Super Mario Odyssey is the third “collectathon”
Mario, and it came after four Course Clear games: 15 years after Super Mario Sunshine. Though it could be argued that Super Mario
Galaxy borrows level design tropes from the collectathon, it often sees you following
a linear path to your objective, even in more open-ended levels like Honeyhive or Beach
Bowl. Galaxy 2 practically cemented this direction,
while 3D Land and World marinated in it. 64 and Sunshine focused on creating larger,
more intricate sandboxes with multiple separate objectives; Sunshine could even be seen as
inching closer to a Course Clear philosophy by limiting your shine choice. This isn't to say that the approach of Galaxy
and other Course Clear games is one I dislike: just that there’s a clear divide between
the two that even Nintendo have acknowledged. For now, I'd like to put a little bow on top
of this odd “trilogy” of Mario games that have always been more to my taste. Despite how harsh I may have been on 64 and
Sunshine, and how harsh I'm likely about to be on Odyssey: it's also important to not
let my praises go unsung. I really enjoy all three of these games, but
I'm not convinced any one of them truly reaches my ideal Mario collectathon. Let's talk a bit about why that is. This is a Super Mario Odyssey Retrospective. -- I am going to assume that you've watched my
videos on 64 and Sunshine, but just in case you haven't I'll give a very brief rundown
on my thoughts overall. Super Mario 64 is an excellent transition
to 3D, spearheading the collectathon genre with imaginative, dream-like sandboxes that
you could explore to your heart's content. It was largely weakened by an aging control
scheme and camera. Though the DS remake, depending on who you
are, might fix the controls and camera, it was still shackled by an even greater issue:
the boot-out system, which punished you for both failure and success. While this doesn't seem to bother many other
players, for me it is their ever-present Achilles’ heel. It ruins entire levels for me in 64, and threatens
to ruin the whole experience of Sunshine. Sunshine, though, has a stronger sense of
immersion: they played on 64's ability to craft imaginative locations, and took that
to the next level. They made an entire island resort for Mario
to hang out in, one that felt more or less authentic. Some of the objectives weren't as strong,
but that didn't matter much in the moment. Exploring each level was a relaxing experience,
and that remains its greatest strength. Just like 64, however: it threatens to cannibalize
its greatest strength with an unnecessarily linear and restrictive progression structure. Paired with the ever-frustrating boot-out
system: I can't say Sunshine necessarily succeeds where 64 fails, it just took those two extremes
and amplified them. Higher highs and lower lows. It's no secret that I have a vendetta against
the boot-out system, which is why I'd like to start by saying that one of Odyssey's greatest
strengths is that it removed that system in its entirety. Collecting a Power Moon, this game's equivalent
to the Power Star or Shine Sprite, will cause a flashy animation where Mario and his partner
Cappy jump up into the air to the tune of a catchy jingle. After which, you can go back to exploring
the level. This seemingly simple change means the world
to me. Exploring has a renewed sense of flow to it,
since you aren't being thrown out every couple minutes. You can breathe in the New Donk City air,
get lost in the trenches of Bubblaine, find yourself stranded in the middle of nowhere:
the possibilities are endless, as this is now a road trip. It marries the disconnected level theming
of 64 and the connective tissue of Sunshine. How poetic. Each Kingdom has a purpose: Bowser is traveling
between them to steal a magical item or artifact for his wedding. You get that classic road trip vibe, but through
realistic humans and forks with chef hats. The disconnected becomes connected, foregoing
the drawbacks that come with either approach. I've always loved this idea: that Mario constructs
its universe in a completely nonsensical way. The Paper Mario games, especially The Thousand
Year Door and Super Paper Mario, feature new species that often defy conventional logic. Flipside, which most people don't seem to
like, is actually one of my favorite Mario locations. It follows the same bonkers ideology of Odyssey:
a world full of weird block people? Doesn't get more "Mario" than that. Of course, that's not even to mention the
entirety of Superstar Saga, which has a fully realized nation of bean people, but I think
you get the point here. I like when Mario crosses over into strange
new lands, ones that don’t only consist of traditional enemies. Maybe it falls too fast into a few stereotypes:
snow levels, beach levels, etc; but even those stereotypes buck tradition in some way. When you first enter the Snow Kingdom, it's
very traditional: you're thrown into the middle of a snowstorm. Mario’s been here before, that’s for sure. However, eventually you're dropped from this
