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RTTP Super Mario Odyssey Is Now 5 Years Old! 🎉

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Gartooth

Universal Madness
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Super Mario Odyssey has turned 5 years old, as it originally launched on October 27th, 2017.

To me, this was the game that made the Switch a must buy in its first year with BotW being multiplatform. But getting a new Nintendo console and having both a new Zelda and Mario on it within 6 months was just an incredible moment that couldn't be passed up on.

I look back fondly on Odyssey because even though it isn't my #1 Mario game, I think it was a crazy shakeup that the franchise really needed at the time. It reset the expectations on what a Mario game is by returning to the sandbox style of 64 and Sunshine after 15 years, and a lot of the ideas were off the wall crazy with the themes of a journey around the world and Mario having a hat that could take control of anything. Mario goes to New York? He possesses a T-Rex? It is such an eclectic mix of game design and artistic ideas that made peeling away at the game's challenges and worlds so rewarding. It was both a celebration of Mario as well as taking a 30 year old franchise in a fresh direction.



This is also one of my favorite trailers for a Nintendo game because of the sheer insanity from the first time reaction myself and many others had to seeing it. It's such a perfect example of having an expectation for a game, in this case a spiritual successor to Mario 64, and then having the rug pulled out from under you with the pure insanity the designers at Nintendo EPD came up with.

What are everyone's thoughts on the game? Also what new direction do you hope to see Mario heading in from here? Odyssey to me is really a game where it reinforced that the sky's the limit for Mario.
 
Hard to believe it's been 5 years. I remember playing all day when it came out and just being blown away at the creativity and setpieces like Jump Up Superstar. New Donk City is one of my favorite levels in any Mario game, and even if I have quibbles with the abundance of moons it's an amazing game. I can't wait to see what the 3D Mario team comes up with next.
 
My second favorite game of all time! Odyssey feels like roughly what you would get if you managed to bottle joy. It's just nonstop fun and boundless creativity from start to finish.
 
I was thinking today how the recent Gamestop closed and I'm pretty sure the last time I was there was for Mario Odyssey... 5 years ago to the date.

It's a great game, some general issues with pacing and presentation aside. 3D Mario can still bring it after 20 years. I don't have any real expectation for where they take the series next, other than that I'll be there day 1 for it.
 
One of the best mario games. Funny thing about this, I actually got the game before I had a Switch. Those were dark times when it was really hard to find one here and if it was avaliable it was very expensive (Like 500 USD), so I waited until a trip to the US in November and took my copy and basked in the glory of Cappy
 
It’s still insane to me how well the captures controlled. Like legitimately you could take almost any capture and spin them off into their own adventure games. I would pay full 60 bucks for a full-fledged Pokio game.

That’s not even getting how tight the controls for Mario himself are, like holy cow that hat-throw -> long jump -> hat throw -> long jump combo is the stuff of dreams. Easily my favorite Mario in terms of gamefeel.

Also loved the eclectic assortment of worlds and music. I really hope that when the next 2D Mario comes around it’ll be just as inventive when it comes to theming.
 
I owe this game another playthrough. I played it at launch, did the story, rolled credits, and had an all around great time, but I know there’s so much more to get to than I bothered with the first time.
 
Where the heck is the follow-up, Nintendo?

They could have cranked out an Odyssey 2 and it would have been a huge deal. Instead they gave us Bowser's Fury as a bonus and then bounced.

