When is the next time a game will launch as well as Super Mario Odyssey?
This level of near-universal acclaim seems almost impossible to match again
Go anywhere on the internet today, or any retail store, and you’ll be confronted with visual, auditory, and otherwise obvious evidence of Super Mario Odyssey’s launch on the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo’s long-awaited Mario game finally lands on its new flagship hardware, and the sales are sure to be incredible. Unsurprisingly, the review scores are excellent as well. Odyssey is sitting on a 97 rating on Metacritic as of this writing, matching The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild blow for blow for review scores.
Odyssey’s universal acclaim — and it truly is universal — leads me to wonder when any game will match this critical reception. 97s aren’t unheard of on Metacritic, but they certainly are rare (side note: I’m well aware of criticisms of Metacritic’s methods and formulas, and I agree with them all. Despite the site’s flawed nature though, I’m using it here as a frame of reference for general critical consensus). It’s easy to lose track of just how difficult it is for a game to reach this level of review praise, especially since Zelda and Mario have both achieved it in the same calendar year.
Perhaps what fascinates me the most about the critical success surrounding Nintendo’s biggest franchises is the fact that these two games are the highest-ranked of this console generation. This includes the PS4 and Xbox One consoles, two powerhouses that have been massively profitable for Sony and Microsoft. The PS4 brand has been successful based on its ability to market itself as the home for the best console games (Sony’s exclusives lineup, in particular, exemplifies this trend). Despite Sony’s best efforts, Nintendo just landed the highest review scores since the PS4 came out.
The two highest-scoring Metacritic games on the PS4 are Grand Theft Auto V and The Last of Us: Remastered. These games hit 97 and 95, respectively (despite The Last of Us being a far superior game), which are both incredible numbers. However, both of these games originally released in 2013, before the PS4’s launch. Nothing that has been released in this console generation matches Nintendo’s best efforts this year. Sony has released some fantastic games on its flagship console, but reaching the upper 90s is a Sisyphean task.
Of course, Sony still has many, many more titles in the “85–95 range” on Metacritic than Nintendo currently does. Games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Uncharted 4, Nier: Automata, and many others dominate this section of the rankings. There are also many more PS4 exclusives on the way, games like Days Gone, Spider-Man, The Last of Us: Part II, and others. Several of these games will surely net excellent reviews, but none of them — with the notable exception of The Last of Us: Part II — seem likely to come even close to the elusive 97. Red Dead Redemption 2 is a candidate to score well by a third-party publisher, but this game will have to make some interesting new innovations to top Rockstar’s previous efforts.
So where does that leave us? There are two titles that I think have a slight chance of matching Mario and Zelda. Other than The Last of Us: Part II, and Red Dead Redemption 2 though, I don’t see many other candidates. New IPs can always rise up, but often a title with little name recognition can struggle its first time around. I think this happened with Horizon Zero Dawn, a 2017 game that I consider to be much, much better than its admittedly-impressive 89 on Metacritic. This game deserves much more, and hopefully the inevitable sequel will score even better. Perhaps the most likely answer is the next mainline Zelda or Mario title. Until then, I’m left in awe of what Nintendo accomplished this year.