familiar setup into the decidedly unfamiliar Shiverian racetrack, with adorable round seal
creatures. This amalgamation of northern european and
Russian cultures is a unique subversion of the traditional ice level. It's the same with the Desert Kingdom, which
has hit a cold patch; or the Wooded Kingdom, which is a forest growing around a mechanical
construction. With the exception of Bubblaine, which really
is just another beach level, each theme is distinct. Those are just the more generic ones: we've
got kingdoms based around food, tophats, dinosaurs, feudal japan, you name it. Odyssey even manages to inherit that change
over time you'd see in 64 and Sunshine, but this time without getting the boot! The Desert Kingdom starts out frozen over,
and you have to solve that problem; which eventually leads to the dead rising at nightfall;
which eventually leads to a restored desert. New Donk City begins with a boss fight, after
which it sees you slowly restore the city's power, put together a band, and take part
in a fireworks festival. Sure, some of the Triple Moons take you back
to the Odyssey, but this is very rare and usually only to take you away from a dead
end. Using your coins, you can buy special outfits
for Mario to wear and better blend in with his environment: scuba gear, swimsuit, poncho,
caveman, chef, scientist, tophat, polygons. Though they might be cosmetic, they're still
an incentive to collect both regular and purple coins throughout the world. We have moved past the days of everything
feeding back into a main collectable: you obtain something more for going out of your
way to explore, a reward that fits with the theming and allows you to customize Mario
in a never-before seen way. Luigi might not be playable, but you run the
full gambit of different Mario's, and to me that makes all the difference. 100 coin challenges have been moved to the
secondary collectable: purple coins, which allow you to purchase costumes specific to
the world you’re in, as well as souvenirs to place in the Odyssey. It’s a perfect way to tie it all back into
that overarching theme. Collecting these coins is still just as fun,
as they’re often cleverly hidden: this time, though, you get a different reward for each
coin milestone, instead of just more Shine Sprites, so going after them feels more consistently
rewarding. The average world size is no joke: the Desert
Kingdom and the Metro Kingdom are pretty huge for Mario standards, especially coming off
the smaller world sizes of 64 and Sunshine. It makes exploring them for secrets even more
fun, without crossing over into bloated open-world territory: New Donk City has something for
you around every building, every city block, every back alley, every rooftop, everywhere! It is a dense metropolis where you can take
advantage of that “natural” platforming I mentioned in my Sunshine video. This kingdom is the epitome of that concept,
where you swing on light posts and wall jump in between buildings. You get classic Mario platforming, but this
time you use it to find secrets and other collectables. You have to climb the volcano in Luncheon
Kingdom to fight the boss on top of the cauldron. The Wooded Kingdom sees you weaving in and
out of a large, mechanical structure: a majority of the secrets exist inside the grooves of
said structure, hiding underneath cliff sides. Many of the sections where you’re transported
to a disconnected space are saved because they feel… well, connected! When you travel underground in the Desert
Kingdom, you see the source of the colder weather, and find yourself in an expansive
underground cave, full of ancient ruins. New Donk City’s underground is a hybrid
between a sewer and a power plant, where the end objective is you turning on the city’s
power. Bubblaine has a locked lighthouse that you
can enter by swimming underground; you also do this in the Lake Kingdom to bypass a wall. Your immersion is rarely broken like it so
often was in Sunshine, and it really complements the shorter length of these more contained
sections. Once again, I coin Odyssey's sense of immersion
as one of its greatest strengths, even if it is constructed with strange components. It's like I said in my Sunshine video: Mario
does not have to be realistic to be immersive, it just needs that connective tissue to trap
you for as long as it needs. It helps that exploring these worlds has been
made more fun thanks to Mario’s expanded moveset. Nothing against the games that happened in
between, but Mario has never felt as fun to experiment with since Sunshine. I'm largely okay with it, as the controls
for something like 3D World make sense for its more contained and simplistic level design,
but that would not fly for a collectathon. Bounding through levels with triple jumps
and dives is a large part of why exploration feels so gratifying. I specifically love how invisible coins are
hidden all over the place as a reward for your platforming ingenuity. I swear to you, if you see an alcove in a
place you couldn't possibly get to by normal means, there will be something there as an