I'm guessing it'll be the big launch game for Switch 2 since BOTW2 doesn't seem to be it, but man, what a long wait
 
I remember being SO excited for this game that I stayed up till like 3am a night or two before it came out watching a gameplay stream on some sketchy website. I remember seeing the Mushroom Kingdom and being blown away that there were actual power stars and other 64 references. Man, I love that game. It also came out the day before my brothers funeral, and I'm really thankful that SMO was there to help distract me from the weight of that. 10/10 excellent game.
 
easily the best video game launch day of my adult life lol—I was at the tail end of a several-month period of unemployment (literally got the phone call with the job offer to start the following monday while I was in the Lost Kingdom) and my partner was out of town and I'd been so excited for it so I played it all day with maybe like two breaks, teared up at the song during the finale, and went to sleep. never done anything like that before or since and I look back on it pretty positively, really felt like something special. feels like longer than five years ago in some ways, maybe just because my life is pretty different now

and what a game! i got all the moons over the next few weeks and have returned to it a handful of times over the years and it still rules, but that constant surprise and delight of the first playthrough is totally unmatched, can't imagine what they'll do next
 
Thanks for saving me the trouble of making this thread myself! It'll help with me going to sleep on time before work, lol.

As I've stated in the "Favorite 1st Party Switch Games" thread, Super Mario Odyssey is my favorite game on the Switch. On a system with some incredible games both exclusive and not exclusive, Odyssey is the one to beat for me, with only 3D World + Bowser's Fury competing for that top spot. And this is a system with games like Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Metroid Dread, Splatoon 3, Smash Ultimate, Super Mario Maker 2, Luigi's Mansion 3, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Sonic Mania, Celeste, Hades, and a bunch more that I spend dozens and dozens of hours with.

I remember watching E3 2017, waiting eagerly to see more of the game after that first January trailer. We had a great taste of the wild open worlds you would be going to, and Mario's hat being used as essentially a portable platform was a novel enough mechanic. But that trailer...from the dinosaur making me think it was a Monster Hunter trailer to the reveal of the brilliant capture mechanic to the return of Pauline of all characters to the earlier than expected October release date...I was, no pun intended, over the moon with what I saw. I happened to be going to Nintendo NY to meet up with some friends, and I realized that I was able to play the E3 demo there, and I was so excited. Waiting on that line to try out New Donk City was absolutely worth it.

Super Mario Odyssey is the only game I went to an in-person midnight release for. At the time I was taking night classes, so I could afford to go and wake up late the next morning. That's exactly what I did - I got the game, I rushed home, and played for like two or three hours straight. It was love at first play. I remember the distinct excitement I had watching the opening cutscene and hearing the airship lietmotif from Super Mario Maker's SMB mode, what a great reuse of that song. The Cap Kingdom made an instant impression with its more mysterious, monochrome look, a very different first stage for a Mario title even as a tutorial. I got to control Mario again, remembering certain things from the demo, and he felt practically perfect - the right speed with lots of ways to get going, all the acrobatic jumps I could ask for, and plenty of advanced techniques as I would soon discover over my time playing. And that first frog capture set the tone perfectly - it was wacky and weird and gave me a whole new way to move around, a delightful new take on the 3D Mario temporary/level specific power up system. I kept playing until I reached the Sand Kingdom, and I had to pull away so I could get some rest.

At the time, I decided to go for every Power Moon you could possibly collect on the first visit, so I got a lot of time to learn and explore each new Kingdom. For many years (and to an extent still to this day), the core Super Mario brand was very focused on the New Super Mario Bros. style, one that was more focused on game-y levels and repeated world aesthetics. I love the games that the 3D Mario team worked on at the time, and I do enjoy NSMB, but with most spinoffs barring Mario Kart 8 leaning so hard on that one identity, the Mario world felt like it was growing smaller. Odyssey goes in the complete opposite direction - each world has something to it that makes it stand out radically from the rest, giving us completely unique worlds (Cap, Wooded, Metro, Bowser's Kingdom) or excellent spins on classic world ideas (Cascade, Sand, Lost, Seaside, Luncheon, Moon). You are consistently given new aesthetics and sounds, new NPC species to interact with, and of course a myriad of new captures to mix up your combat and traversal mechanics; and this made each new kingdom exciting to explore, as even the weaker levels had some unique or charming element to stand out. The Metro Kingdom might be my favorite platforming world in any game. As a New Yorker, I'm a sucker for seeing NYC or NYC-inspired areas in fiction, and they managed to take the concept of a Manhattan level and turn it into such an incredible platforming experience - scaling up and around skyscrapers, swinging on poles, bouncing off taxis, so many little nooks and crannies to explore while still keeping the area compact and navigable, and all this without even relying on enemies or any of the game's wilder captures.

