Super Mario Odessey is an open world Mario game that follows the plot where Princess Peach gets kidnapped and Bowser is going to try and marry her and its up to Mario to save the day.
The game builds on the open world aspects of Super Mario Sunshine and it takes you on a journey to various worlds to power up your ship as you try and reach bowser. You also see in one of the locations new donk city and seeing Mario being isekai’d into another world where everyone is like so realistic and Mario is cartoony was a pretty interesting sight to see. I wonder if this is what its also going to be like in the Illumination Nintendoverse as well too.
The control system is really easy to learn and very responsive and you are able to reach tricky spots very easily in the game.
Each world you explore has its own unique setting and also secrets you can find as well too along with their own objectives to complete for power moon stars. They are also really large to explore as well too. You can find checkpoints and fast track to them whenever you like. You can be able to choose which ever objective you wanna explore how you see fit really embracing the freedom of choice here.
There is also the occasional nes 2d sections with the classic sound effects and graphics which were really fun to go through.
You can use coins to spend on shops to get powerups or new outfits to use. Theres 2 different types of coins the rarer purple ones and also the common gold ones.
There is a lot of callbacks and references to older Mario games like in many Nintendo entries. Seeing Paulina the original Mario girl to rescue is the huge one and also one of the best callbacks as well.
The music especially jump up super star is really great.
The boss fights were creative but really easy to defeat. I defeated literally every boss in one sit through and I never really died in any of them.
The graphics even today still look really great to look at.
The game has an assist mode which helps you point out where to go as well as give you more lives just in case and its very useful.
Sometimes you can find a toad where you pay 50 coins to point out power moon locations.
Cappy is a new character in the game where you can use it to take over enemies and be able to get through objectives quickly. A t rex for example can be used to go through impenetrable walls.
You can find life up hearts in the game to increase your health just in case.
You can be able to take out photos in the game as well too.
A lot of replay value in the game aside from exploration you can also access Peach’s castle and go through harder versions of levels in the game as bosses after beating them.
The dialogue is pretty hilarious.
The game also has a new mode with Luigi’s Balloon world where you collect coins in a certain period of time and it can be quite fun.
The amiibo feature by the way you can use certain Mario amiibos to help you find certain power moons as well too.
You also have unlimited lives in the game and the only real consequence, is basically losing just about 10 coins.
It also even has a mode compatible with the Labo where you can use it to take part in challenges.
If you choose to do motion controls it may take some time getting used to since it can be a bit weird at times.
Some power moons could be quite a hassle to find without a walkthrough or assist mode depending on your preference.
Its also a fairly short game that can take a couple of days to finish depending on how much you are focused on completing and exploring.
It gets 5 out of 5 stars.