Capture

Capture is a unique ability that Mario gains in Super Mario Odyssey. His newfound hat friend, Cappy, grants him this power when Mario first visits the Cap Kingdom. The name itself is a word play based on "cap". When Cappy is thrown at certain enemies, creatures, or objects, such as Goombas, Mario is able to take control of said enemy, creature, or object. This allows Mario to use new abilities, many of which he has never previously had, and collect Power Moons which would normally be out of his reach. When capturing something, that thing will gain Mario's hat and mustache, as well as blue pupils or his irises (if it has eyes). Mario can also "de-capture" his host at will (by pressing ), stunning them for a while. However, if an enemy or other being wears a hat or something similar on its head, Mario can only capture it after knocking the hat by jumping onto it or throwing Cappy.

Trivia

 * According to The Art of Super Mario Odyssey, not only was Bowser going to have access to the Capture abilities, but he would have used it to take over Princess Peach's body, with her gaining an appearance that bears a much closer resemblance to Bowser when captured by him than most captured beings in the final game do to Mario.
 * When Mario throws Cappy at an enemy or object and captures it, the hat is shown to be Mario's cap, and is not corresponded to any hats Mario wears.
 * In the E3 2017 trailer for Super Mario Odyssey, Mario's pole capture was shown to have Mario's mustache. This is not the case in the final game. Curiously enough, however, the pole's in-game model retains the mustache.
 * After using the Meat capture to collect the Multi Moon "Big Pot on the Volcano: Dive In!" in the Luncheon Kingdom, Mario can never capture the Meat again on the same save file. This makes the Meat the only capture target in the game that cannot be repeatedly captured after completing the game's full story.
 * Before Mario captures an enemy, his body appears to split into square-shaped particles. This effect is similar to the animations for entering a Rainbow M in Super Mario Sunshine, using the Pixelator in Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, and entering a Warp Pipe in Super Paper Mario.