Of course, good play mechanics and good world building can fall apart in a game with a weak structure. That's the major flaw of Super Mario Sunshine - the game is ostensibly built like Super Mario 64, but the open progression (get 70/120 main collectibles to get to the final boss) is replaced by having the player do specific missions, with all other missions only mattering for 100% completion. Odyssey splits the difference there well. You still have to visit every kingdom, but instead your goal is to collect a specific number of moons from that world, and the numbers are kept relatively low. Thus, players of lower skill levels can go for the simple moons while skilled players can go for them all, and players in between still have enough room to reach the 500/880 moon threshold to access all of the post game content. This has led to criticisms of "too many moons" or "too many easy filler moons," but that never particularly bothered me when I played the game back in 2017. It was instead, "Ooh, another moon, I'm making more progress!" The Regional Coins, perhaps the closest the game has to a Blue Coin mechanic, instead get to serve as currency for the shop alongside the standard yellow Coin, and the cosmetics greatly celebrated Mario's history and the eclectic cultures of each kingdom. On every level - structure, mechanics, world design, aesthetics & sound - Super Mario Odyssey nails it, and any complaints I do have - the wall jump is perhaps not as strong as it could be, some of the worlds are a touch awkward as floating voids, maxing out Luigi's Balloon World is a bit of a grind, a couple of the mini game missions are annoying - are ultimately nitpicks.

In a time when the Super Mario brand was becoming increasingly safe and almost a bit sterile, Super Mario Odyssey showed that the franchise still had it - and it didn't need to sacrifice the lessons learned from the previous decade of 3D Mario games to get back there. Mario could bounce between linear games and open games, and the devs at EPD Tokyo could handle it all. While Bowser's Fury was a fantastic appetizer, I'm eager to see a new 3D Mario game as the big headline title for the next Nintendo system. If Odyssey is anything to go by, I am confident that they'll blow me away once again.

The last time I played through Super Mario Odyssey was in 2017 into 2018. As of writing this post, it'll soon cross the exact five year mark. While I cannot play the game at midnight anymore - gotta consider work and all that - I am eager to dive back into the game once I get home and see if my feelings have changed on it after all these years. I'll post updates in this thread as I go!
 
I think Odyssey has the best game feel of any game I've ever played. Mario controls like butter. They could have a big barren wasteland level and it would still be fun to move around.

When 3D All-Stars released, I played through every 3D Mario game again, including Odyssey, and I found myself appreciating it more the second time. Unlike the other games in the series, it's not a game I have ever 100%'d as I tend to lose interest after the credits. But going through this game, casually stumbling on moons, without worrying about being a completionist, is one of the best and most fun game experiences you can have if you ask me.

Breath of the Wild was definitely the more influential game of 2017, but in my opinion, Odyssey is more replayable, and I could see myself go for another playthrough before booting up Zelda again.
 
By all accounts, Nintendo was one of the slowest companies in the world to adapt to WFH during COVID.

Fingers crossed for a blockbuster 2023. Bowser's Fury was great, but barely an appetiser.
To be honest, I don't expect a new Mario until their next system.
 
When I made Odyssey’s anniversary thread last year, I expressed my shock at the lack of even an announcement of a sequel

Crazy we’re still in that spot
 
When I made Odyssey’s anniversary thread last year, I expressed my shock at the lack of even an announcement of a sequel

Crazy we’re still in that spot
I think Nintendo saw 3D World + Bowser's Fury as a big enough pillar to function as the "next" 3D Mario. I wouldn't be surprised if something is released for Q4 next year though, which would put Odyssey/3DW+/new 3D Mario as roughly 2.5-3 years apart from each other.
 
