Super Mario Odyssey - Catch All 2.0

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Oh man, we've got to go get that Santa costume ASAP! What a clever inclusion by the team. Of course, the whole "various hats" thing which led to "various costumes" thing was a brilliant addition to the game.

I've often thought that not enough games have Christmas content. Many games have themes suitable for Halloween, and many online games have events for all sorts of holidays, but hardly any offline games have the equivalent of Christmas movies. There's the DLC for Saints Row 4, and Dead Rising 4 is set at Christmas, and that's all I can name.

Jonman wrote:
DSGamer wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

I definitely like Odyssey a thousand times better than that trash Mario 64. Haven't played Sunshine, will do if they bring it out for Switch.

Whoa. This was not the hot take I expected to read when I woke up this morning.

Have you played Mario 64 in the last decade, DS? It has not aged well.

I get that. But as others have said, we don't have Odyssey (or Galaxy, 3D Land, 3D World) without 64. I think most of the 3D Mario games are fairly great, so I do think it's a pretty scorching take to say Mario 64 is "trash".

DSGamer wrote:

I get that. But as others have said, we don't have Odyssey (or Galaxy, 3D Land, 3D World) without 64. I think most of the 3D Mario games are fairly great, so I do think it's a pretty scorching take to say Mario 64 is "trash". :)

I think both can be true. It was a landmark game that got us to where we are, that is trash by modern standards.

To whit - my wife booted it up recently, as it was at one point her favorite game ever. 20 minutes later, she turned it off, pronounced it "unplayable" and has never gone back. Meanwhile, she's at 600-and-something moons in Odyssey and played Galaxies 1 and 2 to completion during the Wii years.

I don't look at 3D Land and World as clear descendants of 64; they have much more in common with the original series, but with some 3D elements. The levels are nearly absolutely linear with an occasional shortcut, with no backtracking, unlike 64 et al.

Certainly they are 3D and Mario 64 did that first, but I don't think that they necessarily owe their existence to it. I do think Sunshine, the Galaxies, and Odyssey do.

I am descended from my grandpa, as are some of my favorite people in the world. Nonetheless, he was trash.

Spoiler:

My grandpa, in this analogy, is Super Mario World.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I am descended from my grandpa, as are some of my favorite people in the world. Nonetheless, he was trash.

Spoiler:

My grandpa, in this analogy, is Super Mario World.

When I draw this analogous family tree for myself, it gets confusing right quick. Can't quite decide if I'm Bowsette or the eggs that Yoshi poops out.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I don't look at 3D Land and World as clear descendants of 64; they have much more in common with the original series, but with some 3D elements. The levels are nearly absolutely linear with an occasional shortcut, with no backtracking, unlike 64 et al.

Certainly they are 3D and Mario 64 did that first, but I don't think that they necessarily owe their existence to it. I do think Sunshine, the Galaxies, and Odyssey do.

Sure. I consider them related because there are still paradigms from 64 or adapted for 3D gameplay by Mario 64 that live on in those games. Stuff like ground pound, operating in 3D space in general (even when the perspective is constrained), the AI and design of enemies, etc.

Even though the perspective and world design is more linear those games definitely owe something to 64 and, overall, they're my favorite Mario games. I enjoyed Odyssey far more than I have any of the 2D "New" series. Same with 3D Land. Still need to finish 3D World. I keep hoping it will show up on Switch.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Oh man, we've got to go get that Santa costume ASAP! What a clever inclusion by the team. Of course, the whole "various hats" thing which led to "various costumes" thing was a brilliant addition to the game.

I've often thought that not enough games have Christmas content. Many games have themes suitable for Halloween, and many online games have events for all sorts of holidays, but hardly any offline games have the equivalent of Christmas movies. There's the DLC for Saints Row 4, and Dead Rising 4 is set at Christmas, and that's all I can name.

That's a good point. There are loads of games that I associate with October, and a lot less that I associated with December. As it happens, I remember playing Odyssey in Oct 17, getting to the snow world, and wishing I was playing it around Christmas. Maybe I'll go run around there a bit once I get the Santa outfit.

My daughter's favorite thing to do in Odyssey is (have me) go to the Snow Kingdom, dress Mario up in his underpants, then make him stand outside and shiver uncontrollably, while she'll laugh herself silly.

I may be raising a psychopath.

A year on from when I played this, I'm a little surprised by how little of an impression it made on me. I played it, and I enjoyed it, and I put a lot of time into it, but when I think of my favorite Switch games, it never comes to mind.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

A year on from when I played this, I'm a little surprised by how little of an impression it made on me. I played it, and I enjoyed it, and I put a lot of time into it, but when I think of my favorite Switch games, it never comes to mind.