acknowledgment. You might have to master the cap throw dive
jump, as is the case under Tostarena. Near the boss fight, there are several pillars
on each side that look inaccessible. In any other game, there would be an invisible
wall, or simply no way to get to those pillars. In Odyssey, though, not only can you reach
the top of those pillars with a well timed triple jump into a cap throw, there are coins
up there waiting for you. As if that wasn't enough, there's an even
harder jump to get on top of the entrance building. This one is even more insane from the outside
looking in, and you might even doubt that it's possible to get up there. You have to stand on a very small platform
and inch your way up the wall carvings. Eventually you'll make it up and see a stache
of coins. What this means is that it was always possible
to get up there and the game knew it. It rewarded you for thinking outside the box. It encouraged me to do all kinds of things
in each level. If you think something might have a secret,
9 times out of 10 you'd be right. Under the broodal boss platform in Steam Gardens,
there are incredibly narrow beams you can reach with a cap jump. If you walk towards the main platform, there
will be lines of hidden coins. You can find them on top of the entrances
to practically any location. Since coins serve an actual purpose in this
game, it feels so satisfying to find them in the most unexpected places. On far off platforms in this Chain Chomp bouncing
mini game room, on the windows of buildings in New Donk City, and even on the ramparts
of Bowser's Castle. Those large statues of Bowser on the pagodas? You can jump on those and find Purple coins,
alongside other goodies. They actually figured you'd be curious enough
to risk your life and explore something that most other games wouldn't even program collision
for. Seriously, this is some out of bounds exploration,
and no other collectathon I've played is quite that thorough with its secret placement. I was addicted to Odyssey my first couple
playthroughs for all of these reasons and more: it was a cathartic, painless road trip. So: yay! Odyssey solved the problem, right? It cultivated the flowers and culled the weeds. There's no boot-out system here to interrupt
that beautiful feeling of immersion, and you're allowed to tackle any Power Moon you want. There also aren't any required Power Moons,
save for a few boss fights. We're back to the 64 system: collect an arbitrary
amount of Power Moons to progress. You are given complete freedom to enact this
road trip however you see fit! It's great, I love it! But it's not gonna be that simple today. Odyssey eliminated my biggest problem with
the previous games, and nearly perfected that feeling of immersion they were building toward. In that sense, it feels like the logical conclusion;
yet, collecting Power Moons somehow doesn't feel as exciting as Stars or Shine Sprites
before it. Even the worst missions in previous games
felt satisfying to clear because your reward was a tangible collectible that got you closer
to finishing the game. Cleaning eel teeth was a pretty big step toward
the end, as was finding practically any Star in 64. As such, the game placed priority on each
of them. In Odyssey, that importance is dulled. There are so many moons in the game; so many,
in fact, that important objectives have to give you three moons instead of one. Defeating a boss feels about as exciting as
a regular objective in previous games; raiding New Donk City in the rain and clearing out
an electric caterpillar is about as involved as riding the sand bird or defeating the Wiggler. But then, why would you do this if you could
also get three Power Moons no problem by kicking a rock into a wall or sitting on a bench. Which isn't to say I don't enjoy Power Moons
like Bench Friends. It's a really cute secret for cheering up
a man who just wants a bench friend. I'm fine with a few of those here and there. What bothers me is the sheer number of times
Odyssey is content doing something like this and rewarding you with a Power Moon. Walking a dog, wearing a specific costume,
planting a bean sprout from across a gigantic map and waiting for it to grow, trace walking,
face matching, you get the picture. Each of those activities are repeated multiple
times in different worlds. There are multiple dogs in multiple kingdoms,
there are several instances where you have to find bean sprout seeds from across the
map, you have to wear a specific costume in almost every single kingdom that just results
in an instant moon. Sure, the first time you get a moon like this,
it's cute. But the second? The third? The fourth? Repetition digs deep into your soul, and sucks
the life out of some genuinely interesting worlds. Repetition and structure aren't inherently
bad. There's a reason 100 coin and 8 red coin challenges
in previous games were repeated for every world. They were fun challenges that, in most ways,
encouraged thorough exploration of the level, pushing you closer to mastery. Having to carry one of four items across the
