This is the final stop on my marathon. I was hyped to play this game when it was released. Snatched a copy right on launch day. It was almost 10 years since the last full blown 3D Mario game, Galaxy 2. My first playthrough of this game was very fast, I was shocked to see the credits scrolling on my screen after barely 10 hours of gameplay. Though it was probably my own fault, since I only collected the bare minimum of required moons to run the ship. My second time around with the game was much more gratifying since I tried to collect as many moons from each world as I could. Even so, I felt the devs should have increased the required amount of moons needed to fuel the ship.
The underlying structure of game progression is the same. Collect a number of these, unlock new worlds, get to Bowser. But I love the fact that the game didn’t boot me out of the world after collecting a moon. This meant each world could have a crap ton of moons, without any discontinuity. Most of them involved a clever puzzle, mini-game, or hiding spot. Among my favorite were the classic 2D platforming sequences. The gameplay really wasn’t anything special, but something about seeing the oldest Mario game, in the newest Mario game made me smile. Other moons warped me to a separate mini platforming game, usually with a little twist. Most were pretty fun, and changed things up a bit.
And we can’t talk about Odyssey without talking about the cap, which basically made Mario into Kirby. Taking control of classic Mario baddies was a lot of fun. Even just running around as a goomba was amusing. Each had some ability that would help level progression. Goombas could walk on ice. Latikus could fish out moons. Tanks could blast through rock barriers. Flying drybones could get my past lava. Just a bunch of cool abilities. I found myself throwing my hat at every moving thing to see if I could posses it. My favorite by far were these long legged nut enemies. Winding them up to reach places was a neat way to explore the forest world.