Funny thing. Though I have plenty of games on my Switch, the only one that comes to mind when I think "Switch games" is Breath of the Wild still.

I figure Octopath will in time, but it feels like it's a multi-platform title so it doesn't really stick as a Switch exclusive. I imagine Smash Ultimate will be the first to make a real impression next Friday.

Which I suppose sounds like a condemnation of the system. It's not, really, but I think its form factor is more the reason for that than its library. Most of what I have are multi-platform indies or RPG's and ports. ARMS failed to make an impact and Splatoon 2 has fallen by the wayside, which is a darn shame because I do really enjoy it. That, however, has the fact of being a sequel explaining why it would make less of an impression. Mario Odyssey brings fond memories, but I don't feel an urge to go back and play more.

Breath of the Wild, on the other hand...

Heh, it'll be interesting looking at my GotY contenders for last year. I imagine when I read the list I'll be completely baffled at my ordering of things.

DSGamer wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

I don't look at 3D Land and World as clear descendants of 64; they have much more in common with the original series, but with some 3D elements. The levels are nearly absolutely linear with an occasional shortcut, with no backtracking, unlike 64 et al.

Certainly they are 3D and Mario 64 did that first, but I don't think that they necessarily owe their existence to it. I do think Sunshine, the Galaxies, and Odyssey do.

Sure. I consider them related because there are still paradigms from 64 or adapted for 3D gameplay by Mario 64 that live on in those games. Stuff like ground pound, operating in 3D space in general (even when the perspective is constrained), the AI and design of enemies, etc.

Even though the perspective and world design is more linear those games definitely owe something to 64 and, overall, they're my favorite Mario games. I enjoyed Odyssey far more than I have any of the 2D "New" series. Same with 3D Land. Still need to finish 3D World. I keep hoping it will show up on Switch.

Make no mistake: I like Mario 64 far more than New Super Mario Bros. WiiU. It's hard for me to describe what I dislike about the latter, but I'd attempt to do so by saying that the levels feel empty and joyless. They are like an brand-X attempt to imitate SMB3 and SMW.

Mario 64 is full of fun characters and new, vital ideas; I just don't like wandering around not knowing what to do next. That's never been a problem in the 2D Marios, Galaxies, 3D Land/World, etc. It actually hasn't really been a problem in Odyssey.

This brings me to what might be an interesting discussion point, rather than a hot take: In Mario 64, you jump into a level and have a hint about what star you're looking for. Depending upon the star, the level may be different. IIRC you can in some cases get a different star than the one the hint is addressing, but no matter what, when you get a star, you're kicked out of the level.

In Odyssey, you are collecting moons, and you can basically get them in whatever order you discover them. It's an open world that allows you to continue in it instead of resetting your progress by kicking you out every few minutes. There are also way more moons than 64 has stars. Because there's not too much pressure to find the moons in any given order, and many can be missed with no problem, you're seldom at a loss for what to do next - there's no wrong answer.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

In Odyssey, you are collecting moons, and you can basically get them in whatever order you discover them. It's an open world that allows you to continue in it instead of resetting your progress by kicking you out every few minutes. There are also way more moons than 64 has stars. Because there's not too much pressure to find the moons in any given order, and many can be missed with no problem, you're seldom at a loss for what to do next - there's no wrong answer.

Yeah, I enjoyed this about Odyssey too. Makes it feel less "scripted" than other 3D Mario games. I have it in my head that Odyssey is the first 3D Mario game that doesn't kick you out after each Star/Shine/Moon, but I might be forgetting one...

Jonman wrote:

My daughter's favorite thing to do in Odyssey is (have me) go to the Snow Kingdom, dress Mario up in his underpants, then make him stand outside and shiver uncontrollably, while she'll laugh herself silly.

I may be raising a psychopath.

That is hilarious, for lots of reasons.

ccesarano wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

A year on from when I played this, I'm a little surprised by how little of an impression it made on me. I played it, and I enjoyed it, and I put a lot of time into it, but when I think of my favorite Switch games, it never comes to mind.

Funny thing. Though I have plenty of games on my Switch, the only one that comes to mind when I think "Switch games" is Breath of the Wild still.

Same.

I did randomly play Odyssey a couple weekends back after I got my Smash Bros Switch system and reinstalled all my games. Still a ton of fun. I had just forgotten about it.

When it released I played it almost exclusively until beating the game and it was a great time.