I enjoyed it overall, but I'm one of those "too many moons" people. I don't want moons for putting a seed in a pot, using the beak bird to stick the beak in a hole 5 times, or chasing after musical notes like 20 times (and in previous games those would've been 1-ups or Star Bits). The difference in quality in the Kingdoms is also pretty wild - comparing Sand Kingdom to the Lake Kingdom or Snow Kingdom for example.

What I really want is a sequel, because the base foundation is very good and it has a strong identity with the captures/costumes etc.
 
I enjoyed it overall, but I'm one of those "too many moons" people. I don't want moons for putting a seed in a pot, using the beak bird to stick the beak in a hole 5 times, or chasing after musical notes like 20 times (and in previous games those would've been 1-ups or Star Bits). The difference in quality in the Kingdoms is also pretty wild - comparing Sand Kingdom to the Lake Kingdom or Snow Kingdom for example.

What I really want is a sequel, because the base foundation is very good and it has a strong identity with the captures/costumes etc.
This is how I felt. I think Bowser's Fury actually had a better range for its collectibles - some were more demanding than others, but I felt a higher bare minimum sense of accomplishment for getting one than I did with Odyssey's moons. I also really didn't like constantly going back and forth between small and big kingdoms.

A sequel that has a more consistent challenge/effort range for Moons and having levels that are less polarizing in quality and size would be a solid contender for my favorite 3D Mario, I think.
 
This game is great the whole way through but it really ends on a high note. Probably the best ending sequence of any mainline Mario.

I love how Bowser’s Castle isn’t the generic lava world, but a Japanese-inspired temple. Then after that you go to the freaking moon to confront Bowser. This shouldn’t be exciting in a post Mario Galaxy world, but it somehow is. And then there’s the escape where you control Bowser with the Pauline song playing in the background. This is wildly different to anything Mario had done up to that point, and it made me want a 3D Bowser game.
 
Odyssey simply never got my attention.

Having played it after luigo's mansion 3 only made it worse. The game by comparison looked somewhat cheap and the lack of animations made it feel stiff.

In the space of the kingdoms, they also didnt grab me. Ruined Kingdom waa great but was too short, too much green in the game, the mix of artstyles clashed and not in a fun way (concept art is sooo much more alive and interesting) i also didnt like the battles at all and found them boring.

Returning to Peach being abducted after 3d world was a very eh choice by the makers and i wasnt v interested in it.

3d World, Galaxy and Bowser's Fury are all the superior games.
 
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It’s a masterpiece. Enough said.

Those leftover files in the 3D All-Stars launcher paint a potentially interesting picture for the next 3D Mario, but i’m still not sure how soon we’ll see it, since I do believe it competes with the next 2D Mario (in production for about as long) and Tokyo’s other project, the mysterious 2D action game. We’ll have to see which of them shows up next year.
 
I wish cappy became a recurring mechanic of Mario. It opens up in ways that the traditional power ups dont, in my opinion. I had so so much fun with this game. Best Mario ever (I haven't played Sunshine nor Galaxy 2).
 
From the teaser to the reveal trailer and one of the greatest trailers of all time at E3 - the lead up to this game was amazing and it delivered on all accounts.
Lately I've been thinking about playing it again.. but I havnt found the time for it since I have so many other games playing.

I remember I wasnt trusting the postal service for launch day so I drove on my lunchbreak with a co-worker to gamestop to be sure to pick one up on launch day :p

Kind of a bummer they didnt make a sequel, because I imagine they had A LOT of ideas for this game that they shelved or simply didnt have space for.
If there's another Mario game for Switch, I imagine it's going to be absolute massive.


By all accounts, Nintendo was one of the slowest companies in the world to adapt to WFH during COVID.

Fingers crossed for a blockbuster 2023. Bowser's Fury was great, but barely an appetiser.

While it's true Nintendo probably werent the quickest ones around, they were also one of the very few companies that actually put out games more or less on time during the heights of covid. I do think some of their biggest games took a pretty big hit for sure - but that was an industrywide occurance.
 
