Topic: Super Mario Odyssey

Now that a sunk a good amount of time into it I feel like I can give an opinion now.

It's a 3D Mario and while yes it is the best 3D Mario game I have played it just won't beat 2D Mario games for me. With that said I am enjoying the game alot, the graphics are gorgeous, the music is terrific. The controlls are iffy for me. I feel that Mario is alot slippery to control maybe it's me but I am finding it hard to just stop especially when he gets running.

Just like Super Mario 64 the biggest downfall for me is the collectathon design. Collect X amount of coins in this stage for 100%, collect X amount of moons etc. While there's nothing wrong with this type of gameplay, I just get bored of it quickly. I play through a stage collect the bare minimum and move on to the next stage.

With that said though I find I am having alot more fun collecting the various things when I am playing SMO with my son on two player mode. Which is how I will be playing this game for the most part.

@rallydefault I'm not sure if I ever thought they were "floaty", but it definitely took me a while to really get a hold of the controls. Understanding how the momentum works in this game can take several hours.

Speaking of momentum, it's kinda neat how the sprint glitch in Sunshine is now basically part of the official controls, with Mario running faster as he goes down a hill.

Now breathe.

Mario Odyssey is actually really amazing.

@AlternateButtons Same with me and my brother. Sometimes I’m just laughing out loud when another bizarre thing happens or something over the top cute!

It’s amazing to me how effortless you can control all the different creatures and things. And how fun it is. Almost equally as fun as Mario, which is a first for me when it comes to 3D marios. So props to the devs. They did a great job!

Spent 5 hours in the sand kingdom itself so looks like the games that I'll be buying in the coming weeks like Doom, L.A. Noire and Skyrim will stay unwrapped. But I'm having a blast with in the Odyssey.

Sex Mario has nose physics? Ugh nice spoiler there....

Fun Fact: 'Sex Mario' was the title screen for Super Mario 64.

But yeah, this is the best 3D Mario game for someone like me who plays them, but who has no special connection to Jump Man and Damsel Dress. This is actually the best localization Nintendo has done in a while, y'know, probably helped by the fact that it didn't have much text to localize. I haven't remembered to try it yet, but apparently the spin jump is in there as well.

Some more things I found weird though were the game's strange resistance to showing trees when Galaxy and Sunshine had trees for days on old systems. I mean the wooded kingdom has basically one tree area and then the rest is flowers and metalwork. And more broadly none of these places are actual places, they're just dioramas floating in dimensionless space. Seriously, most of the kingdoms don't even connect to solid ground. The water and ice kingdoms were pretty good on that front though.

And probably my biggest gripe beyond not being able to play at different times of day is the inconsistency of the costumes. For one, there isn't a lot of diversity to begin with. So many of the designs are just red or white or yellow joke/zany suits as opposed to designs that are actually trying to look good. But even if you do pick a costume, what's the point if your cap is going to turn back into Mario's standard brim whenever you capture an enemy or spin it on a point? The costumes also only translate to 2D if you're wearing the same set for both head and body. It's just kind of an annoying lack of attention to detail.

Done with the main story now so here are my opinions about the ending:

@Tsurii Well, I figured you had to do it like with the Big Piranha Plant, the 'boss' before him in the Steam Gardens so I figured it taught you to make it swallow Cappy and jump on his head. You know, teach that mechanic to the player and then test it on him, I thought. Tbh, I still have no idea if that‘s really how you do it as it always seemed random to me whether he became dizzy or not.

@rallydefault He doesn't feel floaty, but he has a lot of inertia. He controls fine though, it's actually some of the captures that are a little rough on the controls, I mean they work fine, but for precise controls they're a bit iffy.

Anyone else here who jumped rope with the scooter? I just had to try it out. It might even make it easier since you can't jump as high with it so you don't have to be as precise as with the normal short hops.

