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Super Mario Odyssey (JP) is the latest entry in the Mario series and returns to a nonlinear approach like Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario 64 DS to explore levels inspired by real-life locations. It was released on the Nintendo Switch worldwide on October 27, 2017.
Plot
The plot is about Bowser kidnapping Princess Peach and attempting to marry her. He travels across the world and Mario chases after him in his flying hat airship named the Odyssey. Mario comes across Cappy, who possesses his hat to help him fight Bowser and save his sister Tiara, whom Bowser has also kidnapped.
Bowser enlists the help of the Broodals to help plan his wedding and beat Mario. Most levels provide a part in preparation for Bowser's wedding. For instance, the Wooded Kingdom is holding a greenhouse where Bowser is stealing flowers from to make the bouquet. The exceptions are the Cascade Kingdom, the Cloud Kingdom, the Lost Kingdom, the Metro Kingdom, the Ruined Kingdom, and the Darker Side.
Gameplay
Features
Mario retains his moves from the previous 3D games, among them the Triple Jump, the Long Jump, the Roll, the Ground Pound, and the Dive, the latter of which hasn't been in the series since Super Mario 64 DS. He also wears Cappy, which he can throw like a boomerang, and he can also jump off of it in mid-air as if it were a platform.
However, Cappy's main feature is turning Mario into whatever Mario throws him on including enemies. Coins have changed wildly in this version. Regular coins are now used to buy costumes and items at Crazy Cap stores. Each Kingdom also has 50-100 of their own purple currency named Regional Coins.
Multiplayer Mode
A second player can join the game anytime. Player 2 controls Cappy, who can move freely without Mario's control while spinning to hit anything he crosses. Cappy can jump with the X button, and look around with the Y button.
Costumes
Mario can wear a variety of costumes with most purchasable in Crazy Cap stores. These are listed in the List of Costumes in Super Mario Odyssey.
amiibo Support
The Super Mario Odyssey series of amiibo were released alongside the game, as well as all previously released amiibo being compatible. The following are:
- Mario - Grants you invincibility for a short time.
- Peach - Gives you a Life-Up Heart.
- Bowser - Indicates the location of local currencies.
- Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Dr. Mario, Diddy Kong, Wedding Mario, Wedding Peach, and Wedding Bowser - Provide a costume for Mario to wear.
- All- Can give Mario a few coins.
Luigi's Balloon World
An update in February 2018 added this new online activity. Players can find Luigi after beating the game. The first thing players can do is hide a balloon somewhere in the Kingdom in the given time. Then, players can talk to Luigi to access other players' balloon placements and racing to find them for decent rewards.
Kingdoms
| Kingdom | Location |
|---|---|
| Mushroom Kingdom | Peach's Castle |
| Cap Kingdom | Bonneton |
| Cascade Kingdom | Fossil Falls |
| Sand Kingdom | Tostarena |
| Lake Kingdom | Lake Lamode |
| Wooded Kingdom | Steam Gardens |
| Cloud Kingdom | Nimbus Arena |
| Lost Kingdom | Forgotten Isle |
| Metro Kingdom | New Donk City |
| Snow Kingdom | Shiveria |
| Seaside Kingdom | Bubblaine |
| Luncheon Kingdom | Mount Volbono |
| Ruined Kingdom | Crumbleden |
| Bowser's Kingdom | Bowser's Castle |
| Moon Kingdom | Honeylune Ridge |
| Dark Side | Rabbit Ridge |
| Darker Side | Culmina Crater |
Characters
Playable
Assisting
- Cappy
- Tiara
- Princess Peach
- Yoshi
- Toadette
- Pauline
- The Toad Brigade
- Captain Toad
- Hint Toad
- Banktoad
- Yellow Toad
- Mailtoad
- Jaxi
- Glydon
- Talkatoo
- Uncle amiibo
- Luigi
Villains
- Bowser
- Broodals
- Topper
- Harriet
- Rango
- Spewart
- Madame Broode and Chain Chompikins
- RoboBrood
- Mechawiggler
- Cookatiel
- Knucklotec
