Welcome. Today, I will be discussing the sheer brilliance that is Super Mario Odyssey.

Odyssey is Nintendo’s latest mainline Mario game. If you’re into video games at all you are probably aware of this fact. However, It’s very possible that some of you haven’t played it yet. Have you not, I’m here to tell you – do so. Seriously. In my case, both playthroughs were life-changing experiences. It’s a wonderfully crafted game filled with imagination and creativity. Every inch of every world is finely made and interesting, and the designs of the enemies + the dialogue are phenomenal. I can’t gush about this game enough. I think it’s an absolute required playthrough if you’re even remotely into video games. Do yourself a service and play this game. Hell – I will convince you. In the following paragraphs, I will describe to you exactly why this game’s so amazing. Strap your seatbelts, guys. This is probably going to be a long one.

First aspect of Odyssey that I’d like to go into is its Map Design. Let’s look at my favorite game of all time, Uncharted 4. Uncharted 4 is known (alongside two and three I think) for using colors to guide you as to where to go next. This is because, otherwise, it could potentially get a bit confusing as to how to navigate from level to level. Odyssey, on the other hand, is never confusing. Granted, Uncharted’s levels focus on completing the objective at hand, while Odyssey’s, on the other hand, encourage exploration. But what’s cool about odyssey is that – when you arrive at a new world and need to get to the boss of that world, it’s super easy to do so. While not being linear, it feels linear, and that linear path is very intuitive and easy to understand. And then, when you decide to stray off of that path, the open world exploration feels incredibly intuitive as well. It feels like a linear experience despite not completely being one. I don’t think I need to elaborate on how ingenious that is. Since Odyssey is a platformer good map design is a requirement, granted. But “good” really isn’t doing this game’s map design justice. It is amazing, and one of the many things that makes this experience a masterpiece.

Character design is something I’ve never really paid much attention to. As I go from game to game, what I mostly focus on is…well…everything else. The map design, the graphics, gameplay, the characters motivations and interactions. I don’t know, it usually just doesn’t catch my attention. I like how the zombies in the last of us look, but not to the point that I would gush praise over them. Granted, I hadn’t played a lot of Nintendo games before BOTW (and then Odyssey). Those obviously changed my mind. Breath of the wild was, as previously stated, the first. The best way I could describe the enemy designs in that game is that it felt like they were out of a super high-quality anime…which would make a lot of sense, actually. They were the first positive I noticed about the game, and while I ended up adoring the whole product like most gamers, for a solid few hours they were what I was enjoying most. Odyssey topped that. From world to world, it constantly left me in awe at the purity and childlike wonder of the designs of the characters.

There’s some sort of magical quality to Nintendo’s designs. I personally think that is undeniable. In that specific aspect of things, they put other games to shame. They’re a step above. And…really, they are in most other ways as well. The only thing that Nintendo doesn’t excel at is probably story, but BOTW’s story isn’t bad at all, and Odyssey’s story isn’t the point.

How could they top the character designs? How could they make the characters even better? Easy. Dialogue. Odyssey contains a very unique, interesting and vivid set of characters. Their designs are, as previously stated, great, but it’s their dialogue that truly makes them fantastic. Every line of dialogue in Odyssey is pulled off flawlessly. I swear man – I never knew individual one-liners could add this much personality to a game. Every, EVERY line of dialogue is perfect. They simply serve to add quirkiness and personality to the game, yes. They don’t affect gameplay. But I legitimately think that if you do not enjoy this game’s dialogue and character designs you don’t have a soul. Think what you want of the gameplay – but those aspects of this game are objectively flawless, and I don’t care if I get flack for saying that.

The gameplay is very befitting of the game itself. There’s this really cool feature that fills my heart with joy where when you enter a green tunnel you get time warped to the eighties back when the NES was a thing. The game sometimes allows you to play as an NES version of Mario, with the same mechanics and everything. It’s awesome. The gameplay of Odyssey is filled to the brim with creative and interesting moments like that. However, despite everything – unlike most games – the gameplay of Odyssey doesn’t carry the experience. Far from it. It helps make it a masterwork, just like everything else.

What I love most about Odyssey, above everything, is that it doesn’t take itself seriously. So many games these days are super serious. Granted, a lot of them wouldn’t work otherwise, but that doesn’t change the fact that Odyssey is a complete breath of fresh air. It feels really nice to walk up to Luigi and hear him call you “bro” a time or two. Every moment of Odyssey is quirky and non-serious, and while that doesn’t work as well for some games, here it works spectacularly.

A good way I’ve heard of to refer to the making of odyssey is as if they just looked at the draft board that they had been using to brainstorm for the game, looked at all of its ideas, and spontaneously decided to implement every single one. It’s filled to the brim with inventive and interesting ideas. The very concept of possessing every enemy you can find in order to utilize them to your advantage is something that should have been seen as impossible. But Nintendo up and did it. They actually did it. That’s impressive.

I would recommend Mario Odyssey to any gamer, young or old. I feel it would accommodate pretty much everyone, honestly. It’s a flawless game – I can’t stress that enough – and I’m super happy that I’ve gotten the privilege to experience it.

Final rating: MASTERPIECE

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