Home > Super Mario Odyssey E3 Impressions and Demo Footage
Originally published on Nintendo Castle.
Nintendo's biggest showing on the E3 show floor this year was undoubtedly Super Mario Odyssey. The game is the staple release for Switch this holiday season, so it makes sense that the Big N's E3 presentation pivoted around the new flagship Mario game. I got a chance to try out the demo out E3 this year, so I thought I'd share some of my thoughts as well as 20 minutes of footage that showcases both the New Dong City and Sand Kingdom worlds from the full game.
After waiting in line for about two hours and watching many others play through the demos, I finally got a chance to play Super Mario Odyssey. The Nintendo rep introduced the controls and the two world options. After watching the overwhelming majority of people who were a little quicker to get in line than me try out the enticing New Dong City, I settled for Sand Kingdom. I figured I'd be cool and different or something.
I began my time with the demo by confirming Mario's movement options. All the expected ones are there: triple jump, long jump, crouch jump, side jump, etc. I also messed around with some of the new options, namely Mario's roll and hat throw. You're able to throw the hat at pretty much anytime, whether you're in the air or firmly planted on the ground. I also quickly tried out throwing my hat at some Bullet Bills in an attempt to animate them, as seen in recent trailers. This worked just as expected. In Bullet Bill form, you can't change your position on the y-axis and you'll immediately transform back to plain old Mario when you run into an obstacle. I suppose this prevents simply using a Bullet Bill to zip to the end of a world.
It was stunning to see a Mario game this pretty. Super Mario 3D World was a good looking game, but Odyssey is a whole step above that. The worlds and environment are beautiful and the characters and objects are colorful and vivid. Also, can we talk about this new theme song, One-Up Girl? The first Mario song with vocals is so darn catchy. I must have heard it a dozen times while on the show floor, but I'm still not tired of it yet.
It's hard to make judgements about about gameplay and level design when you only have 20 minutes to play the game, but I'm very pleased with what I've seen and played so far. It's been awhile since the last sandbox Mario game, so Odyssey definitely has large expectations to live up to. With that said, I think fans will be very satisfied. The seems to take everything that was great about Super Mario 64, Sunshine, and the Galaxy games and create something entirely new.
I've been digging deep and trying to think about things that I wasn't pleased with after trying out the demo. I'm coming up empty. Everything I saw was delightful and indicative that the next superb Mario game will be Super Mario Odyssey. I'll have to wait until the game is out before making a final judgement, but it's looking like this will be a must-buy for Switch owners. Super Mario Odyssey is coming exclusively to Switch on October 27, so stay tuned for complete coverage!