map multiple times is not an activity worth repeating ad infinitum, and unfortunately
there's no getting around that for me. It harkens back to less interesting challenges
in Sunshine, like the watermelon escort mission. Moons can be so damn obvious sometimes, I'll
accidentally run into them. Accidentally run into the main collectible. They're treated with the same importance as
a coin as far as challenge level is concerned. On average, moons require more effort since
many of them are locked behind specific challenge rooms or bosses, but that average is dragged
down by the moons where you ground pound a shiny spot or kick a rock or buy it from the
fucking store. A large majority of actual Kingdom content
is made up of stuff like that, and it's a real shame since a lot of the other moons
are fairly well placed. Bubblaine has a lot of underwater exploration,
made infinitely more fun using the capturable cheep cheeps. Exploring ravines like a submariner, combing
the coral reefs to find all kinds of hidden stuff, is a fun new challenge for the player. It's probably some of the best underwater
exploration in a collectathon that I've played, since the cheep cheep capture is so fun to
toy around with, and the level geometry intentionally obscures secrets. It forces you to engage with the labyrinth. Even above the water, you can capture the
Gushens for air exploration. You have to balance the vertical and horizontal
gains you make with your decreasing water levels. It feels like a more overpowered version of
what FLUDD was. It's used to great effect when fighting the
boss, where air positioning is key. Perhaps more fun, though, are the times where
you have to get it somewhere farther away by soaking it in puddles that act as checkpoints. In this little ravine, there are several pools
of water throughout that initially mean absolutely nothing. You get to the end of a decent spike ball
challenge, grab a Power Moon, and get closer to fighting the boss. Unbeknownst to the player, however, Captain
Toad is above that moon, and the way to get to it is by dragging a Gushen all the way
through the ravine and recharging him at those pools. Surprisingly, it took me a long time to figure
this out on my first playthrough, because Gushens are far enough away that you probably
wouldn't think to use one right off the bat. You have to see the pools, and connect them
with the Gushens' abilities in order to find Captain Toad and win yourself a well hidden
moon. These are definitely the best moons in Odyssey:
where you have to drag a cheep cheep through a long underwater tunnel to avoid drowning;
when you run a bullet bill in between the moving pillars and slide into a secret room;
when you slip through the geometry of a level in a 2D section to find a hidden moon; when
you fall in Steam Gardens and end up in a completely new location: it is so much more
rewarding to find those secrets. Moons such as those will forever remain in
my memory as some of the most interesting secrets in a Mario game, because they're well
hidden! You have to think outside of the box to obtain
them. It's the same reason why I love hunting for
blue coins. Many of them were really well hidden and genuine
secrets to find. I enjoy using Uproots to reach hidden nuts
in hard to reach areas, or using Pokios to to bounce my way across the sides of the walls,
that's just what I like to do in these games. Odyssey is at its worst for me when that stuff
isn't happening, and that isn't just a target on the back of the dog walking filler Moons. In fact, one of my biggest issues with Odyssey
is its reliance on challenge rooms. Now, here's a brief background on me: I don't
have a lot of experience with course clear Mario titles. I frankly prefer collectathon Mario games,
and have just never played the classic titles. This is a large part of why 3D World has never
resonated with me as strongly, since it is, by all accounts, a literal translation from
2D to 3D. It is course clear 3D Mario perfected. I can admit that I've been harsh on it over
the years, perhaps unfairly. For a long time, I hated it for being something
that I didn't want it to be, rather than simply being content with what it was. With the release of Odyssey, and the acknowledgement
that 3D Mario has two distinct styles, I can appreciate 3D World in a new context. It has some of the best level design in the
entire series, that much is for certain. While it is a little easier than I'd like,
it crams so many creative level themes into one package and paces them out really well. There are one or two central gimmicks for
the level to play around with, several collectibles hidden to reward risky play, and the levels
have a natural evolution from start to flagpole. Super Mario Odyssey has a problem: it's billed
as a collectathon, but maybe 40% of its content is clearly something you'd see in a course
clear game. Jumping across rotating platforms and buildings
for about five seconds, with an optional moon hidden somewhere along the way. Seriously, compare the substance of these
