There's No Such Thing As "Game Over, Man" In Super Mario Odyssey

The bubble system of Mario Run was a good way to remove lives as well.

Nice that they're making Mario accessible to 2 year olds. They will remember that for a life time....😜

I'm fine with this.

I'm okay with this. Considering the game focuses on the player exploring and finding little secrets, it would be annoying if dying made you loose a lot of progress. I think it's a good way to go for an open world game.

Shovel Knight and Mighty Gunvolt Burst are fun because you get unlimited tries. As a kid, the least fun part about Super Mario Bros 1 and 2 was not enough lives to get a less than great player through the game. I think unlimited continues should always be a thing. Perhaps an option to scale difficulty and give finite lives to expert players?

I guess it's Game Over for Game Overs.

People complained about a similar system in Kirby's Epic Yarn, but I didn't mind because the game's challenge came from the collectibles. Oddysey is very similar, so I don't have a problem with no Game Overs in this game either.

There's no point in having a Game Over screen in a game where you can farm lives as often as you want. I died so many times in Donkey Kong country returns and never saw the Game Over screen because after each stage completed I got back to some of the previous stages I liked the most and played them to relax and to regain all my lives. Game Over is completely pointless in modern platformers and it is simply clever to leave it out from a game of this kind

Game Over's are kinda dead and pointless at this point. Newer Mario games, should you ever run out of lives, simply put you to the start of a level instead of the checkpoint. Even Mario 64 only put you outside of the castle, giving no real consequences for a Game Over or Lives system anymore. The removal of this antiquated system is long overdue and I'm glad to see it gone tbh.

@Alikan I like shovel knights risk reward element though. Bust open the check point for cash was a great idea for those looking for more of a challenge.

Considering it's incredibly easy to obtain extra lives in practically all Mario games, this is fine. As long as they have some secret world that is incredibly difficult (like what they did in 3D World), I'm okay with this.

But this should not be the standard across all games; it does not encourage players to get better.

Lives aren't relevant anymore anyway, Nintendo made the right call.

The only setback to getting a Game Over in modern video games is to have to reload your save, and possibly lose your checkpoint. That's nothing. Glad they trimmed the fat.

I'm ok with this!

This article reminded me that Bill Paxton died ;-;

@Spoony_Tech as do I, but at least you're not limited to 3 lives with a 1up hidden in each level of shovel knight. My first playthrough had 50+ deaths. In Mario oddysey the coins are also used to purchase things so at least there's incentive to collect more and avoid death.

But how can Pauline be our 1-up girl if there aren't even any lives in the game?

@Spoony_Tech And 52 year olds.

Game Over screen was stupid anyway. In Zelda BotW after you see the Game Over screen do you go back and have to start the game from the beginning? No, of course not. That's really the only time you should ever see the Game Over screen, when your game is truly over and you have to start it over. That's what Game Over means, start your game over. If you are only going back 5 minutes to your last save then the game is not over. There are basically infinite lives in Zelda, you just keep respawning over and over and over again after the Game Over screen. It's just a way to make gamers who are full of themselves feel better about themselves b/c their game has a Game Over screen in it, but it really isn't Game Over now is it?

If you die you die, if you want to prove something to yourself don't die. The Game Over screen is just a useless and pointless slide that means absolutely nothing to anyone with a lick of sense unless the game is truly over and you have to start form the beginning, only then is it Game Over.

I like failure thats way pushes us to be better faster stronger in games and life.

I'll miss them 1up mushrooms

Game Over in some games just served to lengthen short games anyway. The last levels get really hard and you have to play through the whole game just to get back to where you were, I'm glad it's not like that anymore.

Whats the purpose of 1-up and 100 coins for a free men?? Mario 64 had game over screen jusy get dust off do it again. It could be a mode to turn on and off like a little kids mode would rather have a challenge. People complained Metroid prime 2 was to hard and it was made easier in The trilogy set of the games and was disappointing

Yay... !
But I wonder what will happen if Mario run out of Coins (Lesser than 10 Coins or No Coins at all) ?

Turning mario in to a kinda lego game

Good. Game Overs and Lives are a thing of a past that holds no relevance today. It is not like recent mario or Donkey Kong games we ever see a game over screen anyway.

Also what movie or TV show is that?

@UK-Nintendo
Psst...
Pauline had eaten the 1-Up Mushroom.
And that's why she exist on Odyssey.

Also, Pauline was the 1-Up girl based on the lyrics.

If the game has some survival aspects like Zelda, then Game Over is important i think.
But for Platformers i really liked the way Ori and the Blind Forest worked. You could die hundreds of times in that game but it was never a frustrating experience. It still had difficult escape sequences that you had to beat without saves.
For Mario i think no Game Over is the better system.

Despite this, you still lose coins for dying, so the game does punish you somewhat. Losing all your coins would be a huge detriment, as you wouldn't be able to buy clothes, Power Moons or Hearts from the shop anyway, and you'd have to earn those coins back.

I actually don't mind this but let me go on a rant for awhile.