I only just played Bowser's Fury and was pretty disappointed. I'm not sure what I was expecting? The experience was just kind of dull - Odyssey was bliss by comparison. I really hope we see an Odyssey 2, or at least something that continues with the capture idea again.
 
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Not my favourite Mario game but I can recognise that it’s still masterful game design. The willingness to change things up, to surprise the player and play with a concept for as long as it’s fun, then try something new, remains the heart of Nintendo’s game design theory and it’s on full display in Odyssey.
 
My favorite 3D Mario game is Sunshine.
It is my favorite, tho I feel Odyssey might be the best one.
Wether or not we get a Odyssey 2, I really really hope we will see the next 3D Mario soon. Odyssey 2 would be great. But I'd be equally hyped for something brand new. I like how the 3D Mario games tends to be so different from eachother.
If they DO make a specific Odyssey 2 tho, I hope they do a few nice Mario-related Kingdoms, like, a 'Luigi's Mansion Kingdom' where you can Cap-ture Gadd, Boos, Polterpup, etc.
Sunshine Kingdom where you cap FLUDD
DK kingdom where once you beat the King K Rool boss and knock his crown off, you can capture him.
And of course, a Breath of The Wild Kingdom, the biggest and most open one. You can capture a horse and just ride around. Capture a Bokoblin and chat with other Bokblins and hear their thoughts.
 
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Can't believe. Odyssey is top tier, I just wished that some kingdoms like Ruined were not just a boss area.

EPD Tokyo has been cooking and that fresh meal will be served in 2023.


 
One of the best controlling games ever made.

'Too many moons' destroyed the discussion around this game. Such a myopic argument that completely ignores the fact that Odyssey will very well likely be the first game ever played by small children. Having easily accessible moons to progress allows for an a-la-carte difficulty setting.
 
BOTW and Odyssey were a tremendous punchy first year for the Switch to me. Odyssey is tremendously good to the point where it managed to become my favorite 3D Mario despite the previous contender having "Nostalgia Bias" on it's arsenal.

Even ignoring the gameplay, which is so smooth it managed to get rid of the few tedious parts that nagged at me in other 3D Marios so I'm already a bit tired of how much praise I've sung it, I specifically feel like bringing up how the last act of the game is the strongest scenario a Mario game has put out yet in my book.

Going from a "cute food themed" Late Game Lava Stage to the detour on the dramatic realistic castle (while attacked by the giant dragon) to Bowser's super colorful japanese fortress which we invade but the adventure isn't over yet because now we gotta rush to the white white quiet moon (whose low-gravity gimmick instantly hits you) but then HARD-ROCK BLASTING MOON LAVA CAVES show up and you CLIMB the hill and you see the church in the distance, bells ringing, looking to your back you see the Earth shining far away, signifying the whole journey you took up to this point (now so far away), and you STORM THE WEDDING and DRAMATIC GRUDGE MATCH and then THE MOON STARTS CAVING IN BUT YOU POSSESS BOWSER AND NOW YOURE RUNNING AROUND WHILE TEEN GIRL ROCK BLASTS (bonus point when you pay attention to the teen girl rock song and you realize the lyrics are about the series as a whole, which adds some emotional bits to longtime players like us)

It was so so so so so good, it really felt like the climax of a crazy adventure, the humoristic and bombastic "Mario-flavored" take on a Jules Verne novel.

It was such a strong finale to me that if this were the last Mario game ever made because of a meteor falling on Earth it wouldve been satisfying to me as an ending to the series (and mankind, of course. the meteor wouldn't discriminate)
 
Good god, what a game. I had a shitty job at Target at the time while I was still in college. I called out sick and played Mario odyssey all day on launch day. Its one of the few games i got the collectors edition strategy guide for, which I actually used to 100 percent the game
 
While I don't consider it the best of the 3D games (still think both Galaxy games are above it and maybe even 3D world+BF), it's still an amazing game.
 
