Just a Note, I did not Complete Mario Odyssey 100%, All I did was Blaze through the Main Story just to get it ready for this Review. Now thats out of the way, heres a Review for the Newest Mario Title.
So, Super Mario Odyssey. The last time we had an Open World 3D Mario was 2003's Mario Sunshine(which I already did a Review for a While Back)
How Well does it Hold up to the other Mario games? lets find out!
North American Box Art
PLOT
Sigh its YET ANOTHER "Bowser Kidnapped the Princess. go Saver her" Plot. Its a Main series Mario game, what Did I expect?
Well Bowser Steals the Princess, This time a "Fool Proof" Plan to Marry her, by stealing Relics and Items from Various Neighboring Kingdoms.
When Mario Confronted Bowser, Bowser ended up Beating Mario and Sent him flying to the Cap kingdom. Upon Waking up, Mario Meets a New Friend, a.....Hat....Ghost? Named Cappy, Cappy tells Mario that he saw Mario Fight Bowser and that he Wishes to fight along side Mario. because Bowser Kidnapped Cappy's sister Tiara as a Part of his Wedding Scheme.
So Mario lets Cappy Join him, Cappy takes the Form of Mario's Hat and Now Mario and Cappy Heads off to Find an Airship to follow after Bowser. However all of the Airships in the Cap Kingdom are Destroyed, However there is a Power line at the Top Hat tower that Goes to the Cascade Kingdom.
Turns Out, Cappy has a Power that lets Mario Posses Creatures by Throwing Cappy on their heads, and Mario uses this power to get to the top of the Top hat Tower, Upon Reaching the top of the tower Mario and Cappy meet Bowser's Wedding Planners. the Broodals(who they were too lazy to give names to each of them), one of the Broodals Fight Mario...and loses and then Mario Uses
So Mario and Cappy head to the Cascade Kingdom and find an Airship, A Little Rusty one but it works. However it is out of Power and it is Powered by...Power Moons. After Collecting a few Moons Mario and Cappy Restore this Cap ship into the Odyssey. and Now Mario and Cappy must use the Odyssey, to head to different Kingdoms to Stop Bowser, and collecting Moons along with way to power the Odyssey.
And from there the game Truly Begins
So...yea. Standard Mario Plot here
GAMEPLAY
Mario controls like he Normally does, He runs and Jump, he has a few Jump Techniques. Like the Long Jump, and the Dive However Cappy Gives Mario New Moves, Mario can Throw Cappy to Posses things and as an Attack, There are other ways to throw Cappy, Like a Spin Throw, an Upward Throw, and a Downward throw. on top of that, When Cappy is thrown Mario can jump off of him, Basically giving Mario a Second Mid-air jump. Cappy can Also Allow Mario to posses Certain Creatures, Each Creature does something useful. For examples, Goombas dont Slip on Ice and can Make Towers with other Goombas, and Bullet Bills can Allow Mario to have Temporary Horizontal Flight. I wont Spoil every Capture there is but Each of them are interesting.
This 3D Mario is different then others, its still a collect-a-thon, and this time you are collecting Power Moons, The Grand total of Moons in the game is 900. and your Reward is an Invisible Mario Outfit to Make the Game more difficult.
There is another Item you are collecting, Purple Regional Coins, Each Kingdom has either 50 or 100 Purple coins(or anything can be used as currency), these Coins are used to Buy Stuff Like Outfits, Souvenirs, and Stickers for the Odyssey. These Items can be Bought at a Crazy Cap Store, Each Kingdom Typically has two Crazy Cap Sellers, one who Takes Purple Regional Coins, and one who Takes the Yellow Universal Coins. The Yellow Store also Sells Outfits but they also Sell Power Moons, and Life-up Hearts.
Oh Yea, Mario only has 3 Units of Health. but by collecting a Life-up Heart it will temporarily expand you health to 6, However if your health goes to 3, Your max health will go Down to 3 once again.
There are no Lives, instead when you Die you lose Yellow Coins and go back to the last check point you crossed, while some see these as making the game too easy, I found Quite a bit of Challenge with some of these Platforming Challenges, Puzzles, and some of the Bosses.
There are also Mini-Games too.(However only the Bounce Race game in the Snow Kingdom is Required) These Games can net you a Moon as well as having Online Leaderboards for these Mini-games, if you have a Record you can Send it Online to an Leaderboard.
And if you are Lost on what moons you have yet to find, you can find a Toad and pay him to tell you a location of a random Moon, you can also find Uncle Amiibo. a Roomba that allows you to Tap Amiibos, If you tap the Tuxedo Mario figure it Grants Temporary Invincibility, Tapping the Tuxedo Bowser Figure Shows the Locations of the Regional Coins, and Tapping Wedding Dress Peach Figure gives you a Life-up heart.
Tapping Certain other Figures Grants you Other Outfits, these outfits Include.
Tapping the Following Figures unlocks..
Dr. Mario (Smash Bros. Series) - Dr. Mario Outfit set
Golden Mario (Mario Series) - Gold Mario Set(this is a Rare Set as the Gold Mario Amiibo is pretty Expensive)
30th Anniversary Mario - Classic Color and Modern Color (Mario series) - Classic colors Set
Diddy Kong (Smash Bros. Series) - Diddy Kong Outfit
Luigi (Mario Series and Smash Bros. Series) - Luigi outfit
Wario (Mario Series and Smash Bros. Series) - Wario Outfit
Waluigi (Mario Series) - Waluigi Outfit
Tuxedo Mario (Mario Series) - Mario's Tuxedo and Hat(you also get this In the Story as well)
Tuxedo Bowser (Mario Series) - Bowser's Tuxedo and Hat
Wedding Dress Peach (Mario Series) - Wedding Dress and Veil.
Tapping any other Amiibo with Uncle Amiibo Will show the Location of a Moon. Tapping an Amiibo outside of Uncle Amiibo will give you a Random power up.
And yea.. thats about it for Gameplay
PRESENTATION
Wow. Mario Odyssey Looks Great. and Holy wow, You can See the Strains of hair in Mario's Mustache, and HOLY HOLY WOW this Game looks Great, Especially on a High Def TV.
The Music is Fantastic as well, I mean, Have you even HEARD this Game's Main theme? If Not. Look up "Jump up, Super star" on Youtube. do it Right Now! Ill be here. Its a Fantastic Main theme.
The Animations are Clean, and Each Kingdom Looks like it would Fit in the Mario universe(Yes even the Metro Kingdom with its Real World Humans)
Overall, the Game Looks Great is what im trying to say here
THE BAD
Mario Odyssey is not perfect and here are some flaws,
For one, I dont think the Game Punishes the Player Hard Enough for Dying. When you Die you only get sent back to a checkpoint and lose 10 coins...uhh ok? I think what they should have done is make you lose Half of your coins for dying. that way it provides a Reason for the player to not be reckless.
The Main story is also kinda short. if you are good at speed running you can beat this game in about 3 Hours, with the world Record being just above 1 Hour.
There is also.....wait....thats it? Really? I thought there were more
OVERALL
This game was Tons of Fun. For Both a Casual Fan and a Super Serious Mario Fanboy
There is something here for everyone
4.5/5
A Fantastic Game Despite the Minor Flaws.