rooms to any 3D World level. Here's a jumping floor panel level, where
it gets progressively more difficult as you go along. You have to deal with laser circles and other
enemies along that path; new concepts are being thrown at you left and right. You have to keep your double cherry until
the end of the level, a real pain in the ass if you're going for all the green stars. It's a creative level with three secret green
stars to collect, one of which in its own puzzle room. I will always remember that level; I'll always
remember the first time I was introduced to the double cherry, and the subsequent levels
in which it was used; I'll always remember the speed panels, and the unique uses it had
for the various levels that featured it. Super Mario Odyssey simply doesn't rival that
creativity. Often you'll just be asked to navigate platforms
through fog, or jump across poles, or jump through rotating geometry that looks like
it came straight out of Sunshine judging by how basic it feels. They don't last long at all, and though some
of them offer a decent platforming challenge, they're so basic that it's hard to remember
them. They're just another way to get moons that
are completely divorced from the kingdoms themselves. Especially the ones you access using rockets,
this is straight out of the Sunshine playbook. Simplistic levels that have nothing to do
with anything, floating out in space, disrupting the flow of normal play. It's trying to have it both ways: Nintendo
wanted to embrace their collectathon roots, but seemingly didn't understand what that
meant. So we get a bunch of Course Clear challenges
in, what should be, a collectathon! Where you're immersed in colorful worlds and
asked to explore them for secrets. Now, as I mentioned, there are several linear
challenges I enjoy, which are often baked into the levels themselves. Inside the pyramid is a good example: you've
gotta deal with bullet Bills and 2D sections in an acceptable evolution, until you escape
the pyramid and fight a broodal. It lasts long enough that you could consider
it a level in something like 3D World, without ruining your immersion. You're still in Tostarena, and you don't end
by capturing a rocket and leaving: you end on top of the pyramid, making more progress
toward the main quest. It reminds me of jumping into the volcano
or pyramid in Super Mario 64: sub areas that have their own identity, and exist within
the world. Another thing 64 did was hide a few of those
sub areas, like the Tall Tall Mountain slide, making it more satisfying to find them. It also kept those sub areas to a minimum,
in fact some worlds didn't even have them. Sunshine increased that counter, and Odyssey
quadrupled it. Every world has an abundance of sub areas
through cap doors or rockets. Nearly all of them have nothing to do with
anything, besides sharing a main capture or stage mechanic like the zippers in Lakeside
that could have been more effectively used within the Kingdom itself. While they are an unnecessary distraction,
I can mostly forgive them for at least being mechanically satisfying in most instances. Sunshine had this as well, for as immersion
breaking as its sub areas were, it could at least rely on that mechanical challenge to
get by. In Odyssey's case, many of them are slower-paced
and focused on either exploring the small room, or solving a platforming puzzle. One of my favorites is where you have to guide
these stone tanuki statues on top of p-switches and figure out how to get the extra collectible
at the same time. Coming to that conclusion falls in line with
the critical thought you put into the larger worlds. I also can’t get enough of these 2D sections,
which play with the level geometry in a genius way. Whether it wraps around the cylindrical wall,
dots the sea floor, or wraps around in a circle, it’s always interesting to enter one of
these 8-bit warp pipes and see what the game asks of you. Honestly, I think adding a lot more of these
platforming challenges would have been better than the platforming focused challenge rooms. The 2D sections are far shorter than the challenge
rooms, still ask you to find a hidden moon in a well placed hiding spot, and they still
exist within the Kingdoms themselves. They already act as short distractions, so
adding more of them in strange locations would have been welcome. Odyssey did not need these sub areas, and
they affect the pacing in a negative way overall, but to say it's the game's biggest problem
would be overstating things a bit. No, ironically I believe that Odyssey’s
biggest problem is the exact same problem Sunshine and 64 had: it has horrible pacing. Except, this time it goes the opposite way. 64 and Sunshine struggled with their pacing
due specifically to their boot-out system. Odyssey struggles precisely because it doesn’t
have the boot-out system anymore. After some engaging boss fights, a joyful
ending sequence, and a cute ending cutscene, you find yourself in the Mushroom Kingdom. It's such a cool throwback to Super Mario
64, there's even a polygonal costume to run around in. Yet, except for a few easter eggs: like draining
