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After I finished up with Super Mario Bros. Wonder, it occurred to me that I've had a copy of Super Mario Odyssey for 6 years now which I bought alongside my 2017 launch year Switch and for some godforsaken reason I never played it. So I had to solve that issue ASAP, plus I wanted more Mario after Wonder. I'm gonna be on a Mario bender all month because I'll be playing Super Mario RPG in a week too.
Super Mario Odyssey was almost a launch title, releasing about 6 months after the Switch. And let me just get this out of the way now, it really looks like a launch title. I respect Nintendo's decision to make this game run at 60 fps and to their credit, it always locks 60 fps with no drops anywhere. That said, this game has not aged well technically. When docked, it runs with dynamic resolution scaling from 900p all the way down to 720p with no anti-aliasing. I did not play it handheld but I'm told it runs with scan-line interleaving so the Switch only needs to render 640x720 every frame. Resolution is painfully coarse, jagged lines are everywhere with no AA, and there is only flat lighting on environments. I'm also not super happy with the some of the artistic decisions made in this game, the choice to use environments based on the real world tends to make the visual look of the game sometimes worse in some of the worlds.
Alright, enough with the technical shit. Let's talk about playing Odyssey. For those who don't really follow the 3D Mario games, Super Mario 64 and Sunshine have sandbox type worlds which you explore on your own to reach the goal. Galaxy and 3D World are more linear, where you start at point A and traverse the world as a straight line to reach the goal. In that regard, Galaxy and 3D World are kind of like 3D versions of classic side-scrolling 2D Mario. Odyssey returns to the free roaming exploration of 64 and Sunshine, except thankfully no FLUDD. It is in every way the true sequel to the vaunted 64, complete with sometimes unworkable camera angles and inability to see Mario's position in space when you're trying to do some tricky platforming. That said, Odyssey brings back that spirit of creativity and freedom to problem solve that so exemplified playing 64. Playing Odyssey was like going back to my childhood memories of 64 in much the same way playing Wonder was with Super Mario World, that same joy and imagination and occasional frustration when Mario missed a jump because I couldn't see his shadow under him which was the only way to tell where he would land. Just like Wonder, Odyssey has that pure inexpressible fun that is so noticeably absent from a lot of modern video games.
As per usual with 3D Mario games, you collect items called Power Moons. Once you have enough of them, you can hop aboard your airship also named the Odyssey and progress on to the next world. Each of the worlds is unique, imaginative, and creative, even as some of them are a little bit strange to run Mario through. You visit a perfectly normal looking human city with normally proportioned human NPC's walking around with Mario who of course has his Mario proportions and I'm reminded of why the Sonic games which have human cities and humans alongside Sonic also look weird. The game's worlds seem to improve in both visual quality and artistic direction as it goes on, the first couple of worlds look really rough but the last few worlds look really good by comparison. Clearly, Odyssey evolved quite a bit during its development just going by how much more visually pleasing the last few worlds look compared to the first few worlds.
Just as with Wonder, you constantly find yourself surprised by the sheer imagination by which new methods are given to you to explore and reach goals. The primary mechanic in Odyssey is using Cappy the sentient hat to possess and control enemies. Finally, you can experience what it's like to be a Goomba, or a Koopa Paratroopa, or most of the other classic enemies on the Mario list of villains. The football players from Super Mario World even make an appearance and you can bet it's amazing when you play as those guys. At the very end, you even get to possess and control the Big Cheese himself and it's a fucking riot to run around smashing through walls and breaking shit as Bowser. They absolutely nailed the creativity of controlling enemies and using them to navigate and explore the worlds. Just as the Wonder Flowers elevated Wonder to a new level of 2D platforming gameplay, the Cappy possession mechanic elevates Odyssey to a new level of 3D platforming gameplay and clearly differentiates and innovates beyond 64.
Part of me wishes I had played this back in 2017, but the other part of me knows that in 2023 I have a Switch Pro controller and that really made my experience of playing this game much better over what I would have had to deal with playing this game with the Joy-Cons. The motion controls are already slightly annoying with the Pro controller, I can't imagine putting up with using Joy-Cons to play this game. That's what turned me off Galaxy back in the day too. But Odyssey overcomes it's technical limitations, it's occasionally annoying camera, the slightly obtrusive and unnecessary motion controls, and becomes a masterpiece because of the sheer amount of fun that you will have exploring it's many worlds and discovering what wild shit you can do as a Bullet Bill or a Podoboo. I can now say I played two GOTY Mario games in 1 year.