Stele wrote:
ccesarano wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

A year on from when I played this, I'm a little surprised by how little of an impression it made on me. I played it, and I enjoyed it, and I put a lot of time into it, but when I think of my favorite Switch games, it never comes to mind.

Funny thing. Though I have plenty of games on my Switch, the only one that comes to mind when I think "Switch games" is Breath of the Wild still.

Same.

I did randomly play Odyssey a couple weekends back after I got my Smash Bros Switch system and reinstalled all my games. Still a ton of fun. I had just forgotten about it.

When it released I played it almost exclusively until beating the game and it was a great time.

That was my experience as well. I'd buy the hell out of Odyssey 2 or extra levels. But once I'd beaten the game and got around 800 moons I realized I was probably done with the game for a while.

Jonman wrote:

My daughter's favorite thing to do in Odyssey is (have me) go to the Snow Kingdom, dress Mario up in his underpants, then make him stand outside and shiver uncontrollably, while she'll laugh herself silly.

I thought everybody did that.

https://twitter.com/jovianconsensus/...

Odyssey is probably one of my favorite games ever I think. I still play it regularly. I can’t think of another game except maybe BotW that’s so fun to just aimlessly traverse and do random things in whenever the mood strikes me—very Zen. Also the musical number in New Donk City is one of the greatest things ever. Its proximity to the BotW juggernaut definitely hurt its impact, I think. It may have been better to release it this year instead with an extra world maybe.

Also, Mario 64 is still amazing if you give it a little while and re-acclimate to the controls (if it’s the game’s design philosophy you don’t like, then that’s not going to go away, however). The fact that it was created at the time it was is so impressive I can barely wrap my mind around how it was accomplished. Its relative rough patches might be something you could think of akin to old films with more primitive visual effects and less refined filmmaking tools and techniques at their disposal—the presentation and polish might be lacking compared to modern movies, but great movies are great forever, both on their own and by what they contributed to the medium. To me, Mario 64 is the same way.

Just to stir the pot a little more: for comparison, I and everyone who has played it with me (multiple full parties of four players) found Super Mario 3D World kind of boring and it’s the only main Mario game I haven’t finished except Sunshine, which I also think is better than SM3DW.

I don't know whether SM3DW would be good with a full group of adults, or by myself, but it was absolutely perfect to play with kids. I've played all the way through with my daughter and then my son, and often played with both. I still fantasize about a remastered 3D Land that was rebuilt for four players. Or, you know, just a true sequel.

I don't think 64's aged graphics are a big problem for me, but certainly that generation's visual impressions suffered because the PC had already done 3D graphics, and done them better. It was a big step down from GLQuake to Mario 64, etc.

I actually get what you’re saying after reading this.

This brings me to what might be an interesting discussion point, rather than a hot take: In Mario 64, you jump into a level and have a hint about what star you're looking for. Depending upon the star, the level may be different. IIRC you can in some cases get a different star than the one the hint is addressing, but no matter what, when you get a star, you're kicked out of the level.

I still think Mario 64 is a good game, but your point here is spot on. It’s a profoundly strange format compared to games that followed it.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Oh man, we've got to go get that Santa costume ASAP!

Ho ho ho!

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/2Qhz0Jq.jpg)IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/cvQnQgb.jpg)

I got the Santa Suit...and then I took waaaaay too many screenshots of it. Spoilers for anyone who hasn't finished the game yet!

Spoiler:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/iNQgRj3.jpg)IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/4ifsPPq.jpg)IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/6dkO2Uy.jpg)IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/fyxEuqX.jpg)IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/dXhE9tK.jpg)IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/dTmDqfE.jpg)
No presents for you, Bowser!

Just started this a few days ago in docked mode using Hori controllers. Game play was fine but I couldn't do the motion controllers. I switched over to the original controllers which work okay but didn't like the experience because they are so small. Then I remember I had some cheap controllers that have motion controls. I had stopped using them because a button didn't work in the wonderful 101 but only in the menu options. Also had a problem wit rapidly smashing any button but so did the hori. Anyway the cheap controllers seem to work perfectly for this game. All the buttons work and motion controls work which I am liking more than the regular controls.

Note the game doesn't actually need motion controls but for some odd reason some moves can't be done without motion controls.

The game itself is pretty fun. Love the 2D wall sections and how they are used. The three bosses I fought so far were basic but fun. They were what I would expect from this game. Level design is good so far. I can see all the points where I will need to backtrack once I get a special ability or something happens to free a area or item. Anyway solid game so far.

Oh there was one section that couldn't be done without rumble but it was optional. Hori controller didn't have rumble either. Cheap controllers did though.

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