Jump Rope Video

Also, from my first day of playing the game: Bullet Bill Close Call (Video from Sand Kingdom, no spoilers)

I already picked up the moon from the end of this hallway and returned to pick the one I missed. I was thinking: "Well, I think it's faster to go back to the start." I completely forgot about that one wall and was so lucky to not die there (though in the end I would've ended up in the same place anyway).

@Snaplocket Imagine you were dragged against your will through over a dozen kingdoms for who knows how long, barely escaped the collapse of the cathedral you were supposed to be forcibly married to somebody you absolutely despise and then be fought over. I‘d say it‘s very understandable that she‘s rather fed up with the idea of marriage - for that moment at least. I mean, heck, the second she returns home, she packs her things and goes on a vacation. She really needed to get away from all that garbage and clear her head.

@Octane
Yea, I guess it's the inertia. The T-Rex controls are frustrating, though; he gets hung up and stops suddenly on any tiny little outcropping.

@GoldenGamer88 And in retrospect, asking someone's hand right after saving their life, no matter how frequent an occurrence that is, is pretty rude if you think about it. The fact she at least considered the proposal for a moment, as well as her clearly not holding any hard feelings over it shows that she does indeed have feelings for the plumber (would we be comfortable calling him Prince Mario if it actually happened?), but you can't deny Mario's move wasn't exactly smooth.

@rallydefault Yup, that's the one I was talking about. I got stuck between a rock and a wall and had to jump out.

@Snaplocket Now, I don't have the game yet and don't plan on spoiling myself on watching the ending (feel free to discuss though), but Mario IS used to receiving affection from Peach in the form of kisses and cake after a rescue (though admittedly the cake is usually pre-planned), so it's not too much of a stretch that he made a (faulty) assumption that Peach would be in the best mood for a proposal in the same situation. But unfortunately the nature of Bowser's current scheme makes him come off as somewhat hypocritical, when in reality he, ironically, probably just lacked the guts to do so before.

Mario's character in the Marioverse is a mixed bag at times iirc, where in some games he's super heroic and in others he has instances of bitterness. Usually towards Luigi. In the case of Bowser, he's a bit of a joke.

@-Green- I can't think of much instances of "bitterness" of Mario towards Luigi (moreso the other way around), only Luigi's victory scene in Mario Power Tennis where he (Mario) grinds his foot and gives what seems to be semi-sarcastic praise strikes me that way. More often Mario is just unintentionally insensitive to Luigi's plights, due to his heroism keeping him busy. Speaking of which, Mario RPG also raises an interesting point that Mario can be very heroic... to a fault, even, as he tends to go with a "stomp first, ask questions later" mentality towards problems that might not always work outside Bowser's kidnappings.

As for his relation to Bowser, it seems to be similar to Kirby and King Dedede where as long as the latter isn't (or is assumed to be) doing anything malicious, the hero is neutral or even friendly towards him if he's kind enough. Bowser's attitude towards Mario has also been fairly consistent in turn with the whole "worthy opponent" mentality in recent games, it's his threat level that fluctuates "galactic conqueror" and "bumbling fool that can't do anything other than kidnap princesses right".

Just beat the game. Well, no, but I saw the credits. 222 moons in the first run. The ending was totally awesome. Can't wait to continue the journey. I found one secret teleporting window that actually spoils some post-game content.

I thought the game started rather weak. It throws moons at you in every corner and you actually have to search hard to find a challenge. That changes in the second half or so of the game. I guess Nintendo really wants young people to have access to the game. 8 year old me would probably enjoy this a lot with assist mode and just running around in the first half of the game.

I hope from now on the game is more about challenge than exploring the area. If not, Nintendo owes me a 2D Mario next year!

So since I got my switch I've used it 99% as a handheld but for some reason I really enjoy playing this game on the TV and probably have done so exclusively since I picked it up. I think it might be the nature of it being a platformer and having a bigger screen helps to see those twist and turns that lead to hidden coins or moons.