BCC 24-36 PSD (Patreon)

I managed to grab Mario Odyssey, and although I've already beaten the game, there's still a lot for me to do with it. If you're only interested in the main story, you can pretty much rush through it in an afternoon (although that's pretty much true of every mainline Mario title). But there's a ton of extra content in every level... even deliberately focusing on trying to beat the game quickly, I still found myself getting distracted in each level doing side missions and searching for Power Moons (this game's version of the Stars, or Shine Sprites, or whatever collectible they used in each game). I didn't finish any level with just the bare minimum of Power Moons. I will say that the game is a bit too easy... maybe that's just because I've been playing 3D Mario games for over 20 years now, but I've never considered myself a particularly skilled gamer. Still, there is the occasional challenge that requires some decent precision... but unless there's a hidden boss somewhere I haven't run into yet, for the most part none of the enemies ever pose a serious problem.

The story, surprisingly, is actually pretty engaging, despite following all the well-worn story beats of "Bowser kidnaps Peach, Mario runs and jumps through 8 themed worlds to get her back". I think what helps is that this game has at least an additional theme on top of that to make it feel more unique... The game is wedding themed, with Bowser donning a white tux the whole time, and the stage bosses aren't just random monsters, but rather they're Bowser's wedding planners. Bowser is also busy stealing items for his wedding, such as going to the ice level to steal a FROSTED cake... get it? Although the first item he steals addresses an additional theme the game carries... hats! The first world in the game is a land inhabited by these weird ghost... hat... things. Bowser steals a tiara-ghost for Peach to wear during the ceremony, and Mario teams up with Tiara's brother Cappy (who takes the form of Mario's cap, as you've probably seen in the trailer). The first world is all hats... the buildings are hats, the people are hats, and even the airship you fly is hat-based by virtue of coming from the hat kingdom. But after that point... just everyone has hats. It actually has a bit of a gameplay element... Mario can use cappy to possess people, but only if they're not already wearing a hat. It's a quick shorthand that gives you game-relevant information through a combination of story and gameplay, which works out pretty well. And hats are such an ubiquitous concept throughout the world, you can have that as a stated theme to the game and it will work in just about any environment.

So overall, I think Mario Odyssey is definitely worth the money. It's pretty amazing being able to take a full-fledged game like this on the go (even if you do need pretty deep pockets to be able to comfortably lug a Switch around).