Yeah, New Donk City made me smile when I got to the bit that lets you complete the world. That’s brilliant IMO.
Overall, I loved everything about the main path through the game. It’s just the right length, pays great homage to the history of the series, but also introduces so much fun new stuff along the way. I put it down for awhile after I beat Bowser, but I will go back because there is so much post game stuff to do.
I think sometimes the reason people don’t click with Odyssey is because they expect handholding from a Mario game and this one doesn’t have much of it. It’s a big open world of worlds for you to explore. Just have fun exploring!
I think I’m going through the same arc right now as some of you in this thread. I’m kind of surprised by how underwhelming the game is at the start. Reading this thread in the past though, I know that it gets better later in the game once you can start doing the more challenging things.
I agree with that assessment so far. Unlike previous 3D Mario games I’ve played, this one feels waaaaay too easy. It’s also kind of disappointing that the game is telling me to waggle my controller all the time. On a bright note though, I’m really impressed by the fidelity of the vibration throughout the controllers, it feels really precise in this game. But yeah, the game feels like it was made for babies so far, which is kind of different. But I did reach the desert world last night, so hopefully it will pick up soon.
I’d say the desert is probably where the challenge starts to pick up.
Odyssey isn’t all that hard on the critical path, outside of a few spots. Most of the trickier stuff is in optional challenges. But aside from post-game challenge stuff, I’d say that Galaxy etc are definitely harder.
The frozen desert area was definitely way better! Now we’re talkin’. This feels like a 3D Mario game, finally.
After I was done with the area, there were two moons I couldn’t figure out how to get. I was put back near my space ship hat and there’s a little device that says it will give me bonus stuff if I have an amiibo. I guess since I never owned a Nintendo device since the Wii, I don’t know what these are. Amiibo are their little toy model things like a Skylander type deal right? How does a Switch read that into the game? Does it have a camera or something?
Anyone got the skinny on Amiibos?
P.S. I continue to be amazed at how much this game pushes the motion controls over the traditional controls. Usually it says something like press Y to do this, but if you want to go faster, use motion controls to go faster like this. Press ZL to do this, but if you want to do it better, use motion controls like this.
Little plastic toys, correct. You can also get some in card form these days.
They work using NFC (near-field communication), the same tech a phone uses for contactless payment. One of the joy-cons (the right one I think) and the Pro Controller both have it built in.
So once you are in a game’s ‘Amiibo mode’, you just hold the Amiibo over the controller until it registers. Generally they are optional things, I’ve never seen one where you need it to progress a game.
There’s a painting frame in the Desert World that was empty initially, but now has a picture of New Donk City, and I can warp to that city from there. But I got nervous and warped back. I don’t want to just go there now if the game has some kind of cool reveal for that city later.
Meanwhile, back in my air hat, I travelled to the water world and got quite a few moons there, but I was eager to leave so I didn’t give in to my completionist tendencies and took the air hat to the wooded world instead.
The one move I’ve been trying to master over and over but can’t get is to be able to throw my hat and then use it as a jumping platform. I think I’m letting go of the hat button too soon or something. I’ve only done it successfully a couple of times. I figure if I can master that one, and combine it with moment from rolling or the long jump, I bet could get really far.
Despite some of the (valid) complaints in this thread, I found the game to be incredibly joyful.
In particular, the creativity of the things you could possess with Cappy was really cool. I think most people’s favourite was the Pokio, which I don’t think you’ve reached yet. I found the wigglers on that toxic purple level great too.
The difficulty level for actually getting through to the end of the final world was about right for me, as I am not a hardcore platform fan. I never got anywhere near all moons so did miss a bunch of stuff, and really want to go back now!
I thought it was the equivalent of the different hats in Super Mario 64, but I have to admit, there’s a ton more variety here. Like when they let me take over a tank yesterday later in that same toxic purple level. A tank! I mean, it was 30 seconds of being a tank, but still, it felt great.
So far the game has been uneven. Some really great parts that I really enjoyed, and some parts that made me go “ugh” and stopped me from firing up the game. Like when your ship gets damaged after fighting bowser and you end up in that horrible little area with the long worm/centipede like creatures. In the sparkling water beach resort area it took me forever to realize what the game wanted me to do with the water creatures, but at least once I did it was a lot of fun.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with the game. The highs are very high, and the lows are just minor annoyances. It still manages to capture the feeling of excellent game design that Mario Galaxy and Mario 64 had.
The samurai stylings world with the little birds you can inhabit was just sooooooo wonderful. Having the bird ability be physics based, and allowing you that kind of freedom and then later in the level building moving walls and such so you can use what you’ve learned of the physics of using beaks of the birds, man, it’s just perfection. Like I said above, it’s moments like this, when it feels right at home with the best levels of Mario Galaxy and 64. Just so good.
By the way, the Pro Controller is wonderful! But I’m glad I didn’t get it until now, and I actually got to experience the joy-cons first for an extended time. It really is the next level of the Wii controller, but done much, much better. I still prefer the Pro Controller, but the joy-cons are also very good. Especially for this game.
I spent about 2+ hours failing the 2D section in Mushroom Kingdom’s well last night. 2D Mario continues to be 20 times harder for me than 3D Mario. I just don’t understand why it’s so freaking hard. There must be something fundamental about the mechanics of 2D Mario that I just don’t understand.
2D movement is far more precise and has fewer degrees of freedom than 3D. As a result, Nintendo (and other platformer makers) can be far more demanding in 2D games.
Proof in point, the difference between Super Mario 3D Landand New Super Mario BrothersU. 3D Land definitely takes some lineage from the 2D series, most notably Super Mario World, as does NewU, but NewU level design is certainly far tougher earlier.
Not that 3D land can’t throw out some tricky stuff too. Narrow ledges at angles in the ostrich level for example, that far outpace what my kids can achieve. But in general my son and daughter are able to play along more while I beat the level
Thanks, this was one key, and I finally discovered the other key in 2D mode: You can press Y to run slightly faster. I don’t know if this was possible in older Mario games and I never knew about it, or if it’s new to Mario Odyssey, but I discovered it in the Action Guide of the game which describes various moves that Mario can do.
I’ll head back to that 2D world again at some point and try it out.
Meanwhile I’ve been cleaning up Moons in various worlds. The Dark Side of the Moon series of back-to-back boss fights with no way to recover health was just too much for me, I gave up on that pretty fast. Being able to only take 2 hits against multiple bosses seems sadistic to me.
Anyway, going back to various worlds, it really is amazing, the sheer amount of little custom animations and details in this game. This was a work of love and labor that’s truly impressive. I still wouldn’t put it up there with Super Mario Galaxy and Mario 64, but it comes close.
One bizarre thing I count against it is how they did the post ending “bonus” game here. You go to each world and unlock a whole bunch of moons. And yet, most of these moons are just sitting out in the open. And you can buy as many as you want from the shops for gold coins? I don’t know, it just seems to devalue the whole thing. All the additional moons unlocked by the cubes should have been as interesting to retrieve as the original moons in the main campaign, not just slapped on like most of these feel.
