The story and worlds revolving around Bowser stealing stuff for his wedding, and all the characters visiting the different locations in the post-game, really reminded me of the stuff you talked about in your Spyro 2 video. Gave the world just enough consistency to keep the otherwise eclectic game together.
I think that the whole "suggestion of a space" thing you mentioned was the huge sticking point for me when playing Odyssey, especially when compared to Sunshine. While I was happy that at least some believable context was given to each world, it never felt very extensive. The most superficial reason for this is that each world is either a floating island in the middle of nowhere or canyon. Knowing that the world doesn't continue outside the gaming area ruins the shatters the illusion that the leveling isn't just a glorified challenge room. This isn't just a Mario problem either. The most frustrating example is the Grand Theft Auto games which have so much work poured into the details that it's incredibly jarring to see that Liberty City and Los Santos are just islands with no connection to the rest of the world. What makes it even more egregious is that Red Dead and Bully already solved the problem. Using invisible wall or impossible to climb geometry might be a cheap way of containing a level but I'd much prefer it to just slapping a skybox and bottomless pit at the edge of the world. Sunshine did this perfectly with being able to see levels from other levels. It was also literally set an island, contextualizing the entire game world immediately without the need to block off the non-playable area. Another example would be Ty the Tasmanian Tiger. It might not be the pinnacle of 3D platformers but every area was neatly situated in its Australian vista.
Coming back to this video in a post Bowser's Fury era(which at the time of this comment is less than a week) made me think about how both of them shape the future of Mario games. They both scale in concepts and level design, but Odyssey aims more for the former, while Fury sticks to the latter, creating a giant explorable world without a rigid form of segmentation, complete with a big smattering of connected areas for the player to explore that also has plenty of concentrated platforming challenges. Something that the Galaxy games kinda fell flat in.
great video, but the part at 5:07 isn’t true - you can travel to the following worlds without completing the ‘main objective’ as long as you hit the prerequisite amount of moons. speed runs of the game often try to avoid having to do some of the more long-winded boss battles as a result.
The thing I love about Mario Odyssey is the originality. It feels like the game was built from the ground up to be itself, rather than another entry in either the adventure series or the more linear series. And I feel we got is the best of both worlds: immediacy and exploration in quite a tidy wee package. Even the recycled stuff ended up feeling new; never underestimate a fresh coat of paint. The main thing it reminded me of, though, was the Game Boy titles, especially Wario Land. There was some stuff that I felt was deliberately calling back to it (especially the enemies in the Sand Kingdom), but it was stuff like the transformations and the slightly off-brand imagery that really gave me that vibe. I would love to see another Wario Land if Nintendo are injecting a little bit more personality back into their games.
I imagine that Metroid Prime 4 will focus a lot more on instant gratification level design with you getting small rewards frequently and will likely have a much faster pace than the previous games to better fit with the Switch and its pick and go attitude. Because of this and looking at most recent Metroid game, Prime 4 will probably not have that scene of getting lost in an alien world or have those nail biting moments when your low on health and ammo and your far of a save station. Instead focusing on a large but flat world with a bigger focus on action then exploration which is if true is gonna be pretty sad for players like me who like to take their time and get immersed into a game.
Ah yeah. I remember back when we all thought Odyssey and Breath of the Wild was the beginning of some new creative age for Nintendo. 2 years later and Nintendo's seemingly back to formulaic releases again.
Are you talking about the Mario spin-offs? Because if so, yeah. I can agree with you on that. With the exception of Luigi's Mansion 3, they've been getting agressively tamer. But if we're talking about the mainline games, I'd probably disagree. They've been doing more out-of-field stuff and I think it's paying off pretty well.
Good shit. Regarding your later points of interest, I believe the idea that they can hit a sweet spot to satisfy numerous types of people in a single title is their ultimate goal. For instance, a gradient column for time, and a gradient row for skill. BotW, Odyssey, as well as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe all introduce ideas, or present certain challenges and goals, with their eye on pleasing anyone. For Odyssey, specifically, I view the easiest attainable moons as a thematic way to let casual people, or people without time, to make progress in a form that fits to this being... Well, an Odyssey. Shits weird, shit's in unexpected places. Further more, the more challenging moons can be sought out by people who wish to seek something more demanding and worthy of their dexterity, hand/eye coordination, as well as time. That's not to say that all of the skill based moons are time dumps, in fact given how quick travel works, the game caters to the idea that you can zip to what you wish to dedicate yourself towards. Likewise, got time but no skill? Just turn your brain off and seek the easy moons. I dunno, that's how my gay ass sees it.
Came here thanks to Shammy, love your straightforward and simple style, while still having a really great feather! (talking about writing here, I don't know if that's a thing in english, anyways) Keep up the good work, got a lot to catch up on on your videos, can't wait to check them out!