the moat, looking up at the sun, etc. it is a surface level callback. Jumping into paintings will see you fighting
remixed versions of the same bosses. Challenge rooms consist of face matching and
other useless Mario Party minigames. Nothing about the actual world calls back
to Peach's castle in any meaningful way, it's just a method to shovel repeat content down
your throat. But it doesn't end there. Throughout the game, you'll encounter moon
rocks. You can't do anything with them, and it really
bugged me on my first playthrough. Turns out, they're for the post game. When you activate one, a bunch of new moons
appear, and, to put this charitably, they suck. Well, okay: they don't suck in a vaccum, but
when considered within the context of the game itself, they're a really dumb concept. Are you ready to basically play the game a
second time? To travel back to every world and do the exact
same bonus rooms but with slight modifiers? Are you ready to walk more dogs, hit more
vultures, pound more ground? I hope so, because that's all you'll be doing
from now on. The exact same content as before, in slightly
different locations with tiny distinctions, and a few new moons and challenge rooms. About the best thing I could say is that the
bonus rooms are often "more challenging" but that really isn't saying much. It's the same thing Sunshine did with its
sub areas, where you were forced to come back with FLUDD and complete the 8 red coin challenges. Except, Sunshine has 120 Shine Sprites, whereas
Odyssey has 880 unique moons. You can only collect around 350 of those on
a first playthrough. They lock more than half of the moon count
behind the post game. Hint art, which was actually one of my favorite
parts of the any%, now feels obnoxious because they throw like 20 of them at you all in one
world. I really liked trying to make sense of these
riddles and finding the moons associated with them, but at some point it felt like overkill. I was satisfied by the already existing hint
art, there didn't need to be more of them to pad out the game. There didn't need to be achievements that
you have to collect one by one, there didn't need to be purchasable moons. Look, I understand why the statement "this
game has too much content" might not make any sense. How can a game possibly have too much content,
anyway? Especially when most of it is optional. Here's the thing: in a collectathon, at least
a good one, almost everything can be considered optional. Most of us still fully complete them, because
it's a satisfying feeling. They're built to be played multiple times. You can show off your mastery by completing
them faster than ever before, flowing through each objective because you know where everything
is and what you have to do. That's part of the reason why the boot out
system became so repetitive, and why Odyssey flows so much better than the two games preceding
it. However, its biggest downfall is ironically
a problem those two games never had. 64 and Sunshine had a respectable main collectable
count, even if Sunshine technically had less with the blue coin system. Nevertheless, I still fully complete those
games when I revisit them, and it's a blast! I love blitzing through each world, doing
everything there is to do, and then moving onto the next one. I love hunting for blue coins, finding 100
coins, it's all so relaxing. Pacing-wise, you're always hanging out in
each world for just the right amount of time before moving onto the next one. Finishing them 100% is intrinsically satisfying,
even if not always extrinsically rewarding. Odyssey is definitely more extrinsically rewarding:
you unlock additional kingdoms by collecting more moons, but it certainly isn't intrinsically
rewarding. You can't have a satisfying 100% experience
with Odyssey, because its moon count is already padded enough during the any%. Psuedo completing your first visit to each
world is about as much work as fully completing 64 and Sunshine, but then the game just keeps
going. You do the same challenges over and over again,
you go back to the same worlds for seemingly no reason, you collect "new" moons that I
can only describe using the word "filler". You basically just play the game twice and
then complete a hard platforming challenge, one that is paced way worse than the final
challenge levels in the Course Clear games. Because again: your extrinsic reward for collecting
a bunch of moons in a collectathon, is a hard course clear challenge. It isn't a new world, or a new move to make
exploring worlds more satisfying, or a new character to switch up your next playthrough. It's a remnant from a type of Mario game that
this shouldn't be trying to emulate. Why, then, does Odyssey feel the need to shove
so much extraneous content into its runtime? To account for the fact that the boot-out
system no longer exists. I really do think that’s all there is to
it. Do you truly believe Odyssey would still have
this many moons if the boot-out system still existed? Clearly there was a problem during development,
