Super Mario Odyssey (Part 1)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3

Covering another Mario title here almost feels like an event. I’ve always been a huge fan of the Mario franchise. I didn’t get my Switch until 2023, so for six years I witnessed, from a distance, the new evolution of Mario’s adventures, now taking on a more semi-open world feel thanks to its latest outing. Of course, as soon as I got the console, Super Mario Odyssey was on the must-buy list alongside other major titles from Nintendo.

This new entry, released on October 27th, 2017, was Mario’s latest proper 3D adventure since the Galaxy duology, so it was interesting to see which direction the franchise would take this time. Well, it didn’t disappoint. There isn’t a ton I can say for an intro, I just want to jump right into it. Jump up, super star!

Land of Hats

There probably wasn't an adventure, we're still in the
Mushroom Kingdom.
(P.S. I am using ZebraGamer's playthrough for the
screenshots. Go check it out!

If there’s an adventure before this one, we don’t get to see it; all we know is that Princess Peach was captured by Bowser. Dude just can’t get the hint that she isn’t into him. This time, he’s wearing proper wedding attire; goes to show how serious he is, even as he battles Mario. A quick boomerang toss of his top hat, and Bowser sends Mario’s cap flying, then tosses his forever enemy overboard. All Princess Peach can do is watch and yell out to her hero, while her crown… jumps on her head? With eyes? A propeller shreds the red cap to bits, but it is picked up by a strange top hat ghost.

Cappy, Mario survived the literal death and rebirth of the
universe. He'll be back on his feet in no time!

When Mario comes to, he is being awoken by the same ghost, and he has landed in a world with very little color. Aside from the giant moon in the background. Do I hear a skeleton sing? The ghost flies off with the piece of cap, but Mario catches up to him. Poor little guy, he looks so sad. We learn that this is the Cap Kingdom, inhabited by his kind, the Bonneters; they just got attacked by Bowser. This little guy, Cappy, is in distress, as his sister was kidnapped by the monster; she's the crown on Peach’s head.

Not like this land looked all that happy to start with.

The Koopa Army destroyed every ship in Cap Kingdom, so there’s no apparent way to leave – but Cappy is confident there’s an untouched ship in the kingdom next door, so he teams up with the plumber. He even transforms into a brand new, red, M-adorned cap on the hero’s head! Sweet! However, to get to the other kingdom, they must first reach the top of the tower in the distance. This gives Cappy a chance to show Mario what he can do.

Well, I better not go to France in the next few minutes.

Think Mario can jump high? Well, he's got competition.

We’re introduced to the main gameplay mechanic in this adventure: Capturing creatures to borrow their abilities temporarily. It’s easy, just have Mario toss his “hat” at the creature! This even works on specific objects. There are limits, however: You can’t capture a creature already wearing a hat, unless you knock it off them first – something Cappy can do, not always, but frequently. There are creature types that Mario cannot capture at all; if the point of capturing is to borrow their special ability, why capture something that doesn’t have one? Captured creatures cannot go through pipes or change worlds, and some of them even disappear once Mario leaves their body. Other enemies willbe able to tell it’s Mario and give chase, but friendly NPCs will cower. Of course, Mario can leave the captured creature at any moment.

Our first victim? A little frog. Mario’s first time getting absorbed into another body because of Cappy is weird, and when he realizes he’s in the frog, he panics first. No worries though, we can tell it’s him, he still has the cap and mustache! We use the frog’s tall jumps to scale inside the Top Hat Tower, reaching the top exit.

Classic ragtag bunch of misfits. They shouldn't be too
bothersome to deal with, right?

There’s a small airship flying in the area, and its crew of four rabbits takes note of the plumber. These are the Broodals, who claim to be “wedding planners” for Bowser and his non-consenting wife. They scour the kingdoms to take whatever they will deem necessary for the ceremony. (Really, they’re just hired muscle.) Getting rid of Mario IS part of their contract, though, so one of them, Topper, jumps down to confront the hero. He already wears a hat, and sprouts two more.

Everybody here looking so fancy with the hats and
everything. Just as fancy as Mario!

First boss battle! Just an amuse-bouche; he’s easy to beat. Smack him with Cappy three times to uncover his head, then stomp on it. After which, he hides in one of his hats, and you can either avoid them or break them with Cappy. Topper reveals himself, rinse and repeat. Three boots to the head, and he’s down.

Fun fact: Topper’s weird little voice is provided by Noboyuki Hiyama… the voice of Adult Link in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Topper explodes into stardust, leaving in his place an electric pole that Mario can use through Cappy to travel along a power line.

The Hunt for Moons

Beware of bitey sphere-doggos!

Mario and Cappy land in the neighboring Cascade Kingdom, which is mostly empty save for the local population of Chain Chomps. Mario tosses Cappy at a Chomp, taking control and sending it flying at a mass of rocks, breaking them, revealing a Power Moon and creating a path towards the rest of the island.

That's just 1, they might be more overwhelmed than happy
once they realize just how friggin' many of these things
they have to hunt down!

Power Moons are this game’s equivalent to Power Stars or Shine Sprites, but even that isn’t quite right; compared to the limit of 120 collectibles in Mario 64/Sunshine/Galaxy, this time things have gone way overboard. There’s a grand total of 999 Power Moons to look for across the many kingdoms. No, I didn’t stutter. Yes, that’s a lot. Plot-relevant ones are Multi Moons instead, worth three instead of one; but they're still few and far between compared to the tons and tons of solo Moons to find everywhere else.

That amount adds up fast!

