E3 2017: Super Mario Odyssey
Hands on impressions and retrospective
Mario has been the face of Nintendo for as long as I can remember. And, throughout the years, the cheerful little plumber has often been at the forefront of game design: Super Mario 64 was a revolutionary game that literally taught an industry “how to do 3D” by way of setting the bar almost painfully high.
That bar has remained pretty high throughout, too. The Super Mario Galaxy games were superb experiences: the way Mario’s fit-like-a-glove controls dovetailed with glorious spherical worlds and delightfully elastic planetary physics was a revelation. As enamoured with Super Mario Galaxy as many gamers were, there always seemed to be a strong desire — at least in some quarters — to go back to an experience more akin to Super Mario 64 (that is, something a little more open and less linear in nature).
When Super Mario Odyssey was first revealed, it looked — at least superficially — like a return to the Super Mario 64 format (non-linear “open worlds” connected to a central hub). The original trailer had Mario running around an oddly real-world locale, New Donk City, which was very clearly modeled on New York City. I remember feeling conflicted about it at the time, mostly because it brought back some of my gnarliest Sonic Adventure memories (for the record, I always felt that combining Sonic with human characters seemed uncanny and completely out-of-place for the series). That said, this was a new Mario game, and I trusted that Nintendo wouldn’t botch something so important.
Nintendo blew the lid off Super Mario Odyssey in a big way at this year’s E3, with this event being the first time people could get their hands on the game before its release on October 27. I spent some time with Nintendo representatives on day 2 of the show, which included hands-on time with Super Mario Odyssey. Here are my initial impressions.
Capturing everything
I had an hour with Nintendo, and I spent a good 20 minutes or so playing Super Mario Odyssey. The helpful Nintendo representative guided me through the game’s controls — one of his duties was to swap controls for me when I wanted to change play style, and to switch between different game demos. I found it interesting dual Joy-Cons were offered as the initial control style — so far I haven’t normally played Switch games this way, but based on my early impressions, it seems as though this could be the best way to play Super Mario Odyssey.
The control options question relates closely to the central gameplay mechanic of the game: Mario’s cap, which now takes the form of an actual character called Cappy. If you have seen any of the gameplay videos out there so far — including the fantastic Nintendo Treehouse walkthroughs — you’ll know that Mario now has the ability to fling his cap all over the place; this ability appears to be granted by Cappy, who seems to reside within Mario’s cap. It turns out that throwing Mario’s cap is important for at least two key reasons: first, you can use it almost like a boomerang-style projectile to activate switches, collect coins, or attack enemies. And secondly — most importantly — you can flick Mario’s cap at numerous things in the world to “capture” (possess) them. I say “things” because although you can capture enemies, you can also capture any number of other entities and objects around you, including various NPCs and even the little bollards in New Donk City (capturing a bollard allows you to flick Mario forward rapidly, giving him a brief speed boost).
When the demo first booted up, Nintendo walked me through the controls; their choice to feature the dual Joy-Con setup made immediate sense, because motion control is surprisingly prevalent in Super Mario Odyssey. You can use a button to flick Cappy (which flies in whichever direction Mario is facing at the time), but you can also simply flick your wrist to perform the same action. You can also flick both Joy-Cons to one side to have Mario throw his cap in a circle around his body (which is very handy for taking out groups of enemies that might surround him). It’s also possible to perform quick upward and downward strikes with boy Joy-Cons to hurl Mario’s cap up in the air or to smash it down onto the ground.
It took me a little while to get used to the dual Joy-Con setup, but I can see it potentially being more fluid and intuitive than using the Pro Controller (I also tried playing the game this way; you can still gesture to throw Mario’s cap around, but “flicking” the bigger controller with two hands at once feels a little awkward). When I play the final game for review, I’ll be sure to allow plenty of time with different control schemes to see what feels best.
The whole concept of capturing things in the game really speaks to an element of game design that Nintendo is famous for, and which they really mastered in Breath of the Wild — I’m referencing the idea of discovery. In the same way that Breath of the Wild didn’t over-explain its gameplay systems, Super Mario Odyssey provides just enough context for you to understand the controls (bearing in mind that things are often made deliberately more explicit in E3 demos due to the limited time available for each player), but beyond that, you are really encouraged to explore on your own terms.
Nintendo gave me great advice during the demo (I’m going to paraphrase here): “If in doubt, throw your cap and see what happens”.
Indeed, a big part of the fun here is throwing your cap at objects and characters to see what happens — every single thing you capture provides some interesting and unique ability, and oftentimes these abilities will help you progress through the world in some way (or they may give you a novel idea about how to solve a particular challenge).
Miniature gardens
It feels appropriate to pause for a moment here and reflect on Nintendo’s approach to Super Mario Odyssey more generally. Many — including Nintendo themselves — describe this game as a return to a “sandbox” style experience, akin to Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. Although that is definitely true, I can’t help but feel that Nintendo are approaching Super Mario Odyssey with the same kind of boldness that they approached Breath of the Wild: yes, this is still a Mario game, but it’s filled to the brim with completely new ideas at every turn, all underpinned by the sense of discovery I was talking about above.
