Dustin’s E3 Pick – Super Mario Odyssey

After the sneak peak from the Switch reveal, followed up by the official announcement with the launch of the Switch, Super Mario Odyssey has been the game at the top of my list of anticipated titles. Though Nintendo has made some spectacular Mario games in the past decade or so, it’s been nearly fifteen years since the last open sandbox style game with Super Mario Sunshine. With Super Mario Galaxy taking a more linear approach to levels, followed up by Super Mario 3D World, it truly is exciting to see Nintendo returning to form after so long.

The new trailer shown during Nintendo’s E3 Direct not only shows us a glimpse at what looks to be an incredible title, but also may be one of the best trailers the industry has seen yet. Like the reveal trailer, Nintendo was able to surprise us again by showing us a not so familiar setting, only to have Mario burst onto the scene. Following up with a montage of some of Mario’s new abilities, the trailer features a jazz vocal track (a first for Mario title to have lyrics in the music) that feels so distinctly Mario, but also new and fresh. The main new ability shown in the trailer is Mario’s hat being able to posses different entities around the world. Chain Chomp, dinosaurs, cars, and even a human man are all things Mario can become.

I was lucky enough to play ten minutes of the game at E3 and it was just as great as I had hoped. For me, a huge part of Mario games are how it feels to move. Odyssey without a doubt feels right. Running and jumping has never felt better and all the classic moves from previous games are there, along with a few new ones. I particularly liked how the roll mechanic felt. Using the motion controls on the joy cons actually felt great and more tactile than previous motion controls. New Donk City really feels alive. Pedestrians and cars litter the streets and react to the tiny plumber running around. The other thing that stuck out to me was how beautiful the game was. It could easily pass for a Playstation 4 or Xbox One game, despite the less powerful Switch hardware.

Odyssey has quite a bit to live up to with it’s predecessors being held as all time classics. All signs right now point to Odyssey fulling what Mario fans have been waiting for.