Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario Odyssey is an upcoming platform game for the Nintendo Switch set to release on October 27, 2017. It is the sixteenth title in the Super Mario series, the seventh original 3D Mario title, the eighth 3D Mario title overall, and the sixth 3D Mario title on a home console after Super Mario 3D World. The game revolves around Mario exploring unknown open world-like settings, similar to Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. These settings have been stated to bear resemblances to locations in the real world.

The game's story will involve Mario and a ghost wearing a top hat named Cappy preventing a forced marriage of Princess Peach to Bowser, while also rescuing Tiara, Cappy's sister.

A Super Mario Odyssey themed Nintendo Switch bundle will also be available on launch day. The American and European versions will contain the console, red Joy-Con, and a download code for the game. The American version will also include an Odyssey-themed carrying case. The Oceanian version of the bundle will include the console, red Joy-Con, and a physical copy of the game.

Gameplay
Unlike recent 3D titles such as Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario 3D World, which were more focused on platforming, Super Mario Odyssey will return to the explorative open-world gameplay seen in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, where Mario will explore various areas in order to collect Power Moons. Mario will maintain his moveset from previous 3D titles, including the Long Jump, Roll, Ground Pound, Spin Jump, the Triple Jump and the Dive, the last of which hasn't appeared since Super Mario Sunshine. In addition, a new character called Cappy allies with Mario, and takes possession of his cap. Mario can throw Cappy as if he were a boomerang, and it can also "capture" certain objects and enemies to take control of them. There are 52 capturable targets in total.

Mario's life meter also returns with three health, similar to Super Mario Galaxy. Additionally, there does not appear to be any lives, as Mario will instead lose ten Coins upon dying. There will also be a new amiibo line based on Super Mario Odyssey, with a formal Mario, Princess Peach, and Bowser, which will unlock more costumes. Other lines are also confirmed to be compatible, revealing a Power Moon location on the map. Some amiibo will also unlock costumes, including Luigi, Wario and Waluigi.

Unlike Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, the game will not have a central hub world. Mario will use the Odyssey airship to fly from kingdom to kingdom.

Co-op mode is also confirmed, with player one controlling Mario and player two controlling Cappy.

The coins that Mario collects serve as currency. There are 2 types of coins - global yellow coins, which can be found and used in any kingdom, and purple regional coins, which are different in every kingdom, and can only be used in the kingdom they were found in. Mario can spend his coins at the Crazy Cap stores.

The game features a "Snapshot Mode", where players can pause the game and take pictures using the Nintendo Switch's button. Players are also able to alter the shot by zooming in and out, tilting the camera for a vertical shot, or apply one of several filters, ranging from blurring the surroundings, adding a sepia tone, changing the camera to a fish-eye lens, or applying an NES-styled color scheme.

Playable

 * Mario
 * Cappy

Supporting cast

 * Princess Peach
 * Tiara, Cappy's sister
 * The Toad Brigade
 * Captain Toad
 * Hint Toad
 * Banktoad
 * Pauline, serving as the mayor of New Donk City
 * Jaxi, a jaguar-like statue found in the Sand Kingdom that comes to life when ridden
 * Sphinxes, omniscient statues that block certain pathways until a riddle is answered
 * Purple and yellow Dorries serving as Crazy Cap shops in the Seaside Kingdom
 * Glydon, a recurring flying lizard creature that allows Mario to glide (found in the Sand Kingdom, Seaside Kingdom and the tropical-jungle kingdom)
 * Talkatoo, a hint-dispensing parrot
 * Uncle amiibo, a device used for connecting amiibo

Villains

 * Bowser
 * The Broodals, a quartet of rabbit wedding planners that were hired to plan Bowser's wedding
 * Topper, a short egg-shaped Broodal in a green suit
 * Harriet, the only female Broodal, wearing a purple dress
 * A stocky Broodal in a blue suit physically similar to Morton
 * A tall, lanky Broodal in orange trousers and slate suspenders
 * Madame Brood, an obese female rabbit in a red dress with Chain Chompikins , her golden Chain Chomp pet

Non-playable characters

 * Local residents
 * New Donkers (found in New Donk City; one can be seen in Tostarena )
 * Tostarenans, skeletal townsfolk overwhelmed by ice in their region (found in Tostarena; one can be seen in New Donk City )
 * Steam Gardeners, robotic teapots that water the flowers in their region (found in Steam Gardens)
 * Volbonans, fork-like beings in chef attire (found in Mount Volbono)
 * Hat-wearing ghost creatures that are similar to Cappy and Tiara (found in Bonneton and Fossil Falls )
 * Snail creatures (found in Bubblaine)
 * Koopa Troopas
 * A quartet of Koopas wearing caps that race Mario (found in the tropical kingdom)
 * Rabbits
 * Dorrie
 * Birds exclusive to each region
 * Pigeons (found in the Metro Kingdom)
 * Green birds with yellow underbellies resembing vireos (found in the Sand Kingdom)
 * Little Birds (found in the Wooded Kingdom)
 * Blue birds resembling s (found in the Wooded Kingdom)
 * Red birds resembling s (found in the Cascade Kingdom)
 * White birds wearing top hats (found in the Cap Kingdom)
 * Sheep wearing sombreros (found in the Sand Kingdom)
 * Dog (found in the Seaside Kingdom)
 * A pink female Goomba wearing a red hat similar to Pauline's, who can only be interacted with while capturing a Goomba. If she sees Mario himself, she disappears in fear.