Back in my day, When I played Super Mario Bros. and died I dusted myself off and was forced to git gud. Kids these days don't know what it means to git gud.

Now keep in mind I was maybe 6 or 7 when I was playing Mario so I figured my nieces who are a bit older now than I was then would be able to handle the game just like I did, but nope. I watched them die to the first goomba for ten minutes straight once they finally were able to jump over the goomba I had to watch them die from the first pitfall for another 15 minutes after that I said "let's play something else. "

@NewAdvent

You do realize modern Mario titles give you lives like candy? It isn't like you ever were in danger of running out of lives.

@Wichtel
Yup.
I agree with you.
With No Game Over screen, it will explain that Odyssey can be played by Casual gamers who have never played before and they will think the game is interesting because feels easy, not hard.

Between Mario Kart 8 Deluxe driving itself to now this Super Mario news....

It doesn't really matter to me. What's the point of a game over and being sent back to the title screen? If I screw up just let me try again. Lives and game overs are relics of Arcade style game design. Most modern games just bump you back to a previous check point or auto save. And that's the way it should be. Look at Mario 64 where getting a game over just sent you back to the title screen and lives resent every time you restarted the game.

@Fooligan
Hahahaha...
He needs practice a lot to beat that simple Mario games.

i'm sure odyssey will have its share of super difficult challenges

Yeah really what was the point of Game Over in many games as they'd stopped sending you back to the beginning and you just carried on from where you left off...

The 3D Mario games haven't really had Gamd Overs for some time anyway so no surprise here. I hope this is the route they go for the next 2D game.

Makes sense, recent Mario's games had pretty pointless Game Overs that were pretty much a "You lost all your lifes, here extra ones" kind of thing.
Not that the Game Over has no place to stay in gaming, some games still need it, but it was a while that Mario was clearly trying to get rid of this system XD

Mario 1, and 2, are basically the only Mario games with true "Game overs." After that you had unlimited continues so the "Game over" message never made much sense anyways

Good change. 1-ups and game overs were pointless going back as far as SM64.

@EarthboundBenjy She's, uh, she...well, crap.

Going back to a checkpoint is punishment enough.

Good, now get rid of level timers in all future Mario games.

No point in keeping the lives system in a modern Mario game where you can save your progress anyway. It was just a remnant of antiquated game design. I'm more interested in how creative the challenges in this game are.

By Super Mario Galaxy 2, they were practically drowning the player in 1ups anyway.

One of my favourite things to do in Mario 64 when it first came out was to experiment with all the hilarious ways I could kill Mario. Since he's so animated in Odyssey, I'm going to have a great time just getting myself killed in all sorts of creative ways! This is gonna be a lot of fun.

We'll have to see if losing coins feels like an appropriate consequence on its own. While you may have unlimited lives in a game like Shovel Knight, losing level progress is a pretty strong motivator and adds intensity to what you're doing.
Still, the fact this game will remain accessible to kids is definitely good. Gotta groom that next generation of Nintendo Lifers.

I had my hopes up with how BotW went they would actually bring some challenge back to the mario games. Guess not.

They've done this coz we have all died hundreds of times on botw

I like it but......its weird. no game overs in a mario game

That's freakin' boring. what's the point then?

Its fine. If this game's going to be absolutely massive, you wouldnt want to die far into a world only to be sent back to the starting point anyway.

Wario Land 2+3 had a similar system with never dying only losing coins and those are classics.

@Switch81tch sorry to busy being awesome at games to worry if ever word is up to your standard of grammar and level of English please correct my bad spelling and auto correct phone and ill just continue being awesome thanks maybe Nintendo can add kiddy mode in all your games to help you along

There should be a hard mode with fixed lives.

I'm not sure how I feel about this, there already is enough handholding in new Mario games.

But I wanted to hear the Game Over music!

How is Pauline going to be our '1UP girl' if there aren't any?

Game Overs are kinda pointless anyways now that recent Mario games drown you with 1-Ups anyways. Glad its gone.

@Spoony_Tech ingenious system really, glad that mario does penalize failure but nothing to the extent of dark souls, mario has always been casual vs zelda which is more hardcore

@stevenw45 2d games require more skill over 3d games.
Still buying odyssey

@Minotaurgamer what's the point of booting the player to the title screen anyway?

Seems pointless.

@bezerker99 last time I checked, mario is not dark souls

Honestly, Mario games these days don't really punish you to begin with when you die. 1-Ups are abundant, and the design of the games has definitely changed from the NES days.

Since the game emphasizes exploration anyway, this makes more sense and would stink if some of your progress was voided if you died. It makes even more sense due to the Switch's hybrid nature.

Dark Souls and Bloodborne made it very simple in their respective worlds, with a simple "YOU DIED" when... well, when you died. It made sense there, because the games were darker and death was kind of a theme no matter whether it was you or a giant skeleton thing. Mario and other Nintendo icons should have the freedom to keep things more lighthearted if it fits the core of the game more accurately.

