. And it’s really easy to get into the speedrunning community of this game. The Kingdoms in this game are quite cool. Well, some of them. Kingdoms like the Wooded Kingdom, Metro Kingdom and Luncheon Kingdom are super creative, and I enjoyed going through them, especially Metro and Luncheon They feel like someone at Nintendo got high on LSD, and thought of these kingdoms. And the controls they make me feel like I AM Mario. And the controls are just 4 buttons and 2 control sticks. But it feels so complex, even with that small control scheme. And the motion controls were quite nice. Now Mario Odyssey ain’t a perfect 10/10 with a nice little nintendo cherry on top. Honestly, there are a lot of moons that are super easy to get. When I grab them, I think, “I couldn’t have been that easy, right?” But they are. And the multiplayer isn’t the best. I mean, yeah, it’s nice to play with a friend or a sibling, but playing multiplayer with another person is like playing 4 player multiplayer in New Super Mario Bros Wii. It’s chaos. And some of the moons aren’t fun to get. Especially the rock with the moon in it. Those rocks take forever to get the moon out. And it doesn’t translate to a very good or fun objective. The music in Super Mario Expedition is also a huge bump in quality. I honestly keep jamming to the tunes of Wooded Kingdom’s 80’s feel, and Luncheon Kingdoms kitchen themed music. And the Japanese theme of Bowser’s Kingdom. The themes for all of these kingdoms can’t be summarized in one word, unlike recent mario games, where it’s just, Grass, Desert, Beach, Forest, Ice, Mountain, Sky and Lava. Odyssey’s worlds have so much diversity in them. But going off on a tangent. Sonic Mania was widely praised for its new zones, but was knocked down a few notches due to the fact, that the new zones were greatly outnumbered by old returning zones. Super Mario Wanderings also has this problem. The new stuff is amazingly fun. And they’re just a blast to go through. But the stuff that feels generic, is just a big eh from me. Like, they were able to make the generic stuff really fun, but it ain’t the best to see boring, bland and unoriginal levels in this game, which feels like a giant rebrand of the Mario games. There’s nothing wrong with these bland levels, I just wish that they had way more original kingdoms. One of the secondary villains in Odyssey are the Broodals, who are the wedding planners, stealing everything from the kingdoms to prepare Bowser’s “amazing” wedding. These boss fights, they’re not bad, but they’re not really fun. You fight them every time there isn’t a boss in the kingdoms, or if the boss is somewhere else in the kingdom. Once you do one of each Broodal boss, once you see them again, in another kingdom, you know how to beat them in seconds. Or, you could always look up a walkthrough, but then, you become an unepic gamer. But when the bosses aren’t the Broodals, they use captures in such a way, that it’s super fun. Like this boss in Wooded Kingdom, that requires this creepy onion with stretchy legs to damage it. Or this boss in the Seaside Kingdom, where you have the use the octopus in a water ball to damage its head. (or you could always jump on it.) The bosses in this game are fun, and use captures in a unique way, and I enjoyed fighting these bosses, even though I died to them, a whole lot. Moving away from the Kingdoms and Bosses, let’s talk about Post Game Content. Now, let’s do a quick rundown of what you got in every 3D collectathon Mario Game. (galaxy counts to me.) In 64, you got to see Yoshi on the rooftop, if you got all 120 stars In Sunshine, you got… a postcard, if you got all 120 shines. Hey editor, what’s your opinion on this? In Galaxy, you got to play as Luigi. And if any Mario game that allows me to play as Luigi, I immediately play as him. Now, in Odyssey, you get to explore the Mushroom Kingdom. And it’s just a huge love letter to 64. The Moons here are shaped like stars from 64, you can get the 64 suit, to look like your polygonal ancestors, and it’s just how you would want the Mushroom Kingdom to be like. Overall, the Mushroom Kingdom is pretty good, but you know what I want? I want to play through all the 64 levels, through Peach’s Castle. That would be amazingly cool. All in all, Super Mario Odyssey was an absolute BLAST. The levels were fun, but I wish they had more original ones, the gameplay is fun, and is able to hit the perfect notch between casuals and speedrunners, the music is amazing and the post game stuff is fun too. Though some moons can feel quite boring to get, or just plain frustrating. If you have a Nintendo Switch, this is one of the must have games, along with Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Smash Bros. Ultimate, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Sonic Mania. In my opinion, if you have a switch, and 90 bucks just laying around, get yourself a copy, of Super Mario Odyssey.