donk souls
:spit-take:
beat the game proper, it had the perfect level of escalation towards the end that made the whole thing feel absolutely joyus. (especially that anime-heavy vocal butt rock track when youâre Bowser)
and the world after the credits, the ârewardsâ you get from that Shop, the general feeling of jumping and bounding aroundâŚ
look, i get that itâs mostly derived of very cynical nostalgic tugs on the olâe endorphins and i know it sounds pretty lame but uh,
i think i really needed to live in these worlds for a while. this game is comforting in a way most havenât been lately, during times where that comforting kinda means a lot
7 Likes
man this game is nostalgia tugginâ done absolutely right. feel no shame.
1 Like
I think if something stands on its own without nostalgia, then nostalgia is just the icing on the cake
I feel like this game would be amazing if I played it at 8 years old, my wife likes it and sheâs not super familiar with games, and I like it too. So, I think itâs a win win win win win (win)
2 Likes
Iâm at 530 moons now with no intention of stopping until Iâve caught them all and I think this is a pretty great game on its own merits.
The stages are all really interesting and fun to play around in with the exception of at least two which are mainly there as set piece areas for bosses or narrative moments (and maybe they were originally going to be expanded on more like the rest of the stages but Nintendo simply ran out of time before needing to get it out the door). Theyâre larger than Mario 64 or Sunshineâs stages but not too large that you canât get decently familiar with them after fifteen minutes or so of running around.
Some were expecting Odyssey to be open world like Breath of the Wild but Iâm glad Nintendo chose not to go that route. They could probably make it work if they did some kind of multiple large hubs connected by lots of different, twisting âspokesâ (basically linear challenge areas?) but they might lose out on being able to do as much variety of locations and climates as theyâve managed. Keeping with discrete stages gives the game some needed sense of focus and direction.
I think this would be a great first Mario game (or first video game period) for some one whoâs never played a game before. I think of some six year old boy or girl playing Odyssey as their first video game and feel really good about it for some reason. Itâs a complex and complicated game in various ways if you analyze it (especially in comparison to the original game with all the new moves and that whole extra dimension) but itâs also quite accessible and gives the player plenty of space to find themselves. Itâs confident enough in its design that itâs content to sit back and let the player not just play the game as presented but play with the game until theyâre ready to dive deeper.
1 Like
Was this an Animal Crossing joke?
I didnât mean for it to be, but hey, death of the author and all that
I wonder how nostalgic people will be for New Donk City in 2038.
Well, look at the other games that get callbacks: theyâre mostly limited to a character or two. Captain Toad + crew / Toadette for the galaxy games; a small number of character references for one of the old school games; costumes for stuff like Dr. Mario and the sports games. Iâm guessing weâll see the Broodals again, based on that pattern, and yeah, NDC is definitely the most iconic level. For as heavily as this game leans on certain specific callbacks, Odyssey actually ignores an awful lot of the more characteristic Mario elements; no Boos, no Thwomps, no Koopalings, no Bowser Jr. Seems like with âcapturingâ as your big new mechanic, youâd want to throw in a huge variety of classic characters as well as the new weirdos, but for at least this outing, Nintendo stuck with a surprisingly limited group of mostly the latter.
1 Like
Thatâs actually the most surprising thing in this whole game for me: youâd think, with the brilliant capture mechanic, the MOST OBVIOUS THING would be to capitalize on âcapture all your favorite classic mario enemies!â But instead they went and ignored most of them while inventing a ton of fantastic new ones. While I respect the hell out of that decision, I also am a fanboy whoum wants to be a Spike or a Boo or a Fuzzy! Iâd be down for them doing more nostalgia pandering in a future DLC.
2 Likes
That does seem like the most obvious course: take a few old things and a handful of new ones, then really explore them thoroughly the way this game does with the goomba stack and the stabby bird, leaving more nostalgia and more innovation for inevitable add-ons/sequels. Iâd really love to see an Odyssey take on some kind of Sunshine Kingdom or Beanbean Kingdom.
2 Likes
hope that the first dlc is just christmas in metro kingdom and a santa mario costume to further reinforce that this is a sonic game.
7 Likes
itâs super possible! moons 7/8 in that area are maybe the craziest ones iâve done
i completed the final challenge just now!!
this game engages with marioâs âhistoryâ in a way that is joyful and not cloying, kind of canât believe they pulled it off
3 Likes
Iâm finding that the biggest draw, for me, is the novelty of playing a huge, Tons of Stuff To Do AAA videogame in 2017 without any sort of progression hooks or character advancement/levels/unlocks/loot systems. Even BotWâs collectibles (shrines, koroks, equipment) strengthen the player, even if tahtâs not the main reason youâre doing it. But Mario is just like âyo hereâs a FUCKton of moons, get em if u want.â And since, for the most part, it seems thereâs very little moon-gating (my next tier is 500, and from what I understand there are no higher tiers after that but there are still hundreds more moons), there is basically zero in-game compulsion to get them. After years of carrot-and-string âfeedback loopâ manipulation, itâs almost bizarre to play a game that insists on not giving my any reason to play beyond the joy of play itself. I mean, Iâm probably gonna 100% it at this rate because Iâm enjoying it so much, but itâs like a burden has been liften off my shoulders and I donât know whwat to do without it.
Interestingly, this makes the game very easy to put down! When Iâm not playing it, I wanna play it, but I also have no issue stopping because of the lack of those aforementioned manipulators.
7 Likes
just when I was finally starting to convince people that nintendo is bad actually theyâre good again
my plans, foiled
literally, inarguably, 20 years since EAD has had a year this good
4 Likes
incredible year for games in general (miserable bullshit year for everything else, natchy)
1 Like
Do you consider the Tokyo studio to be EAD? They feel like a distinct team with distinct art and habits to me (hereâs an example I noticed â the button-mash punch against bosses originated in DK: Jungle Beat and has made it over to almost all their games since).