a problem that likely said, “this game will be full price, so it cannot be this short.” This is yet another reason I despise the hours
= dollar signs approach, because it needlessly adds on top of games that can’t handle that
weight anymore. 64 and Sunshine padded out their runtimes
to such a degree that we were essentially forced to remember everything. Especially in Sunshine, where you had to do
every Shine Sprite in order no matter what. That’s why the most memorable moons in Odyssey
are the ones that reward you with Triple Moons, because those are not concerned at all with
free level exploration. Often free level exploration had to be facilitated
through 64’s miscellaneous challenges, or Sunshine’s blue coins. Since the boot-out system already existed,
it padded out the run-time by quite a bit, ballooning those games’ average run-times. If you took out the extraneous moons in Odyssey,
which I consider almost 60% of its moons, you would end up with a game that lasts, at
most, 7 or 8 hours, which for the gamers of today is apparently not good enough. Odyssey couldn’t afford to just do what
the other Mario games did: justify that run-time by making a game that’s replayable. Since this game is on the Nintendo Switch,
and Nintendo are seemingly obsessed with designing games around a hardware philosophy now, Odyssey
necessitated an amount of moons that could be obtained in short bursts. What we ended up with is a game that is fun
in very, very short bursts, and nothing else. Thus, Odyssey has an identity crisis: for
example, one of the defining traits of a collectathon is the hub world. Often you're allowed to explore for new levels,
select them out of order, and experiment with your new moveset. Peach's Castle and Isle Delfino did this really
well. Super Mario Odyssey doesn't have a hub world,
which feels so unbefitting of the sub-genre its attempting to emulate. I understand that this is a globe-trotting
road trip adventure story, and that its progression structure would make a hub world harder to
implement, but it already lets you pick between Kingdoms at various points reminiscent of
the progression structure in 64 and Sunshine. To not have a hub world to run around in diminishes
the impact of the souvenirs you collect. Imagine if the Odyssey itself was larger,
maybe even the size of the Comet Observatory. You'd get to see it fill up with little trinkets
as the game goes on, and maybe you could even collect residents of other Kingdoms along
the way. More importantly, being able to explore it
for some bonus secrets and pick your next Kingdom based on your moon count likely would
have helped Odyssey feel a little more natural. As it stands, each Kingdom really pushes you
toward that triple moon, and by the time you collect it you'll already be set to leave. Having nothing to do in between can quickly
make this structure repetitive. All I'm asking for here is a system similar
to the one in Galaxy 2. The hub for that game isn't extraordinary,
but at least you could explore it every once in a while. The real kicker is that the Galaxy games really
didn’t even need a hub world, because they were Course Clear Mario games that would benefit
from a level select. Odyssey, the actual collectathon, doesn’t
have one for whatever reason. Working on a new hub world would have been
a far more lucrative time investment than padding the game to oblivion; hell, it would
have been a better time investment than making any of the challenge rooms. I don't know why priority was given to a world
like Bubblaine, and then seemingly no work went into the far more interesting Ruined
Kingdom. I don't even know why Lakeside and Bubblaine
are separate entities, it seems like a decision made only to buff up the Kingdom count. Actually, if they were to make Lakeside a
secret area in Bubblaine, it would have made for a better overall Kingdom, but instead
we're stuck with two decent Kingdoms forcibly ripped apart, and a few Kingdoms that can
barely even be considered Kingdoms since you only fight bosses. Seriously, why are they called the Cloud Kingdom
or the Ruined Kingdom? They are literally boss platforms, which again,
is something you would find in 3D World. Think about how much impact a Bowser fight
would have had in a fully fleshed out Cloud Kingdom world, or fuck, even just a platforming
challenge like in 64. Without that buildup, it's literally just
a place to fight Bowser. But oh, there's still a goddamn Moon rock
there, as if to imply this place can still be considered a full Kingdom everyone, don't
worry: you’ll get your money’s worth, don’t worry. The Ruined Kingdom is what hurts the most,
though. I see so much potential here. The boss fight is one of the best in the game,
both for how out of place and mechanically satisfying it is. In a game that's already pretty bonkers, this
is the kind of strange that crosses over into the macabre. I could see the Ruined Kingdom as an analogue
for the ghost houses in past Mario titles. A drab, gothic nightmare with boos and other
new scary creatures. Again, it would have been a better addition
