Now Playing: Super Mario Odyssey

Princess Peach has been kidnapped and only you (Mario) can save her (again)! But you’re not alone! Accompanying you on your journey is a sentient hat by the name of Cappy. If sentient hats aren’t weird enough, Cappy can be used to possess various creatures and people. They become your unwilling puppets. It’s kind of f**king disturbing when you think about it.

I’ve played a few Mario titles such as 64, Sunshine & Galaxy but I’m not a massive fan of the series. I think Galaxy was the one I enjoyed the most, but it’s been a long time since I played it, so it’s hard to say if I prefer it to Odyssey. It’s something I’d certainly like to revisit this year, if I can find the time.

SMO is one of the most creative, fun and clever games you’ll play. Variety is its strongest aspect, with a fantastic mixture of environments, visuals, audio, enemies and most importantly – gameplay mechanics. Every world introduces new and fun mechanics which you’ll need to utilise in order to progress. It does this via Cappy’s possession ability – by taking control of various enemies, creatures or objects, you’ll gain access to their abilities too.

It limits these abilities to a couple of basic functions, so it doesn’t overcomplicate things. It also doesn’t overuse them – as I said, it’s introducing new mechanics with every world. And every world has its own unique theme and style.

The goal on each world is to collect a certain number of Power Moons in order to progress. There are, if you add together all additional post-game content, 999 Moons to collect. Of course, you don’t need to collect quite so many to complete the game. In fact, if all you’re interested in is progressing from the first world to the last, you could probably beat the game in a couple of hours.

Power Moons are practically everywhere and collecting the minimum number required to progress is incredibly easy. Some Moons require you solve small puzzles or platform challenges, but others are just sitting there waiting to be picked up. I can see this being an issue for some players, who aren’t really interested in going out of their way to collect as many Moons as they can.

If all you want to do is ‘beat’ the game then you may be disappointed by how short and ridiculously easy Odyssey is. As fun, creative and clever as it may be, it also has practically zero challenge – at least as far as progression goes.

The ‘challenge’ of Odyssey isn’t finishing the game, but collecting all of the Moons. That’s the primary focus of the title, and that’s very clear when you do complete the game and it unlocks a whole f**k load of new Moons to collect.

I’m not normally someone who cares very much about collecting stuff like this. It reminds me a little of the Korok Seeds in Breath of the Wild of which there are 900 to find. But I never felt the need to find them all, because you’ll find enough to see you through quite easily. They also weren’t the focus of the experience.

But the Moons in Odyssey are the focus. Finishing the game is just the start, as it unlocks a new world to explore and hundreds of new Moons to collect. And because it has so much variety and clever mechanics to play with, even I found myself continuing to play to see how many Moons I could find. More Moons = more content to unlock. Unlike Zelda, Odyssey really nails the post-game experience. In fact, it feels like the post-game is where it really begins.

If I had one major criticism of Odyssey it’s that it never really requires you to combine all of these neat little mechanics in a testing or complex way. It’s only at the very end that it presents a section where you have to combine the various mechanics you’ve learned, but it’s still a very basic and easy section to navigate.

I kept waiting for the game to really put these various possession abilities to the test, combining them in unique and clever ways, but the game never takes that extra step. Every mechanic is fun and unique, but also very isolated from the next. The boss fights, though fun, are also very basic, easy and somewhat repetitive.

Whilst some Moons present fun, clever and unique challenges to collect, others just seem to be there to make up the numbers. That said, they do lend themselves to playing the game in portable mode, where you can jump in for short sessions and collect a handful of Moons on the go.

I played primarily in docked mode using a pro controller, which can be a little awkward at times, because it seems the game really wants you to use the detached joy-cons. It seems like it was designed primarily for that control method, so that’s something to be aware of. I’m not really a fan of the joy-cons though as I find them too small and tricky to use.

My only other issue is that a couple of the worlds feel somewhat incomplete compared to the rest – they’re smaller, with less to see and do. The best example is the Ruined Kingdom, which feels like a hell of a lot of wasted potential.

Overall, Super Mario Odyssey is a fantastic title that’s extremely fun to play. I just wish it had stepped up the complexity and challenge a little more than it does, and combined the various mechanics in more interesting ways. Despite those complaints, it’s a must have title for the Switch and a game that’s perfect for pretty much everyone to play regardless of age or skill level. It has something for everyone to enjoy.

8/10