- Lord of Lightning
- Torkdrift
- Mollusque-Lanceur
NPCs
- Local residents
- Bonneters
- New Donkers
- Tostarenans
- Lochladies
- Steam Gardeners
- Bubblainians
- Shiverians
- Volbonans
- Toads
- Goombette
- Frogs
- Moe-Eyes
- Fishin' Lakitus
- Sheep
- Koopa Troopas
- Roving Racers
- Rabbits
- Dorries
- Sphynxes
- Poochy
Wildlife
- Native birds
- Top hat-wearing Little Birds (Cap Kingdom)
- Red birds that resemble scarlet macaws (Cascade Kingdom)
- Green-and-yellow birds resembling budgerigars (Sand Kingdom)
- Pink birds with scaled wings (Lake Kingdom)
- Blue birds resembling blue jays (Wooded Kingdom)
- White doves (Cloud Kingdom)
- Pigeons (Metro Kingdom)
- Seagulls (Seaside Kingdom)
- Penguins (Snow Kingdom)
- Birds resembling dollops of whipped cream (Luncheon Kingdom)
- Brown birds resembling tree sparrows (Bowser's Kingdom)
- Small UFO-like creatures that resemble Torkdrift (Moon Kingdom)
- Little Birds (Mushroom Kingdom)
- Others
- Insects
- Giant dragonflies (Cascade Kingdom, Bowser's Kingdom)
- Butterflies that resemble large whites (Wooded Kingdom)
- Monotone butterflies that come in four different colors: blue, green, pink or purple (Lost Kingdom)
- Giant multi-colored butterflies (Lost Kingdom)
- Butterflies that resemble swallowtails (Mushroom Kingdom)
- Insects
- Lizards (Sand Kingdom)
- Hawks (Sand Kingdom)
- Chipmunks (Wooded Kingdom, Mushroom Kingdom)
- Pink crabs (Lake Kingdom, Mushroom Kingdom)
- Rats (Metro Kingdom, Mushroom Kingdom)
- Yellow crabs (Seaside Kingdom)
- Bats (Ruined Kingdom)
- Fish
- Salmon (Wooded Kingdom)
- Multi-colored lake fishes (Lake Kingdom)
- Goldfish (Seaside Kingdom)
- Koi (Bowser's Kingdom)
Enemies
- Goombas
- Paragoombas
- Mini Goombas
- Goomba Towers
- Koopa Troopas
- Sherms
- Chargin' Chucks
- Urban Stingbies
- Urban Stingby Larvas
- Bullet Bills
- Bill Blasters
- Banzai Bills
- Cheep Cheeps
- Snow Cheep Cheeps
- Spinies
- Chinchos
- Fire Piranha Plants
- Poison Piranha Plants
- Big Poison Piranha Plants
- Uproots
- Fuzzies
- Hammer Bros.
- Fire Bros.
- Lava Bubbles
- Magmatos
- T-Rexes
- Chain Chomps
- Big Chain Chomps
- Burrbos
- Gushens
- Maw-Rays
- Moonsnakes
- Ty-Foos
- Komboos
- Astro-Lanceurs
- Bitefrosts
- Pokios
- Stairface Ogres
- Trapeetles
- Tropical Wigglers
- Yoofoes
- Coin Coffers
- Donkey Kong
- Kleptos
- Parabones
Items and objects
- Regional Coins
- Purple Coins (Mushroom Kingdom)
- Top-Hat Coins (Cap Kingdom)
- Wheel Coins (Cascade Kingdom)
- Pyramid Coins (Sand Kingdom)
- Scale Coins (Lake Kingdom)
- Bolt Nut Coins (Wooded Kingdom)
- Leaf Coins (Lost Kingdom)
- Portrait-Stamped Coins (Metro Kingdom)
- Snowflake Coins (Snow Kingdom)
- Shell Coins (Seaside Kingdom)
- Tomato Coins (Luncheon Kingdom)
- Oblong Coins (Bowser's Kingdom)
- Star Bit Coins (Moon Kingdom)
- ? Blocks
- 8-Bit Pipes
- Barrels
- Beanstalks
- Berries
- Brick Blocks
- Binoculars
- Boomboxes
- Boulders
- Bowser Statues
- Bubbles
- Cactuses
- Cap Clouds
- Checkpoint Flags
- Coin Blocks
- Coins
- Coin Rings
- Coin Stacks
- Crates
- Girders
- Gravity Walls
- Ground-Pound Switches
- Hat Launchers
- Hat Trampolines
- Hearts
- Hidden Blocks
- Jizos
- Letters
- Lever Switches
- Life-Up Hearts
- Lifts
- Manholes
- Meat
- Moon Pipes
- Moon Rocks
- Motor Scooters
- Moon Shards / Moon fragments
- Multi Moons
- Paintings
- Peppers
- Picture Match Parts
- Poles
- Power Moons
- P-Switches
- Pulse Beams
- Push-Blocks
- Puzzle Parts
- Rainbow Notes
- RC Cars
- Rocket Flowers
- Safety Bars
- Scarecrows
- Slingshots
- Spark pylons
- Spiked Shells
- Spike Traps
- Steel Blocks
- Taxis
- Trees
- Rockets
- Sand Geysers
- Seeds
- Turnips
- Golden Turnips
- Treasure chests
- Warp Pipes
- Wind
- Yoshi Eggs
- Zippers
- The Odyssey
- Oil Drums
Development
Development began after Super Mario 3D World released in 2013. The team found that throwing a hat was the best action to perform with the Joy-Con controller, resulting in the hat "capture" game mechanic.
