'Assassin's Creed Odyssey'

Devindra Hardawar

Senior Editor

Assassin's Creed Odyssey has everything: glorious vistas, a wide variety of skills to learn and an open world filled with tons to do. In many ways, it's the culmination of everything the series has accomplished so far, cranked up to 11. And yet as I Spartan-kick my enemies over cliffsides and deftly take out dozens of baddies with the finesse of a psychotic superhero, I can't help but feel a bit empty inside.

Even though Assassin's Creed Odyssey is technically fun, it's not nearly as rich or meaningful as 2017's Origins. That game was a narrative rebound for the series, after the abject failure of Unity and the so-so Syndicate. Origins gave me characters I actually cared about and a glimpse of ancient Egypt that felt alive with potential, so much so that Ubisoft even created a combat-free educational mode to teach kids about that era. Bayek, Origins' hero out for revenge, is also a far more interesting personality than either of Odyssey's leads. He's a man with a code, similar to Red Dead Redemption 2's Arthur Morgan, so I felt compelled to role-play him as a peacekeeper. Based on what I've played of Cassandra in Odyssey, she's a wily scamp, but not much more.

It could be that I'm just overwhelmed with having yet another open world to explore. But even that was handled better in Origins -- whereas Odyssey features a map filled with too many activities. There's always something to do, sure, but that abundance of activity also means a lot less. More than anything, Odyssey needed an editor to cut out some of the gameplay elements to focus on what truly matters. I'll finish it eventually, but I'm in no rush.

'New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe'

Nathan Ingraham

Deputy Managing Editor

As far as I'm concerned, Super Mario World was the pinnacle of Mario's side-scrolling adventures. It took the vastness and creativity of Super Mario Bros. 3 to another level, featuring worlds that felt familiar but at the same time not at all beholden to the games that came before. I've been looking in vain for that feeling for years -- and while New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe doesn't quite get there, it's certainly the best of the new era of side-scrolling Mario games. Since it originally was a game for the ill-fated Wii U, it could have easily been a footnote in Mario's history, but now it's getting the audience it deserves on the Switch.

At the same time, though, I can't help but feel Nintendo can do better. For starters, the visual style is identical to New Super Mario Bros. Wii (2008), which itself was merely an upgrade to New Super Mario Bros. for the DS, which came out way back in 2006. Don't get me wrong, it's effective, beautifully colorful and looks great in HD. But almost everything about the game's visual and audio design is near-identical to the New SMB games that came before it. That wasn't always the case: Super Mario Bros. 3 was a huge design leap forward from the first game in the series while Super Mario World used the extra power in the Super NES to create an entirely new universe for Mario to play in. But lately it seems Nintendo has no desire to evolve Mario's style whatsoever. Even most of the music in the game is pulled note for note from other New SMB games.