Super Mario Odyssey is one of those games that just quickly invites you in and lets you take in its full glory. Being the first true sequel to Super Mario 64 and Sunshine in nearly two decades, this game does little to not disappoint you. Super Mario Odyssey is one of those games that is easy to pick up, but hard to put down.

The story is pretty basic again, but this game does add a new twist to the story. I will keep the story very brief in order to not get into too many spoilers. Bowser once again kidnaps Princess Peach. Bowser and Mario fight but the latter is easily defeated by former. Bowser reveals his intentions to forcibly marry Peach, in which Peach calls for Mario. Bowser then crushes Mario’s hat and leaves it to be shredded to pieces by one of the propellers on Bowser’s airship.

Mario crash-lands in a strange hat kingdom. A mysterious hat-ghost creature by the name of Cappy finds Mario, and after Mario chases after a scared Cappy a little bit, the two team up to save both Peach and Cappy’s sister, Tiara.

Super Mario Odyssey quickly invites you to be very versatile and use your moves in all sorts of ways.  All of Mario’s classic jump moves are present.  Cappy also lends his powers to Mario, in which Mario can perform many moves such as throwing Cappy, controlling enemies, and jumping on Cappy when he is out in the field.  All of these moves can be difficult to keep straight, but allow Mario to become very versatile.  For example when a ledge or a gap seems too large to cross even with a long jump or triple jump, chances are if you combine those moves with a couple of Cappy’s moves you will be able to actually make it across.  The only move that seemed off to me was the dive move.  It just feels more “unreal” to me when compared to the dive move from the original Super Mario 64 (I actually only played Super Mario 64 DS, but the dive move is the same or almost the same in both games).

Just in general Mario controls very well in this game, and there weren’t many times where the controller would mess up. What I didn’t like about the controls is the game’s encouragement of motion controls. Every single move can be done without motion controls but you can do all of the moves either faster or better when you use motion controls with it. In fact there are some power moons in which you are required to use motion controls in order to get them. I also really liked the “capture” mechanic and thought they used it quite well throughout the game. Mario does gain different abilities for each type of enemy he captures. My favorite thing to capture was a T-Rex. I just loved running around wreaking havoc on blocks and enemies.

The music in the game was alright to me. Nothing outstanding but there were a few tracks that I genuinely liked. However the sound effects were top-notch and sounded great! A nice feature is that in the post-game you can actually access nearly all the music that was played throughout the game and play any track at any time. However I didn’t really use this feature as I was just fine with the natural music that plays in any given area.

Collecting things is a huge part of the gameplay of Super Mario Odyssey. There are four main things to collect: power moons, coins, regional coins, and costumes. Power Moons are the main thing you want to collect, as they are the source of fuel for the Odyssey, which is a ship you travel on in order to get to different kingdoms. There are over 1000 moons to be collected in the game, but the Odyssey can only store 999 of them.

Coins and regional coins are another collectable out there that you can get. Both types of coins are used to pay for items in Crazy Cap shops. There is a yellow shop and purple shop that you can visit, and they are usually both right next to each other. The yellow Crazy Cap shop allows you to spend the classic gold coins for a variety of costumes, a life-up heart (which grants you three extra pieces of health), and a Power Moon. As you collect more Power Moons more items will be added to the yellow shop. After you beat the game a lot more power moons will be available to get in each yellow shop. The purple Crazy Cap shop allows you to spend regional coins for items. Regional coins are different than regular coins as regional coins are only good in the kingdom they are collected in. In other words regional coins you collect in one kingdom cannot be spent in Crazy Cap shops in any other kingdom.

The last main collectible items you can get are costumes. Costumes are exactly what they sound like, costumes that you can dress Mario up in. Costumes are mostly just used for aesthetic purposes, but a few power moons require you to be dressed in a certain costume. Also some NPC’s won’t let you in someplace without wearing the right costume. There are many different costumes, some completely brand new, some that reference older Mario games, and some that are worn by different characters in the Mario universe. There is even a costume that dresses Mario up in his classic polygonal look from Super Mario 64. I rarely stray away from Mario’s classic red hat and blue overalls look, but that doesn’t mean I won't put on some weird costume for him every once in a while.

Unless you really want to just get through the story as quickly as possible with the fewest amount of power moons required, the game will most likely take several hours to beat. Most of that time will probably be spent looking around for the dozens of Power Moons lying about, waiting for you to collect them. Collecting Power Moons is a satisfying feeling and I love collecting most of them. There are a few Power Moons that are quite annoying and require more time than others.

There are a few minigames that are fun to play and don’t take up much of your time. There are races, a jump-rope challenge, and you can play Picture Match. Picture Match is where you have to line up different parts of a character’s face (eyes, eyebrows, mouth, etc.) correctly from memory. I found Picture Match to be more of a nuisance than enjoyable, as getting the second Power Moon from the challenge is quite hard as you need a lot of points, and I just can’t seem to get that many points. I still haven’t been able to get the second Power Moon from Picture Match yet.

There is multiplayer in the game, but it isn’t super great. One player controls as Mario and the other player controls Cappy. The issue with this is that the player who controls Mario gets to do a lot more than the player who controls Cappy can. Mario can still control Cappy, but only when Cappy is floating on his head (yes, Cappy will be floating on Mario’s head in multiplayer).

There are a decent number of glitches in the game, but they will most likely not be ran into unless you try to execute them on purpose. There is one where if you throw your cap and then talk to Talkatoo (a talking parrot that gives you hints on finding moons) right when the cap hits the bird the camera will softlock, and you have to enter another area in order to fix the glitch. There are also some places where you can clip into walls and go out of bounds (though normally you can't travel far).

Morality wise there is a bit more stuff to think about than in previous Mario games. There is the usual cartoon violence and undead NPC’s and enemies. This game also makes heavy use of the “capture” mechanic, which basically allows you to possess and take control of enemies. You can also capture some non-living objects, a couple of plants, and even a human at one point. There are two cut-scenes that involve Mario traveling through a creature's body in order to possess them. The cut-scenes show some various memories of the creature Mario is capturing. One of Mario’s costumes does allow him to wear Peach’s wedding dress. Cappy himself, along with Tiara and other characters that look similar to Cappy and Tiara, seem to be ghosts. Peach in the post-game does wear a bikini and skirt in a couple of the kingdoms.

Overall Super Mario Odyssey is a great game and definitely considered one of my favorite Mario games I've played in recent years. This game has so much to offer and putting all of this onto one tiny cartridge is amazing. This is definitely a must-buy game if you own a Nintendo Switch and you don't mind Mario capturing different enemies and objects and cartoon violence.