That said, a key difference between Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey is that the former was designed around the idea of massive, “open-air” spaces, where the latter is based on the concept of Hakoniwa — a miniature Japanese garden that is filled with many layers of texture and depth, with numerous objectives and ways to experience a contained space. I highly recommend reading the fascinating Nintendo Treehouse Tumblr piece which delves into this topic in further detail.
Super Mario Odyssey is the clearest realisation of the Hakoniwa design philosophy in action so far; I think this is partly due to both the benefit of Nintendo’s sheer experience combined with the added horsepower available via the Switch. Bear in mind that the last Mario game we saw in this vein was Super Mario Sunshine, way back on the GameCube. Super Mario Odyssey not only packs each game world with many layers to be uncovered, but the worlds themselves are many times larger than we’ve seen in past Mario titles — in fact, you have the ability to view a map of the world you’re in, and it’s now actually possible to fast-travel to different checkpoints across the map (as far as I know, this is entirely new for a 3D Mario game — it’s evidence of the vastness of the worlds on offer here).
In addition to fast travel, you can actually have Mario ride vehicles (and even some special characters) to zoom across the world much more quickly — one thing I love about this is that the mode of transport is appropriately themed to the world you’re in (so, in New Donk City you can weave through traffic on a scooter, and in Tostarena [the Mexican-inspired world] you can hop on a little Sphinx-like character to race across the sand dunes).
Kingdoms and currency
One thing I should probably clarify at this point is the general structure of the worlds. I’m not sure if there is going to be a central hub, but each overall world is referred to as a “Kingdom” in Super Mario Odyssey. Each Kingdom is a sandbox that contains several different environments within.
So, although I’ve been referring to New Donk City, it’s worth pointing out that this area exists within the larger Metro Kingdom. In the same way, Tostarena exists within the Sand Kingdom. As you move through each Kingdom, you’ll trigger checkpoint flags (the little red flags that Nintendo typically use as mid-level checkpoints in previous Mario games), which then become fast travel points.
Mario moves between Kingdoms via the space ship Odyssey, which strongly resembles Cappy’s top hat-like native form, interestingly enough.
Within each Kingdom, you’ll find that certain areas are off-limits until you have satisfied a certain prerequisite (this often involves purchasing a specific outfit at one of the Kingdom’s Crazy Cap shops, although it might also include fulfilling certain quest objectives — such as finding musicians across New Donk City to put together a band).
The Crazy Cap shops are a really unique addition to the game, and they are one aspect that feels the most “un-Mario”. Throughout Super Mario Odyssey, you collect two kinds of currency: traditional gold coins (the kind that we’ve seen for years in every Mario game), and purple coins (a new kind of currency unique to this game). Gold coins can be spent anywhere, but purple coins can only be spent within the Kingdom they are found. Each Crazy Cap shop has two entrances — a gold entrance and a purple entrance. Acquiring currency enables Mario to purchase various hats, outfits, and other objects that are key to completing the game’s numerous objectives and opening up new areas of each Kingdom.
One thing I didn’t get to see during the demo is the change in world states, which appears to be quite a big part of the game that hasn’t yet been fully explored. What I’m referring to is the idea that you can apparently return to the various Kingdoms at certain points and they are completely different — for example, we’ve seen the Metro Kingdom during the day, but you can go there at night (during a wonderfully vivid storm with stunning water effects), where you’ll face a much tougher challenge (and a very, very cool boss fight). Nintendo have indicated that each Kingdom has different world states that significantly change the environment and the enemies; I’m not sure what triggers that change, but I can’t wait to find out more.
Looking forward
There’s so much more to say about Super Mario Odyssey. If you haven’t done so, I highly recommend checking out the Nintendo Treehouse Live demos from E3, as they provide fascinating insights into the game design and many of its features (including cooperative play and the aforementioned night-time version of Metro Kingdom).
Here are quick links to the key videos:
Based on my brief time with the game at E3, I can’t wait to play the final game this October. Super Mario Odyssey feels fresh and new — it’s got that element of surprise and delight that I felt when I first played Breath of the Wild, which is possibly the most positive thing I can say about it at this stage. The controls feel wonderful as you’d expect, and the graphics and sound are superb (Nintendo have achieved particularly strong heights of animation here; Mario has simply never looked so good).
We’ll no doubt have more coverage of Super Mario Odyssey prior to the October release, so if you’re interested in the game, stay tuned to Super Jump. Oh, and if you enjoyed this article, please do click the little ❤ down the bottom to recommend it. Every recommendation helps to spread the love. :-)
I’d like to give special thanks to Benjamin Calvitto for capturing video at the show, and Kirsty Sculler at Nintendo for her ongoing support and encouragement.