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I think Odyssey is in a weird place for me. I enjoyed it quite a bit when it first came out but I don't hold much admiration for it now compared to most of the other 3D mario's. I wonder if that's just cause I was quite a bit older when I played Odyssey whereas I was pretty much a kid for every other 3D Mario.
 
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One of the best controlling games ever made.

'Too many moons' destroyed the discussion around this game. Such a myopic argument that completely ignores the fact that Odyssey will very well likely be the first game ever played by small children. Having easily accessible moons to progress allows for an a-la-carte difficulty setting.
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I should play a bit of it today.

From my recollection (and of course in my opinion) the game has two chief deficiencies: first is the art, which was intentional; second is the fact that, despite being very fluid to control, all of the platforming can be done by throwing the hat, jumping off it, throwing the hat, and diving. 64 demands a much more broad use of your mobility.

As a new fan of 64, I'd love the next 3D Mario to both have a fresh but consistent visual style and a comparable feeling of movement.
 
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I was thinking today how the recent Gamestop closed and I'm pretty sure the last time I was there was for Mario Odyssey... 5 years ago to the date.

It's a great game, some general issues with pacing and presentation aside. 3D Mario can still bring it after 20 years. I don't have any real expectation for where they take the series next, other than that I'll be there day 1 for it.

Bro, sounds like you’re talking about some random old series managing to somehow pull it together rather than a series which has proven itself to be the pinnacle gaming for its entire existence haha.

If you aren’t where 3D Mario is day one, chances are high that you’re missing out on playing one of the greatest games of all time. Doesn’t matter how old the series is.
 
I like how the game doesn’t have a consistent artstyle. It’s cool for Mario to go from a realistic city to a cartoony food world and then fight a medieval dragon. It’s clearly just for this game and I’m sure the next Mario will look more cohesive.
 
Bro, sounds like you’re talking about some random old series managing to somehow pull it together rather than a series which has proven itself to be the pinnacle gaming for its entire existence haha.
Dunno how you got that from my post tbh, I thought it was pretty effusive praise.

Also, Sunshine isn’t the pinnacle of anything, but that’s another topic
 
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I'm really curious to see "Too many moons" in action again when I play Odyssey. Since 2017, I've played all of the 3D Mario games again (besides 64 DS), many of them twice over and all but 3D World to 100% (oof to completing every level with every character). I've had my share of stronger and weaker progression systems...where will the 880 Moon journey land for me this time?

I'm structuring this playthrough differently than my first. I'm aiming to finish the story in each world while going for any moons that I pass by or that interest me in the moment. Then in the post game I'm going to get all of the base game moons I missed, alongside any Peach visits, round one of the Koopa Freerunning, and any small extras added by beating the game, culminating with a visit to The Dark Side of the Moon. After that, it'll be one more trip through each kingdom, going after the Moon Rock missions, finally finishing up with the Darker Side and the Bowser rematch in the Moon Kingdom. I'm hoping this path will reduce any potential burnout I might get. Either way, I'm super excited to begin this playthrough when I get home!
 
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Happy anniversary to the best Switch exclusive and one of the best games of all time, that in some ways saved my life.
I just can't wait for the next 3D Mario.
Might start a new playthrough of Odyssey.

My best memories of it are the E3 trailer which was just amazing with the plot twist and the music, and

the dragon boss at the ruined kingdom. I got literally wtf'd by it. A giant monster with Bayonetta/God of War proportions vibe, a graphical showcase and just the peak of the "Mario going no Mario" to me. Also, the ending with both Bowser and Mario fighting for Peach and she ignoring both and going to travel with Tiara was like a dream of my teenage Nintendo enthusiast going real on a way I wouldn't expect lol.
 
I also will say that the New Donk City Festival is the best set-piece not only in this generation of games, but ever. It's pretty much the pinnacle of gaming, and I'm not sure anything I play will ever be better than that, especially that first time I experienced it.
 


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