Post includes items received for review

My freshman year of high school I had the amazing opportunity to fly to Nintendo of America’s headquarters in Seattle, Washington. That experience was one of the best things I have ever done in my entire life. Being able to go up and playtest games, meet other people and have the time of my life was something I will never forget. It was a blast! When I was up there, I got to try out a ton of games that hadn’t come out yet. Unfortunately, I had wanted to try the new Mario game, but I was unable to. That dream became a reality only a few weeks ago thanks to Nintendo.

I acquired the newest Mario storyline game, Super Mario Odyssey. You play as Mario and Cappy, Mario’s new acquaintance, to search the globe for Peach and Bowser to stop their planned wedding. On the way, your goal is to complete tasks around the world, helping out citizens or searching in unknown places to find Power Moons, the source of energy for the Odyssey and your mode of transportation.

One of the best things I have found for this game is the fact that it is free-roam. Sure, it’s not like World of Warcraft, where you can travel almost infinitely across the land, but for a Mario game, this is breaking news. In pretty much all of the other Mario games, you have a set storyline you need to follow, and there is only one path to travel on. In Super Mario Odyssey, it is the complete opposite. There is still a storyline, but each area is humongous offering you a lot of variety. You can travel far and wide, and complete silly little tasks along the way.

If you’re up for a real challenge, try collecting all 880 of the Power Moons! I tend to take my time while playing games to make them last longer. Whether it is Pokémon and collecting all of the Pokémon in the Pokédex, or Diablo and doing all of the side quests to build up my stats, I am all for it and try to get as much enjoyment from the game as possible. I have been working on collecting all 880 of the Power Moons, and I am not even to 200 yet!

Another neat thing about this game is that even though it is a storyline game, it can still be played by multiple people. On single player mode, one person controls both Cappy and Mario. On multiplayer mode, one person controls Cappy and one person controls Mario. I personally find multiplayer more difficult since you have to line up and communicate when to use Cappy and what direction to go. Either way you play it, it is still loads of fun!

My hopes are up for the next storyline game for Mario. I always have very high expectations, and Super Mario Odyssey blew them through the roof. I can’t wait to see what else is created in the future! If you have a gamer geek like me in your family, you can pick up a copy of the Super Mario Odyssey at Target or on Amazon. Follow along with Nintendo on Facebook and Twitter to learn about new releases (like Overwatch for the Nintendo Switch). Oh, and I have exciting news too! Thanks to the generosity of Nintendo, we’re giving away a copy of this awesome Super Mario Odyssey game for the Switch. Use the form below to enter to win!

Super Mario Odyssey Game