Super Mario Odyssey was almost a launch title, releasing about 6 months after the Switch. And let me just get this out of the way now, it really looks like a launch title. I respect Nintendo's decision to make this game run at 60 fps and to their credit, it always locks 60 fps with no drops anywhere. That said, this game has not aged well technically. When docked, it runs with dynamic resolution scaling from 900p all the way down to 720p with no anti-aliasing. I did not play it handheld but I'm told it runs with scan-line interleaving so the Switch only needs to render 640x720 every frame. Resolution is painfully coarse, jagged lines are everywhere with no AA, and there is only flat lighting on environments. I'm also not super happy with the some of the artistic decisions made in this game, the choice to use environments based on the real world tends to make the visual look of the game sometimes worse in some of the worlds.
Alright, enough with the technical shit. Let's talk about playing Odyssey. For those who don't really follow the 3D Mario games, Super Mario 64 and Sunshine have sandbox type worlds which you explore on your own to reach the goal. Galaxy and 3D World are more linear, where you start at point A and traverse the world as a straight line to reach the goal. In that regard, Galaxy and 3D World are kind of like 3D versions of classic side-scrolling 2D Mario. Odyssey returns to the free roaming exploration of 64 and Sunshine, except thankfully no FLUDD. It is in every way the true sequel to the vaunted 64, complete with sometimes unworkable camera angles and inability to see Mario's position in space when you're trying to do some tricky platforming. That said, Odyssey brings back that spirit of creativity and freedom to problem solve that so exemplified playing 64. Playing Odyssey was like going back to my childhood memories of 64 in much the same way playing Wonder was with Super Mario World, that same joy and imagination and occasional frustration when Mario missed a jump because I couldn't see his shadow under him which was the only way to tell where he would land. Just like Wonder, Odyssey has that pure inexpressible fun that is so noticeably absent from a lot of modern video games.
As per usual with 3D Mario games, you collect items called Power Moons. Once you have enough of them, you can hop aboard your airship also named the Odyssey and progress on to the next world. Each of the worlds is unique, imaginative, and creative, even as some of them are a little bit strange to run Mario through. You visit a perfectly normal looking human city with normally proportioned human NPC's walking around with Mario who of course has his Mario proportions and I'm reminded of why the Sonic games which have human cities and humans alongside Sonic also look weird. The game's worlds seem to improve in both visual quality and artistic direction as it goes on, the first couple of worlds look really rough but the last few worlds look really good by comparison. Clearly, Odyssey evolved quite a bit during its development just going by how much more visually pleasing the last few worlds look compared to the first few worlds.
Just as with Wonder, you constantly find yourself surprised by the sheer imagination by which new methods are given to you to explore and reach goals. The primary mechanic in Odyssey is using Cappy the sentient hat to possess and control enemies. Finally, you can experience what it's like to be a Goomba, or a Koopa Paratroopa, or most of the other classic enemies on the Mario list of villains. The football players from Super Mario World even make an appearance and you can bet it's amazing when you play as those guys. At the very end, you even get to possess and control the Big Cheese himself and it's a fucking riot to run around smashing through walls and breaking shit as Bowser. They absolutely nailed the creativity of controlling enemies and using them to navigate and explore the worlds. Just as the Wonder Flowers elevated Wonder to a new level of 2D platforming gameplay, the Cappy possession mechanic elevates Odyssey to a new level of 3D platforming gameplay and clearly differentiates and innovates beyond 64.
Part of me wishes I had played this back in 2017, but the other part of me knows that in 2023 I have a Switch Pro controller and that really made my experience of playing this game much better over what I would have had to deal with playing this game with the Joy-Cons. The motion controls are already slightly annoying with the Pro controller, I can't imagine putting up with using Joy-Cons to play this game. That's what turned me off Galaxy back in the day too. But Odyssey overcomes it's technical limitations, it's occasionally annoying camera, the slightly obtrusive and unnecessary motion controls, and becomes a masterpiece because of the sheer amount of fun that you will have exploring it's many worlds and discovering what wild shit you can do as a Bullet Bill or a Podoboo. I can now say I played two GOTY Mario games in 1 year.
) so I can understand what you are going through) 