They wanted a familiar aspect of the series to anchor players in the novel setting, and so chose Pauline to be the mayor of the world known as New Donk City. Their character development of Pauline led to Odyssey's theme song, "Jump Up, Super Star!", the first Super Mario theme with vocals, being performed by her voice actress, Kate Higgins. Some of Mario's costume options reference the character's costumes in prior games of the series, such as Mario's Picross and Super Mario Maker. The lack of required Power Moons for game progression gives players freedom to explore at their leisure.
Music
- Much of the music is live recorded and digitally created, and is focused on the orchestral, band-style, and rock genres - similar to Super Mario 3D World. However, the game's soundtracks are also region-based and a variety of instruments were used to fit the theme of the music a stage is based on (e.g. Bowser's Castle's music is based on ancient Japanese music). Director Kenta Motokura stated that "[a]t each destination, Mario will get to meet with music from various countries."
The lead music composer is Naoto Kubo who previously worked on Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker and Super Mario Maker, while Shiho Fujii and sound veteran Koji Kondo compose additional tracks. Kubo said that "[the] music has literally everything, from comfortable Bossanova-style music, Irish-style music, to even rock songs! I think many people may be surprised with the festival-like music in Bowser’s Castle." According to Kubo, the game's music has to be done at a "larger scale" compared to the past Mario games.[1]
Reception
Pre-release
Super Mario Odyssey received widespread acclaim when it was shown at E3 2017. The BBC wrote that Odyssey was a capstone on "Nintendo's triumphant comeback", following its success with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild earlier in 2017. USgamer's editor-in-chief liked the structure of small platforming challenges within the Sand Kingdom's sandbox world but complained that Odyssey lacked in gameplay execution, with missions in the New Donk City level that felt "slow and boring".
Final Release
Super Mario Odyssey received widespread universal acclaim from critics. Metacritic calculated an average score of 97 out of 100 and is the fifth highest rated. Edgemagazine awarded Super Mario Odyssey with a perfect score, directing praise towards the inventiveness of the game's new ideas and the risks Nintendo had taken to deviate from the establish formula of Mario games, which they felt had paid off.
Famitsu gave the game a score of 39/40, the same as Super Mario 64 and the highest score for a 3D Mario game since then. IGN gave the game a score of 10/10, stating that the game "distills the venerable series’ joyful, irreverent world and characters and best-in-class platforming action, and introduces a steady stream of new and unexpected mechanics."
Merchandise
For a limited time, a Super Mario Odyssey-themed Nintendo Switch Bundle is available on the games release which includes the following:
- The Nintendo Switch console
- Red collored Left and Right Joy-Con controllers
- A download code for the full Super Mario Odyssey game
- A Nintendo Switch carrying case
- A Nintendo Switch Dock
- A Cereal with the box functioning as an amiibo.
Sales
It was revealed that Super Mario Odyssey sold more than 2 million copies worldwide in 3 days on the market. In five days it sold 1.1 million in North America alone. As of the end of December 2017, Super Mario Odyssey sold 9.07 million copies which is almost two third of the install base of the Switch itself at the time. As of the end of April 2018, Super Mario Odyssey sold 10.41 million copies. Super Mario Odyssey reached 11.17 million copies sold by the end of June 2018, making it the 1st party title with the most copies sold at the time. It retained this title as of the end of September 2018, when it reached 12.17 million copies sold across the world. It was later dethroned by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in December 2018 and stands at the number 2 spot with 14.44 units sold as of March 2019.
