Super Mario Odyssey – Feature

We knew a 3D Mario was coming to Switch the moment the console was announced, but it wasn’t until later that we saw the hat-throwing hook of Super Mario Odyssey. The excitement of New Donk City came a little later and by the time the game was released in October 2017, Odyssey seemed like a slam dunk. Daan Koopman thought the game was indeed a slam dunk in his 10/10 review, offering up the line at the end that feels quaint nearly eight years later: “Super Mario Odyssey is my favorite game on Switch by a long shot.” Daan if you’re reading – in 2025, do you still feel that way? Legitimately curious.

Neal Ronaghan: I was so excited for Super Mario Odyssey when it came out, but ultimately landed relatively muted on it in 2017. The game has incredibly high highs, like New Donk City and turning into a freaking dinosaur, but I was frustrated by some of the lesser moon challenges and some of the occasional weird gating and limitations that required preternatural knowledge of when certain moons would be accessible post-game. I was a hot take artist about it being more mid back at launch when a lot of others were heralding this as the best Mario game ever made. And then I had a kid.

It’s not quite that simple, but after not really touching the game majorly for a few years, I revisited it in 2020 (along with every other 3D Mario) and I came out on the other end with the true sincere belief that Super Mario Odyssey is the best game of its kind. The wild creativity, incredible Mario movement, and wondrous variety makes that game sing when you get over your preconceived expectations. I watched my then-2-year-old engage with the game and have a very good and somewhat productive time with it (this wound up being one of the first games he more or less beat by himself a few short years later). I watched my wife have an absolute blast with it. I replayed it myself and after divorcing myself from the completionist drive, it was a thrilling romp. At this point, I love Super Mario Odyssey and I can’t wait to see what comes next from this team.

Syrenne McNulty: Super Mario Odyssey as the other big heavy hitter of 2017 is very interesting when you juxtapose it to the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild.

While Breath of the Wild is redefining the core tenets of the Legend of Zelda as being more about exploration and discovery, similar to the first game, and less about formulaic design and combat challenges and puzzle rooms as seen in later entries in that franchise, Super Mario Odyssey sort of underscores a lot of the Super Mario 64 realm of design by putting you in a medium-sized sandbox and hiding secrets all over it. Thankfully in this game you’re not necessarily locked into the “this is the star I’m going to do. Now I’m going to pop out. Now I’m going to go to the same level and do the next star.” But as you’re going through, being able to find multiple different interesting things in the world that can reward you is a very cool concept. I think that this game definitely made a lot of uninteresting moons or moons where the reward feels disproportionate to the challenge. A lot of “oh you ground pounded here, have a moon” and “Oh, you looked under this, have a moon.” It feels really inconsistent in terms of player expectations and inputs versus player rewards. I think that having some secondary reward process for some of these smaller challenges could have been entertaining or sufficient. When I think back to this game I remember having a lot of fun navigating the levels but not having a lot of fun navigating any individual challenge.

Other than maybe one or two of the very scripted platforming sections. I think that it’s a very good game. I think it’s not necessarily for me. It is by no means the weakest 3D Mario game. Super Mario Sunshine remains unmatched in mediocrity.

Melanie Zawodniak

In 2007, I collected all 121 stars in Super Mario Galaxy as both Mario and Luigi. In 2010 I collected all 242 stars in Super Mario Galaxy 2. In 2013 I cleared every challenge in Super Mario 3D World to unlock and complete Champion’s Road. In 2017 I was excited to go on this same journey in Super Mario Odyssey, and the game’s “first act”—the easy and straightforward march through the main story to make sure the most casual players can see credits—was the most fun the first act of a 3D Mario game had ever been. I couldn’t wait to see how good the game would get after I reached the end of that main story and got into the really challenging meat of the game.

And then that more interesting second act just never ended up existing. Sure, there were the two Dark(er) Side of the Moon levels that really tested your mettle, but I never actually unlocked them because I could not bring myself to spend one more minute crawling each inch of Odyssey’s words for what remaining moons I could find. Super Mario Odyssey made the probably-wise decision to saturate each world with moons so that no matter what you did or where you went you would almost certainly stumble into enough of them to continue to the next world in the main story, and that presents a pretty big problem once you’re going back and trying to find the ones you didn’t stumble into. It’s an utterly tedious process that sapped away the fond feelings I had towards the game before credits, and I have never mustered up the motivation to play further than the second world on any subsequent replay. It’s a real shame, because Odyssey features the best moveset that Mario has ever had in 3D. I just wish the rest of the game made mastering that moveset actually feel rewarding.

Joel DeWitte

Mario is to Mickey Mouse what Nintendo is to Disney. The perennial mascot has transcended the video game world and is indisputably the friendly face there to invite you to the magical world of make believe. Every 3D Mario game i’ve played (sorry Sunshine) has been magical. The Mario Galaxy series has the head-tilting hop-scotching across a series of worlds through an outer space, and Super Mario 3D World felt like a natural extension of the formula in 3D while giving plenty of treats and surprises to enjoy like the good ol double cherry. Super Mario Odyssey is so packed with things to do. Worlds have so many moons to collect that you can trip over 4 to 5 of them while trying to grab another one. Cappy is fun without being grating, there was rarely a moment where I didn’t want to toss him onto an enemy’s head and see what I could do with them. Wreaking havoc the first time as a T-Rex was this surreal experience, a larger than life moment in the early hours of what’d be an epic adventure. The Broodals are kind of a nothing burger, and I would have preferred a return of the koopalings, but they are inoffensive and the boss battles were good enough, albeit maybe the weakest part of the game.

Nintendo also mastered the art of callbacks, with moon challenges and environmental nods that paid attention to the plumber’s history without being a big wink at the player. There’s a lot of little surprise moments like the first time you enter a pipe and suddenly are back to 2D side scrolling Mario segments, with the music of the level reverting to chiptunes to match. I played Super Mario Odyssey at launch, and I still have trouble remembering how to spell “odyssey”, but it’s a divine experience that figured out how to make an expansive world-tour like experience with a micro-reward system in moon collection that had me wanting to pick and find as many as I could.