than fucking Bubblaine, but we seemingly needed to fulfill our bog standard level quota here. I know Bonneton is kinda what I just described,
but that Kingdom is really damn disappointing. It's literally just a tutorial world, with
one room in it. It's a little more substantial than the boss
Kingdoms, and that sucks because this is the first spark of life in a series that has needed
it for so, terrrrrrribly long. Don't get me wrong, I love the creativity
in Odyssey, but it feels like only a half-step towards something greater. Once again, there’s a game I need to bring
up, one of my favorite games of all time to this very day: Toy Story 2 Buzz Lightyear
to the Rescue. This is a game that was presumably full price
when it came out, has 10 worlds to explore, and can be beaten 100% in about 4 or 5 hours
at most. I can imagine that it could have extended
that run time by quite a lot had it opted for a boot out system similar to the Mario
games: but it didn’t, and that’s the reason it has remained one of my favorite games to
replay. I can go back to Toy Story 2 any day of the
week and just complete it. It’s decently fun to explore each world
and complete the objectives; there’s no reliance on subrooms at all, every single
challenge is contained within the worlds themselves. Andy’s Room manages to feel expansive because
each of the challenges are hidden in the various rooms, and you’re asked to comb all of it
to collect everything. It lends itself well to “natural” platforming
since you’re a toy exploring a house: bookshelves, boxes, even furniture are fun to jump around
on since they’re built into the environment. There’s a certain repetition to the structure,
for sure: collect 5 unique macguffins, collect 50 coins, defeat a boss, play a mini-game,
and find a secret token. It’s incredibly simple, but that doesn’t
hamper the level design. Each world is about the size of a world from
64, maybe a bit smaller. There’s about as much to do, and it doesn’t
need to shove a bunch of filler into it all. I can’t imagine Toy Story 2 being any different
than it is and still being fun: because despite how easy it can sometimes be, or how repetitive
the structure is, or how simple the boss fights are, none of its elements feel extraneous. It is so fun to master, it’s so fun to play
again and again, it is so fun to engage with it on all of its terms. It isn’t padded in any way, even if that
means it had to be a much shorter game than any of the Mario collectathons. When I go back to play Odyssey, I am forced
to do it any%, which is admittedly fun at some points. I am forced to collect whatever I see in each
world, move onto the next, fight a few bosses, and beat the game. Sure, for some maybe that's alright. I know a few people who don't fully complete
64 or Sunshine or Banjo-Kazooie or basically any collectathon ever. That any% playthrough is still really fun
and unique, a far cry from the generic aesthetics we were used to seeing in Mario games for
such a long time, and unmarred by the boot out system that robbed those earlier titles
of their much needed fluidity. Unique worlds, new characters, and a free
range of movement that is insanely satisfying to play around with. A bright, memorable soundtrack, a new horizon. I'll always be happy that this game experimented,
that it rose above the generic, that it dabbled in weird vocal tracks, that it is a standout,
memorable Mario platformer above all else. I just wish I could end my playthrough and
feel as content as I do when I finish something like Toy Story 2. Unfortunately, despite all the issues it fixed,
I don't believe Odyssey even fully understands what it is. For as cheerful and fun as it appears on the
surface, further playthroughs have only revealed more cracks in that exterior. If the game doesn't even understand what it
wants to be, where does that leave the player? It's a bittersweet end to the current trilogy
of Mario collectathons, three games that have some god damn high potential. Out of all the collectathons I've played,
the 3D Mario titles are not necessarily my favorites, but they've always pained me for
having elements that are so close to being brilliant. As the series has moved forward, it's gotten
better, worse, and more confused. I'm not sure what the future holds, but if
we ever do see another collectathon out of the Italian plumber, I really hope it's a
game that commits to what it wants to be. Unconstrained by any outside pressures, a
game that doesn’t have to pad itself out to justify a price tag, a game that is just
allowed… to be. Odyssey, flawed as it might be, is a truly
remarkable game in terms of its presentation. It felt like the first new Mario game after
years and years and years of sterile, boring, predictable visuals, story beats, characters,
and level design: Odyssey stands in the face of that stagnant past, paving the way to a
more hopeful future. I really hope Nintendo push the plumber to
new heights. I'll always be waiting for them to make a
collectathon truly worthy of sitting alongside his legendary Course Clear installments.