Also, the Switch is meant to be more of a family console, so this gives much younger and much older people a fair shot at making their own progress.

@HSuzumiyaVI Because, clearly, Dark Souls is the only hard game ever developed in the history of video games.

Is it really that hard to handle losing? Why buy the game I've already won (not literally).

I'm ok with this. I can't even count how many times that I go for useless 1-Ups or for doing things in game that reward you with them. At least coins have been fleshed out to have more use: you can buy Moons and clothing items with them from what I saw in the demo at E3.

If I take "Game Over" literally, it's when you are trying to progress from beginning to finale without losing all your lives to "beat" the complete game, or score chasing until you finally do lose all your lives. So, "Game Over" made sense because the WHOLE GAME was over. With save states, checkpoints, autosaves, etc., the whole GAME isn't OVER anymore, you just go back to your last checkpoint/save/etc (Or maybe screens should say "Try Again!" now, hmm...). In any case, Game Over works best on arcade-y, run-through, blast through type games, cause it gives you incentive to see the end after battling through a handful of stages or keep going to beat that high score. My final verdict is, I'm take it or leave it, cause no games nowadays actual end your whole game when you die. Imagine if Zelda:BotW made you start all over from the beginning lol

@Anti-Matter Nintendo sends you a bill with the amount of money you owe them for being so bad at the game.

@HSuzumiyaVI Dark Souls doesn't have a limited amount of times, meaning there's no "game over " screen... so now Mario is actually more similar to it than before.

Dark Souls doesn't penalize failure harder than most games. Just like many, it returns you to the last bonfire (checkpoint) until you reach another one, and any souls you lose are only wasted if you fail again without touching the bloodstain, which doesn't matter much since it isn't hard to get souls again. It really isn't close to be as hard as people make it out to be, specially compared to games like Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry 3.

@Switch81tch no worries i get it now old man

I'm perfectly fine with this, but haven't we known about this for a while now?

RIP Bill Paxton

Btw, if you play the "Aliens" table in Zen Studios' Aliens vs Pinball, you get the iconic quote everytime you get a game over XD.

Well I guess it makes sense. In most games dying is just a minor inconvenience or set back at best anyway.

Most players probably wouldn't notice it too much since the hardest levels tend to have no checkpoints anyway, and a 'game over' normally just requires starting a level from scratch anyway (fairly sure 3D World was an example).

this is a horrible mistake i mean come on a game has to be atleast somewhat of a challange to be fun.plus a game over is good for you it lets you know you failed and makes you strive to do better thats fun.having the game baby you is lame and ruins it.

Completely disappointed in this. Game Overs are a penalty for not getting better. It just makes the end game "eventually" instead of a challenge.

@LordGeovanni exsactly i hate this dumbing down trend its so lame

The frustration of not buying things is the perfect level of penalisation. Just can't stop being excited for this game.

I think the idea of a game over is just a holdover from the arcade generation, it has no place in most games nowadays. I mean, let's say you run out of lives and it kicks you out to the title screen. You just reload your file and pick it back up. This is just taking out that meaningless step.

Aww Nintendo's so Nice; ok, how about adding the effect of the enemies not hurting you

Lives are so incredibly outdated, so I'm glad they got rid of this.

Besides, we know they'll likely have a World S that'll lack checkpoints and be plenty challenging anyway, as they've been doing that since Super Mario World.

Getting rid of "Game Overs" is fine, but there should still be some kind of real punishment for failure, and just losing coins isn't it. While not necessarily a bad thing in exploration sections, what about in actual dungeons? They should at least push you back to a previous checkpoint. What happens when you lose all your health in a boss fight? Do you just get to keep fighting from where you left off? That would suck all the challenge away! "Kirby's Epic Yarn" has the same problem, and it was compounded by the fact that the collectables that were a challenge were incredibly lame and nearly pointless to collect.

What's the point??? Mario is way too easy

While I usually advocate challenge and harshness in games, being kicked out of a painting in Mario 64 did nothing to make the game any harder, it just forced the player to go back in and select their mission. The Game Over screen by comparison had little value beyond forcing players to simply walk back to the painting and jump in. Game over is something games did out of necessity back in the 80s and 90s because games were so short, devs needed some means of keeping the player entertained. I can think of no better example than Contra, a game difficult enough that it held our attention over the many years. Get game over too many times and it's back to the jungle with you! Otherwise, Contra could be beaten in a half hour and leave gamers a bit disappointed and probably take it back to the store same day.

@DiscoDriver44 It's not even "modern" Mario games. If you simply play through Super Mario World and have even a modicum of skill you will quickly have dozens of extra lives.

Having a lot of lives, or removing the concept of "lives" altogether, doesn't really have any bearing on whether the game is difficult, so it's not really fair to jump to the conclusion that this means Super Mario Odyssey will be too easy.

The whole concept of "Game Over" is a holdover from arcade cabinets that were designed to relieve you of as many quarters as possible anyway (since generally "Game Over" implied "unless you insert more quarters to continue").