I know the gameplay is gold, but.............. will the story in a Mario game ever exist? Will Mario ever get a personality? Will Peach ever stop being a passive nothing?
So im here from shammy.I cant say im dissapointed with the upload schedule as youtube doesnt treat its creators well and you prolly dont get much from it if not nothing at all.And these kinds of videos can take a long while to make,so i've found myself subscribing hoping to see more content like this in the future.
Someone help me with all the references at 9:40: Putting a broken ship together: Pikmin This kingdoms aesthetic: ??? The way this boss plays out: Punch out? The tank mode: ??? The hillarious music: ??? Station Square: Sonic Adventure Giant head and hands boss: Ocarina of Time du du dudu duuun: Majoras Mask
You need to make your videos much longer and speak much slower and in a condescending manner. Also, don't forget to present your opinions as objective truths. That's how you get the views. Good video.
Your video felt a lot more informative to me than Joseph Andersons one. Having watched both now this morning, I think I value the things you mentioned more than the things Jospeph Anderson focusses on. I don't think he is wrong, but that he tends to undervalue things he cannot directly measure (like the atmosphere in Dark Souls). I think the focus on being able to break the came up into shorter sessions is very nice for Mario, but a detriment to Zelda personally. I like Zelda being this thing that I really have to sit down for and enjoy, one of those games where I won't have a podcast running in the background.
Great video, but I disagree about Galaxy. While it's levels aren't as extensive as other Mario games. They are no more linear than Spyro the Dragon or Ratchet and Clank, requiring far more collecting and slow paced, methodical puzzle-solving than Galaxy 2 or 3D World. Galaxy 1 imo has the best balance of level design I've ever seen in a Mario game, relegating course levels to early tutorial and bonus stages while the semi-open levels with puzzles fill the meat of the game. All of that is not even mentioning the bold decisions they made with the gameplay. They could've just plopped Mario down in another cookie-cutter 64-style game, but instead they flipped the formula literally on its head, introducing gravity mechanics which lead to unique challenges. And the types of worlds they came up with as a result of the game's space theme really felt alien. Rosalina was a necessary addition to a then increasingly stagnant and shallow Mario universe. Rosalina finally brought depth to the Mario games and introduced the possibility that Mario characters can be more than one-note props. Oddessy is another step in the right direction, but I hope the next game tries to reinvent the mechanics like Galaxy did.
Zelda games with only bite sized dungeons and Mario games with only bite sized platforming sections, traded in for an abundance of empty sandbox exploration. What's next? A Sonic game where speed is only restricted to specific tiny secti-oh wait they did that with Rise of Lyric.
Well now it looks like you've only got one 2017 3D platformer to cover...have fun with that. In all seriousness though, as someone who actually enjoyed Yooka (in spite of its flaws, which were numerous) I'm really interested on your full take on it
Nah man this is one of those times I have to disagree with you B. I think the locations in Odyssey have this idea of globtrotting there but did it in a seriously boring and superficial way. Those “suggestions” you talk about feel lazy and not truly considered like they’re hinting at something thought-out, they just feel like random generic pieces. Then you have crap like the test cube rooms and other challenge rooms that have absolutely nothing to do with their surrounding environment. In the same way, I don’t feel the characters really have their own personality tbh, but pieces of generic personalities tossed onto them. I will give the game credit for how high-quality the animations are technically but they are still boring characters. The only thing I really felt was cool narratively was the moon being foreshadowed in the sky. Otherwise this is no better than Galaxy wherein it has suggestions of being grand but when you think it isn’t actually. I don’t think it sells it through raw personality or shots or music or anything either, they were pretty dull to me. Also the Cappy powerups suck. Lynch me but I’m with Joseph here, Odyssey is not a good game. Credit for being willing to criticise Galaxy. I think GC era Mario was the peak in terms of his personality, they had Superstar Saga too back then. Quite honestly I don’t think beside Superstar Saga Mario has ever truly had some great underlying aesthetic if that makes sense. And Luigi’s Mansion. But what I mean to say is that Mario goes to cool locations, but never really fits into them in a cool way. Crash and Spyro have their natural and magicky worlds and it’s obvious why they fit there, Mario has… random locations, but Superstar saga really owned it through its humor. Otherwise Mario feels random and inoffensive to me most of the time. He’s just there, but like a main character I don’t care for kinda… makes me care wbout the whole journey less. I get that he’s supposed to work as an everyman but I think it’s boring. The grass and desert worlds work so okay let’s just do those again. People don’t care about story in Mario so we don’t put in the effort or really develop the architecture of these locales or tell real stories with actual narrative. Bowser’s Fury was getting somewhere because the cat island setup is silly but the game doesn’t take itself seriously and it works somehow, so even though it doesn’t have a developed narrative it was still enjoyable, Odyssey is really wishwashy about being seriously grand and how much effort was actually put in (so… it’s kind of taking itself too seriously to work and buckles when you actually notice where they were lazy and fell back to very generic pieces). If Nintendo aren’t going to give Mario an actual narrative then I want them to stop framing things as if these games are actually grand. I also like 3D World a lot largely for that reason, it knows exactly what it is.