Gallery
| Main article: Super Mario Odyssey/gallery |
Videos
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Trivia
Firsts
- Super Mario Odyssey is the first mainline Super Mario series game to receive an "E10+" rating over the average "E" rating from the ESRB in North America. Similarly, this is also the first in the series, or any Mario game, to receive a "B" rating (ages 12 and up) instead of the average "A" rating from CERO in Japan.
- Series producer Yoshiaki Koizumi believed the CERO ratings board has given the rating due to the use of "realistically"-depicted tanks, also known as Sherms. However, it is also believed that the reasoning for the game's higher rating is due to the game's uses of attire customization including the "boxers" outfit, mild violence, realistic-looking creatures, and frightening boss battles.
- As confirmed in the September 13, 2017 Nintendo Direct presentation, Super Mario Odyssey is the first game to feature lyrics.
- The first home console Super Mario game to be developed by the Nintendo EPD studio after all of Nintendo's merging of all of its development studios in 2015.
References
- While it is the first mainline Mario game to feature the plot of Bowser's forced marriage with Princess Peach, this was previously been implemented in Super Paper Mario, as well as in media such as the The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episode, "Do You Princess Toadstool Take This Koopa", the anime film, Super Mario Bros.: Peach-hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen!, and the Super Mario Adventures comic.
- Captain Toad maintains his look from Super Mario 3D World. His original theme from Super Mario Galaxy also plays when the player interacts with him.
- This is Toadette's first-ever physical appearance in a mainline Mario game, who has appeared previously in spin-offs; she previously appeared as a cameo in the opening of Super Mario Galaxy. She also maintains her 'explorer' outfit from Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker.
Developmental
- At one point, the developers have felt unsure if younger players needed a "fixed camera" feature from the Galaxy games. After the developers learned that the young players have already mastered the camera controls in Minecraft, the feature has been out to rest.
- The decision to remove the "extra lives" feature was due to the fact that in previous Mario games, experienced players would rarely see a "Game Over" screen, as opposed to inexperienced players who would see it more commonly. This would also make it more convenient for players wanting to explore new areas in the game.
- According to producer Yoshiaki Koizumi, Odyssey has inspired the creation of the Switch's "HD Rumble" feature for it to be used in the game.
- The game is produced by both directors of both Super Mario Galaxy games, Yoshiaki Koizumi and Koichi Hayashida; Hayashida also directed the 3D Land/World games.
Music/Audio
- Lead composer Naoto Kubo has previously worked on Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker and Super Mario Maker.
- The first verse of the airship theme from the Super Mario Bros. level creation in Super Mario Maker has been used during the cutscenes in the game when Bowser leaves the scene.
- After providing music in the 2D New Super Mario Bros. games, this is Shiho Fujii's first work in a 3D Mario game. This is also the first time series' composer Mahito Yokota was absent as the game's composer. He still worked in the "Sound Management".
- In certain occasions, sound effects will harmonize with the background music with changed tempo and pitch. Examples include capturing elements and enemies, such as a spark pylon, a rocket flower, a Banzai Bill, and a Tropical Wiggler, as well as walking through a blue block platform.
- Super Mario Odyssey marks the return of the series' "open world style" gameplay, in vein to Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. However, many elements are still based off from Super Mario 3D Land, Super Mario 3D World, and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker.
- Some of Mario's voice clips from Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario 3D World have been reused in this game.
- When using the Wedding Mario amiibo, the "Ground Theme" remix from Super Mario 3D Land plays as the invincibility theme. Interestingly, the "switch activation" sound effect from 3D World is also used.
Other
- As of December 31, 2018, it is the second best-selling game on the Nintendo Switch, and the best-selling 3D Mario game of all time.
- Created specifically for the Nintendo Switch system, Odyssey is designed for "casual" and "core" gamers.
- While rumored to be the final game of the series, producer Yoshiaki Koizumi has stated that "Mario will continue to innovate".
- It is the fastest-selling Super Mario game, and on the Nintendo Switch system until Super Smash Bros. Ultimate overtaken the record.
References
- ↑ Super Mario Odyssey music lead and director share messages about the game's soundtrack (Nintendo Everything) Date: May 19, 2018. Author: Brian.
External links
- Super Mario Odyssey at Nintendo.com
- Super Mario Odyssey producer on approach to development, theme song, Pauline, higher age rating, more (Nintendo Everything)