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Expansion Pass 2 Game #4/Blog a Day #24

Hello everyone, how are you?

2017 was possibly the most legendary year for gaming. Well at least for the Switch. For starters the console launched as well as Breath of the Wild. Month after month we got a new game from Nintendo, it was a pretty wild year. But the one game I was waiting for the most was the one that would release late into the year. It was finally October and it was finally time. Let's travel the world as we arrive at our destination in Super Mario Odyssey...

 

                                       This can pass up for a really cool postcard

Super Mario Odyssey was teased in 2016 but was officially announced in January 2017 during a Nintendo presentation. Of course I was hyped, well I supposed hype doesn't begin to describe it, but I was really excited for this game. Finally October came around and all that was left was just counting the days left till the game released, So how was the game?

Super Mario Odyssey begins with Mario aboard Bowser's Airship because Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach yet again and Mario has to rescue her yet again. That's pretty much the plot of all the mainline Mario games aside from a few exceptions. However this time around things have escalated even further as Bowser wants to forcibly marry Peach and of course Mario can't let that happen. Unfortunately Mario loses the battle and he falls to his doom into the Cap Kingdom. Well that's certainly one way to start the game and you can definitely feel the sense or urgency here.

Once Mario wakes up we meet what could possibly be the most coolest and versatile power-up ever: Cappy. Cappy is a hat spirit and he can take the physical form of any type of hat. Naturally he transforms into Mario's hat but Cappy is not just for show. Remember when I said that Cappy is versatile I didn't mean that as in the way that he is such a dapper hat, and while that is true, I meant that you can use Cappy in many ways. You can throw Cappy at certain enemies or nocs and you can take control or posses them which adds a new dyanmic to the gameplay. You can also use Cappy to augment Mario's already versatile moveset for even more creative and versatile gameplay. Cappy just adds a new twist and dynamic and it allows you to experiment in many ways with what you can pull off.

 

                                              Cappy is quite the dapper gentleman

In this game Mario is going on a grand... Odyssey around the world. I mean yes your main objective is to rescue Peach and whatnot but that doesn't mean you can't have some fun along the way, right? The Kingdoms in the game are the locations you'll be exploring this time around and each of them have their own theme. One thing I really loved about the Kingdoms is that most of them are populated by their own inhabitants that makes each Kingdom unique. The music also matches the theme of what they were going with, combine that and you can tell each Kingdom has its own unique culture to it.Two of my favorite Kingdoms are Tostarena and New Donk City, I just like how different they are. One thing I will say is that this is by far the most gorgeous looking Mario game to day, everything looks so detailed,

In this game you collect Power Moons, which are the macguffins that you'll be collecting this time around. You need these to power the Odyssey, an airship that you'll be using to travel around the world. Think of it as fuel for the ship. You can earn Power Moons by completing various objectives from completing challenges to defeating bosses. Sometimes you can just find them on hard to reach spots. But more often than not they just hand them out to you for barely any work at all.

"But Captain N, where can I play this game?" Well this being a Mario game, only on the Switch obviously. Like with most or all Nintendo games, it rarely does go on sale. There are times when it does, sometimes places like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Amazon have their own sales and I've seen the game as low as $45 so I would say that's your best bet if you want to pay a low price for it.

 

                                       Just playing with this good boy is really fun 

Final Thoughts: Super Mario Odyssey is definitely one of the best Switch games I've ever played. This is definitely the best that Mario have ever controlled, his movement and control is just perfect. I really love that you can give Mario a ton of different costuimes, Mexican Mario is personally my favorite one but all the costumes you can get is really cool. I like the size and scope of the levels and I love how detailed they are. The music is great just like you'd expect from a Mario game.

The only real flaws that I see with this game is that it hands out Power Moons really easily and sometimes for some really mundane things. Like they don't really feel worth collecting. Another thing is the Kingdoms. I love all the Kingdoms that you go to, I love how big they are. But the thing is they can get... pretty repetitive since you see the same areas on the maps too many times. Like with other Mario games this was never a problem, like in the Galaxy games you had your main objective when collecting a star. Sure you'd have to revisit the level for another star but you never did or saw the same thing twice. Super Mario 3D World did this so well. But I suppose that's because those games are much more linear than Odyssey.  

One thing I really enjoyed was all the stuff that you could do with Cappy, like you should see some of the things you could pull off. And despite that I still think they've only scratched the surface. If they ever do make an Odyssey 2 I hope they go all out with it like they did with Galaxy 2. Plus there is a chance that Galaxy 2 might be a thing if a leak for it is to be believed. I knew about it years ago but didn't say anything that could get me in trouble but I did make some vague comments on it. It sounds like an exciting game if this is true but we'll see. I love Odyssey, I really do, but I hope if we do get an Odyssey 2, I hope that they fix the flaws from the first game.

 

                                               It was a treat seeing Pauline back

Jump up and don't be scared, Jump up and your cares will soar away

Well that's it for game #4, game 3 is coming up soon. Thanks for reading and...

 

 

 

*All images except for the 1st one were taken by my Switch and copy of the game.*