My only problem with Odyssey is that it's, perhaps in an effort to be even more kid friendly than Mario used to be, too cheery, this is not how most Mario games feel usually, they have way more of a tonal range, which is weird considering Odyssey has so many unique worlds, the only ones that come close to what I imagined are Ruined Kingdom and the first one, and one of those is boss only and the other a tutorial area so very unfortunate.
So for what Consoles or Gaming Platforms is this Game Avaliable? Nintendo Wii? ... uh ... Nintendo ... Wii-U? Hmm ... Nintendo ... DS? (Doesnt know the current console because they are so isolated from the rest ... and because they sometimes still use Cartiges)
I would get the switch if the games and console weren’t so damn expensive, like seriously around 280 pounds for the console AND 60 pounds per game? Jesus!
lol the brutals are the most forgettable mario characters I ever saw, I would prefer the koopalings a lot better Rosalina is miles more memorable than the brutals, first she doesn't have an ugly design, second... Have you even read her book? It's beautiful
I dont like how Odyssey feels like they found a bunch of random shit together (ironically the realistic humans i like cause it ties together the continuity of Donkey Kong). Like the T Rex just doesnt fit in Mario's world. Before this Mario felt like he actually had an actual world. Now it feels like the Mario universe has been i guess raped. Like Mario had a whole world. The Mushroom Kingdom was its own country with towns and cities. Now in Odyssey they retconned the castle's design from 64 and Galaxy that made the world feel huge and realistic (with the town part added in Galaxy). Now they've replaced it with the same stupid world design that is overused in Odyssey.
By that I mean that when designing the worlds the designers of Odyssey took inspiration from dioramas, for example with the Sand Kingdom. Notice how in Odyssey each world feels like its on top of a mesa or plateau of sorts. You can see everything around you, your view isnt being obscured by hills. This is not a good thing. When your view is obscured, you get a sense of being small in this huge world. Remember the mountains surrounding the castle in 64 that made everything feel huge, like there was a huge world just beyond those hills? Now they're gone, nothing there, and the area around the castle looks plain and flat and vanilla like in 3D Land and 3D World. It is not exciting to explore in Odyssey. New Donk City is the sole exception as the buildings make you feel small, as well as Bubblaine and the Snow Kingdom which work quite well, although maybe a Monte Carlo inspired town couldve been added to Bubblaine to spice it up and make it feel more real. But the other kingdoms? Their designs are terrible. The Cap Kingdom had so much potential, a large town shouldve been added that could be unlocked later in the game to give a reason to return there as the atmosphere is great. Also tall buildings and hills would make the cap kingdom feel larger, as previously said. Same with the Cascade Kingdom, which shouldve been made at least twice as large and the dinosaurs could have been made to feel more like Mario. The Sand Kingdom was pretty good, but maybe some mountains could be added in the north to make you feel a lot smaller in this world. Daisy couldve also been shoved in here, the more the merrier. The Lost Kingdom should have been given NPCs and made twice as large. The Cloud Kingdom was the biggest missed opportunity as it shouldve been made way bigger, couldve possible even tied Mario RPG in there with adding a beanstalk castle with Mallow's species (or some new kind of npc idk) and maybe added Lakitu enemies and stuff, idk. The Ruined Kingdom as well couldve been a fantastic opportunity to be a haunted world by adding a haunted castle with boos and stuff as well as a dark medieval town with big buildings and hills to make you feel SMALL. The Wooded Kingdom couldve at least been kept as Kogswald and kept the German influences, maybe giving the steam gardeners lederhosen and having a german/swiss villlage IDK BUT IT WOULDVE WORKED! Also giant trees couldve been added off the cliffs of the level to make it feel more expansive (this level's cliff design works somewhat well, so a complete redesign wouldnt be nessecary, just stuff added).
the Luncheon Kingdom was done quite well, no complaints really. The Snow Kingdom was just boring and maybe some kind of large snowy valley couldve been added (think snowman's land but bigger) to add SOMETHING to this level. It is surrounded by mountains, which works well. Bowser's Kingdom should've not been made as linear as it could've been implemented so much better surrounded by cliffs and more nonlinear. The Moon Kingdom was ok, but it could've been made a bit larger and maybe added like the Comet Observatory or like a spaceport or something, maybe having the octogoombas return. Peach's Castle should be redone completely, building off of the design from Galaxy instead of scratching it completely and adding mountains around the castle. Hell just throw Wario and Waluigi in there for no reason at all as cameo characters, add a LOT more enemies cause there are only like 8 enemies in the game, and BAM you got the perfect Mario game, pat pat pat. Thats how you do it Nintendo. Your new designers are not very good and they should be replaced with us
