The End of Super Mario Odyssey is Destroying Me
I’m stuck at one of the game’s final challenges, but I’m still enthralled
Please note: this post contains spoilers for the endgame of Super Mario Odyssey. If you’d like to play this part completely fresh, you probably shouldn’t read any further.
On Super Mario Odyssey’s release date, I marveled at its rave reviews. The game still boasts a ludicrously-high Metacritic score, prompting me to wonder when the next time a game this well-received will launch. I played Odyssey, and I loved it, but I unintentionally set it down about 30 hours in (before I had uncovered everything). I knew there was a level called the “Darker Side,” which held new platforming challenges and more difficult tasks, but I pushed it off until later so that I could finish other games I had. January and most of February passed without me picking the game back up.
Yesterday, I fired up Odyssey to check out the new game mode: Luigi’s Balloon World. I like this mode a lot, and playing it for an hour or so finally gave me enough coins to buy the final moons to unlock the final world (that’s a mouthful). Once I arrived, I found a platforming challenge that was as difficult as advertised. Odyssey is, generally speaking, a calming, welcoming game. Its final challenges are a dramatic change. Nonetheless, despite my inability to get past this section, the Darker Side reminds me of how much I love this game in the first place.
When the Odyssey (the ship, not the game) arrived at the new world, I was greeted by a crowd of characters from across the game. These individuals (including the loch-ness-monster-like creature from the first picture) all warned me that the challenge ahead would be difficult, and Pauline from New Donk City performed the game’s theme song (which I will maintain is one of the best video game songs ever written). From there, I captured a frog, which was a nice call-back to the game’s opening, and made my way to the beginning of the true level. Then, the video-game world started crashing down on me.
In all honesty, I don’t know the full scope of the difficulty in the Darker Side because I haven’t made it to the end. I navigated through poles that sink into lava if you climb on them, metal barrels that rampage through the lava in the opposite of the direction I needed to go in, and freezing water that seemed somehow out of place and yet fitting in this fiery inferno. I also found Yoshi again (how did he get here???), but I still haven’t been able to get to the end because of the conspicuous lack of save points. My most recent and most frustrating runs have ended with either Mario or Yoshi flying heartbreakingly off the map as my inept fingers pushed them to their dooms.
I’m not the type to throw a $60–$70 controller across a room ever, but the relentless difficulty of the Darker Side began to get to me after a while. Falling off the map, or losing Mario’s three hearts in the lava, will result in a return all the way to the beginning. Every time that happens, my frustration rises a little more. I’ve figured out how to reliably get past the rampaging barrels and sinking poles by now, but I have to do it every time to get back to the even more difficult parts, and a minor slip up in the first section means my margin for error later on is basically nonexistent. As many have pointed out, the Darker Side is a dramatic shift from the game’s earlier tone and approach. Instead of lush, welcoming lands filled with Power Moons, Mario now has a to follow a treacherous, linear path.
Despite all my failures — and the failures that I’m sure will come when I play again this afternoon — I love the Darker Side and the challenge it poses. I also love that it gives me an excuse to play Odyssey again. I don’t generally love running around and collecting every single item in a game, which is part of the reason why I set the game down without really meaning to around Christmas time. But now that I’m back in the world again, I’m happy to seek out all the minor levels I’ve missed, and I’ve found that playing Luigi’s Balloon World is genuinely fun as well.
If nothing else, then, this post is a tribute to how much I’ve enjoyed playing Odyssey since its release. I still think that the Breath of the Wild is a slightly superior game, something my personal hours logged reflects, but Odyssey’s brilliance is impossible to ignore. From level design, to animation, to the overall sense of wonder and exploration, Nintendo created a beautiful game that excels at every angle. No matter how much some of the final challenges frustrate me, I’m glad to have a reason to jump back in.