In other words, you’re not gonna be lacking in content to look for, as Power Moons will force you to explore every square inch of each kingdom to find them all. However, it IS a lot of Moons, and not all of them are easy to find, soa few things can help a player: a Hint Toad can be found near the Odyssey, and for 50 coins he will pinpoint the spot on the kingdom’s map where a Moon is hidden. You can also ask a parrot named Talkatoo, which will tell the names of up to three Moons Mario hasn't yet found - it's up to you to figure them out.

That thing is cute. Until it starts talking.

Bunch of Moons available from the get-go. The ones with a
cube next to them are unlocked after breaking a Moon Rock,
which can only be done after beating the final boss.
Hey, gotta keep content for the postgame, right?

Two (admittedly minor) downsides to this concept: The first is that I personally love to “finish” an area as soon as possible. When I play through Mario 64, if I have everything needed to get every Star in a painting, I’ll focus my efforts on that one till I have them all. It’s just the way I am, the same way I explore a Route relentlessly in Pokémon if it’s got species I don’t own yet. But the way Super Mario Odyssey is made, you can’t get every single Moon in a kingdom as you enter it; perhaps more than half, sure, but several more aren’t accessible until after beating the final boss, and then even more are hidden beyond other additional requirements. So, you’re looking at visiting every kingdom at least twice, if you do want to finish everything. (That’s not counting inter-kingdom Moons!)

Behold! The modest beginning of my collection!

Second issue: Alternately, in Mario 64 or the like, once I had enough Power Stars to go directly to Bowser, I could skip whole swaths of the game. No need to do all the paintings when the boss is right there. In Odyssey? Every kingdom has plot relevance and is therefore a forced stop, and you must collect some of the Power Moons there to proceed. No skipping! This, in turn, doesn’t give you an incentive to stay in a kingdom after you’ve found enough Moons to proceed; why stick around and gather more, if you’re not getting a reward for that effort? Many kingdoms are designed so that you cannot leave (nor get enough Moons) before the mandatory fight with the Broodals, and there’s a bit more plot to look past that point – however, once the main story event has been seen and enough Moons are collected, everything else in a kingdom can indeed be skipped, until you come back.

Land of Chomps and Dinos

Mario and Cappy do find an inactive ship in this kingdom, but we need four more Moons to reactivate it. No problem, let’s explore around! We capture Chain Chomps, which are nailed to the ground and can be dragged one way to be sent flying the other to destroy rocks. All good. But what’s that on the hill? A huge, goddamned T-rex? And he’s not wearing a hat? Well! Don’t mind if I do! This is gonna be awesome.

A one-dino earthquake, Chain Chomp-killing machine.

It’s not a necessity, but I think games that focus on a specific gimmick or gameplay mechanic ought to have a moment early on that impresses the player by making them experience the full extent of that gimmick or mechanic. The T-rex of the Cascade Kingdom is one such moment. Unlike other victims of capture, the T-rex is time-limited as it is too large for Cappy to keep controlling for long. However, it will destroy rocks and Chain Chomps alike in its path, and will disappear once Mario’s friend can no longer maintain the form; no worries though, it’ll just reappear where it was found.

Aww, it's cute when it's sleeping. ...Let's bother it!

Red coins? Blue coins? That's passé. Just mix up those
colors!

This kingdom reveals the other mechanics in this game. The first is purple coins, which have their own shape that is unique to each kingdom; there’s a finite amount of those to be found, 50 or 100 depending on the kingdom’s size, and some of them are VERY well-hidden. These coins can be spent in a specialty shop and traded for alternate costumes for Mario, as well as stickers and souvenirs to add to the ship. Picking up an already-collected purple coin grants two regular coins.

Sometimes, areas behind doors are minigame-like, or offer
challenges you can't find anywhere else. In this one, you must
create a chain reaction of Chomps to hit the target.
Good luck, those can get tough.

Next: The special areas behind doors marked with a hat symbol. There was one of those in the Cap Kingdom, but this is where they begin to shine. Each door leads to a different kind of challenge for Mario; you never know what you’re going to get. The most notable one in Cascade Kingdom is the T-Rex's cave, where you can once more capture it to destroy everything in sight. Aside from extremely rare exceptions, every single area behind doors hides TWO Power Moons, one of which is the regular goal, while the second is hidden elsewhere. You quickly catch on to that and gear your mind to think about the second Moon anytime you enter these areas. I think that’s a clever idea!

Feeling a bit flat, but hey, paying tribute to the origins
is always good.

Finally, the 2D, SMB-style sections. Often, Mario can enter a pipe and he will end up in a 2D segment looking a lot like Super Mario Bros. (the NES original). His abilities are quite limited there, only jumping and running; no Fire Flower here! Mario will appear in that area in 8-bit, yet he will still be wearing his current costume. Most of these areas are just a way to get from Point A to Point B, but if you look around (like, say, finding a secondary path leading to secret areas), you can even find 2D Power Moons or additional purple coins in them.

All three further highlight why you should explore every area as much as possible.

Keep pulling... keep pulling... freedom for all Chomps!
(Except those who bite. ...which is... all of them.)

At the top of the cliff, Mario finds a large rabbit woman carrying a golden Chain Chomp like a pet dog on a leash. Madame Broode, ironically never as important in this game as the other Broodals, battles Mario. Easy, really; Cappy to hit the hat off the Chomp, then control it to propel it directly into its owner’s face. Three times, and boom. For our troubles, we get a Multi Moon.

This gives us almost enough. One more, and we're all set to leave with the repaired ship, dubbed the Odyssey. Time to explore new kingdoms, obtain Moons, and rescue Princess Peach and Cappy’s sister!

See ya in Part 2!