Unlike last year where I bought a new gaming PC and spent probably more time on gaming than on pretty much any other hobby, 2017 was extremely limited in this regard. I simply had lots of other things with higher priority than sitting all day behind a PC or TV and play games.
That being said, before my trip to Portland earlier this year I got myself a Nintendo Switch with Mario Kart and Zelda. I absolutely fell in love with the latter but somehow completely forgot about the first. In fact, I didn’t play all that much in total up until November, when I decided I really wanted to play the new Super Mario: Odyssey. Good decision 😄
After collecting more than 500 moons (similar to stars in other Mario games) I have to say, this might be the best game I’ve ever played. Not only does it come with the usual Mario-happy-faces-everywhere flair, but it makes it easy to just jump in for 5 minutes and make meaningful progress. Unlike most other games of the genre and also some of Mario’s more recent adventures, Odyssey also offers tons of variety.
Whenever you see a new enemy type (or some of your old favourites) you try to throw your hat onto them. This allows you to jump into the body of that enemy, put your moustache on them and run around solving puzzles from a completely new perspective. In Bowser’s castle, for instance, you meet a slightly too fat woodpecker. Hitting the action-button makes its beak stretch out and you can use it somehow like a catapult and work yourself up steep walls.
Every world also has some hidden gems like a sleeping dinosaur you can ride to break through indestructible walls or fighting a huge dragon in a cloud-kingdom.
But Odyssey isn’t only a successor to games like Galaxy or 64, but also offers levels in the style of the original Mario Bros. You transfer through a pipe into a 2D-world where you complete usually a handful of rooms like you’d have done in one of the classic games. At the same time this allows you to reach regions you couldn’t normally get to if you had your third dimension.
Long story short: I haven’t had so much fun in a very long time! If you have a Switch, get it. If you don’t have a Switch, get a Switch and this game 😉
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