Super Mario Odyssey | Post Credits

Super Mario Odyssey, the newest game in the Mario franchise, starts just like all the others. Bowser takes Princess Peach and will not just simply give her back. This time, Bowser gets the upper hand on Mario in the beginning, leading to a sequence of events that destroys Mario’s hat. Mario lands in the Cap Kingdom where he meets Cappy, his hat companion for the rest of the game. Mario and Cappy then go through various kingdoms chasing Bowser as he is stealing items for his wedding with Princess Peach.

The gameplay is very similar to Super Mario 64, the prequel to Super Mario Odyssey. What Super Mario Odyssey does add is the dynamic of being able to possess different characters and objects to ensure no two playthroughs of the game are the same. The possessable characters include a T-Rex, a frog, Bullet Bill, and many, many more. Each character provides their own skill set that is uniquely designed to help you progress through the kingdoms, and makes for a very fun change of pace.

The soundtrack to the game is amazing. Nintendo created an original song for this game called “Jump Up, Super Star!” and they even put the lyrics inside the game case. It's especially cool when you are able to hear the song for the first time in game because they make you work for it. Aside from “Jump Up, Super Star!”, the soundtrack continues the same style as all other Mario games as very awesome level specific soundtracks that you unlock. After the game there is even a Toad character with headphones on looking for more music to listen to. They definitely found ways to make you listen to the great soundtrack.

Screenshot from Super Mario Odyssey

However, a true sign of how great a game is can be shown through the amount of time that one person can put into it. On average, people put 250 hours into Call of Duty, and that is because of the addictive multiplayer that you can play after the campaign, but how do other games hold up after the credits roll?

Super Mario Odyssey is one of the must have games for any Switch owner. It is ridiculously fun and has added a ton of cool new ways to play the game with the introduction of Cappy (Mario’s hat with eyes). When you beat Bowser (which is not a spoiler because it should be pretty obvious that you win, I mean unless you suck at the game) the game rolls the credits, but the game is far from over.

From this point forward I will be talking about the post-game things that are available to do. So, if you have not beaten the game or do not want to know about what happens after the final mission, stop here.

So, Bowser is defeated and you stop the wedding of between Bowser and Peach. The next scene, Mario is shown sleeping on the lawn of Princess Peach’s Castle in the Mushroom Kingdom. The castle is laid out exactly like it was in Super Mario 64 and it was very fun to see that. The first thing that you find that is wrong is that Princess Peach is missing from the castle because she ran away to explore different kingdoms, so one of the first objectives is for you find her on one of the previous kingdoms that you explored.

Screenshot from Super Mario Odyssey

After Peach is found, the new primary objective is to go and find power moons which is a lot easier to do as those big grey blocks, that some of you may or may not have found on all of the worlds, are actually from the moon and unlock more power moons for every world. The power moons are going to be used to unlock two more destinations, that will both have boss fights, and a lot of different outfits including a really cool Mario 64 outfit.

Is this game as fun as when I first started? Honestly, I have not felt the need to pick it up as much as I did within the first few days of release. This is not to say that it isn’t still a good game, but there is very little story or anything else that will make me feel rewarded for putting more time into it. All I can say is “Hey, look at my character! He is now dressed as Walugi”, which to some that is enough to warrant more time being put into it.

Should you still buy it? Absolutely! This game was worth the $60 price tag as it thoroughly had my attention for the 15 hours it took me to fully progress through the story, and I will occasionally pick it up as I look for something fun to do to kill some time. I would just say, do not expect to get a lot of replay value out of Super Mario Odyssey. But you do get to see some Mario Nipples...