2017: A Mario Odyssey – Fresh Hands on with Super Mario Odyssey

Earlier this week we were lucky enough to be invited to Nintendo Australia’s headquarters for 90 minutes of brand new Super Mario Odyssey time. We played through some of the new Kingdoms from the Direct and tried out some of the new outfits. Yes, the topless one.

After our 90 minutes, the controller was taken back from us and we wrote this.

For 30 years, Super Mario games have defined gaming for me. It just occurred to me as I sat down to write this that the first of the main-series Super Mario games was released in Australia in 1987. The Nintendo Entertainment System was my first home console, which I was gifted on Christmas day, and it was bundled with the game-changing Super Mario Bros. (pun intended).

To call the original Super Mario Bros. game a timeless classic would be an understatement. Gameplay was smooth and intuitive. Graphics were bright and colourful. It was wholly original and full of surprises. It was fun. And endlessly replayable.

Pick any of the main-series Super Mario games. While your favourite may be different from mine, even the ones on the bottom of the list are loads of fun and replayable.

And with the soon-to-be-released Super Mario Odyssey, that hasn’t changed. If anything, it once again cements the longevity of one of best series of games and its lovable leading man.

I visited Nintendo HQ to spend some time with the newest iteration of Super Mario. As soon as the game started, I was hit with everything at once. The catchy music, the bright colours, the zany storyline and the comfortable familiarity of Mario. I immediately felt like a kid in the 80s again. It was truly a healthy dose of nostalgia, and I simply smiled.

The smile didn’t leave my face as I explored three different areas, made friends with Cappy and captured Goombas to experience the world from their view. I played with a Joy-Con in each hand. From the jump, gameplay felt smooth and intuitive. Mario has kept a lot of the moves that he’s learned over the years. And, together with Cappy, there are a bunch of new moves introduced in Super Mario Odyssey, including some incredibly fun motion-controlled ones.

That’s all you need to know. In fact, the less you know, the better. If you’re reading this, you’re probably going to be picking up Super Mario Odyssey. And you’re going to want to. It’s a main-series Mario game that is more than worthy of joining the rest of the classics. Nintendo have reinvented the wheel while keeping the gameplay familiar. It’s the perfect balance for a new Mario game and I have a feeling we’ll still be talking about it 30 years from now.

By the way… yes, I played as topless Mario.

This was my second time with hands on with Mario Odyssey and if anything, I have come away even more impressed, if that were even possible. What has surprised me about the game is that how each of the worlds that I have had the chance to run around in, while vastly different, still feel connected and it is all thanks to the capture mechanic.

Roaming around the Luncheon Kingdom and being able to capture frying pan throwing hammer bros, provides a completely different feeling to capturing a goomba. Not only do they have a decent attack, throwing frying pans, but they have a large jump and can even help breakthrough some obstacles. Taking those same buttons though and applying them to the blob guy that you can capture, changes the game dramatically, thanks to what you can do, jumping and swimming through the deadly pastel soup. That is only two characters in one world and the difference between them is staggering and helps provide a sense for how things might be in the long run, something that I am excited for.

Perhaps the thing that excites me the most about Odyssey is that each player is going to find things differently and the game lets you. The Luncheon Kingdom is one that is surprisingly large, but even within the time that I had there, I barely explored past the opening area and not because it was difficult, but because there was no need to, the amount of content in that space along was incredible. Of course, it was probably helped along, by my almost obsessive need to collect enough purple coins to unlock the Chef costume that Mario can acquire; he looks so cool in it. Running around a food themed land, with sentient forks and dressed as a chef, highlights just how incredible the game is going to be, not only does it offer you loads to do, it lets you decide if you even care enough to do it.

Once again though, the bulk of the experience comes back to Cappy and how the world reacts to how you treat him, throwing him at anything and everything is key, you need to do it, not should, but absolutely must. Cappy is your key to progressing, from taking capturing enemies, to locating hidden items, he does it all, but more than that, he will help you out with hints, should you need them and even allow you to reach more difficult places, if you can master his more advanced moves. Time will tell how Cappy plays out in the story, but from a gameplay point of view, the addition of this felt hero is something to be excited for.