Enemies
Certain enemies will wear different gear depending on the area they are found in.

Bosses

 * The Broodals
 * Harriet (found in the Sand Kingdom)
 * Topper (found in the Cap Kingdom)
 * Blue Broodal (found in the Wooded Kingdom and Luncheon Kingdom)
 * Madame Brood and Chain Chompikins (found in the Cascade Kingdom)
 * Mechawiggler (found in the Metro Kingdom)
 * Knucklotec (found in the Sand Kingdom)
 * A well-dressed, giant, purple octopus (found in the Seaside Kingdom)
 * Cookatiel, a pink Wingo-like bird in chef attire (found in the Luncheon Kingdom)

Unknown

 * Round, bouncy polar bear-like creatures wearing winter attire (found in the Snow Kingdom)

Kingdoms
Currently, there are ten known named locations, as well as one unconfirmed tropical jungle-like location, that Mario can explore, situated in what are known as "kingdoms". Each kingdom has a specific theme, some similar to previous Super Mario titles, others being original themes for said titles. Each location will be based on a real-world location (e.g. Metro Kingdom's main area, New Donk City, is based on "New York City"). Bowser will be after various items in each of the kingdoms, which all tie to his preparations for his wedding.

Background
When asked about "coming home" to the Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine style of gameplay, Shigeru Miyamoto explained that when he was developing Super Mario 64 with Yoshiaki Koizumi, they realized that the title would be more directed towards the "core gamer", rather than the casual, pick-up-and-go gamer. After Super Mario Sunshine, their focus re-shifted to more accessible, casual gamers, hence encouraging them to make Super Mario Galaxy with more progression-oriented gameplay corridors.

Then in recent years, we made Super Mario 3D World and even though that's a 3D game, it's a little more accessible to everybody. [...] So when we thought about making a Mario for Switch, we wanted to make it [...] something a little bit more on the core side, that people who like action games can really get into.

As Super Mario Odyssey was developed alongside the Switch hardware, Yoshiaki Koizumi encouraged the game's developers to share their requirements and suggestions with the hardware development team. This directly led to the inclusion of the two motion-sensitive controllers and the HD rumble feature on the Nintendo Switch hardware, which became a prominent part of Super Mario Odyssey gameplay.

Early ideas and prototypes
Development for Super Mario Odyssey began right after Super Mario 3D World was released in late 2013. Miyamoto sought more senior developers and staff teams who had been involved in past 3D Mario titles, in order to really "go back to the roots" of Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario 64. As a result, Yoshiaki Koizumi was made the game's producer, and Super Mario 3D World director Kenta Motokura again took on the role of director. Miyamoto remained with a consultative role throughout development, and although he contributed a lot of feedback, he was also very accepting of the development team's ideas. Motokura revealed that early stages of development involved creating a "huge" amount of gameplay prototypes with numerous ideas, and the capture ability was one of them.

[The capture ability] was just one of the ideas that came up, but we worked on it for two or three days, and it just instantly turned into something that was really fun, and we decided [that it should be] the center of this game.

Many of the other different prototype ideas were still included, providing for the diversity in game mechanics throughout the game's stages, known as "kingdoms". These "fully realized worlds" were said to have been inspired by the Japanese hakoniwa box gardens, that bring rich landscapes to life in a miniaturized form. The size of these worlds were often adjusted to ensure that the player can regularly discover an engaging action to perform. This was also intended to allow handheld players to still accomplish a Power Moon mission, even if they have only a few minutes to play.

Design decisions
Super Mario Odyssey ' s theme is highly focused on "surprises" and "travel", and the developers incorporated many of their travel experiences around the world. For instance, elements of the Sand Kingdom was derived from Kenta Motokura's experiences during a trip to Mexico, and the Luncheon Kingdom's food aesthetics was inspired by Italy and other European countries.

The developers recognized that when traveling to foreign countries, something that really has an impact is the different currencies. Therefore, they wanted to have Mario collect and use different Regional Coins in each kingdom. Since the player travels outside of the Mushroom Kingdom, the diverse art-style between all the different kingdoms aimed to recreate the feelings of surprise and discovery when visiting foreign lands. It was also noted that a lot of time was spent in getting the right balance between familiar Mario concepts, and completely new ones.

An example was the realistic T-Rex that is able to be captured by Mario. The developers looked back for inspiration from familiar Super Mario World elements in Dinosaur Land, although they wanted to use a design that was "unseen" in a Mario game. Familiar gameplay elements include the "8-bit" side-scrolling areas of the kingdoms, reminiscent to Super Mario Bros. in which progress is more "confined" and "precise". This was intended to be an engaging contrast to the 3D sandbox environments.

The developers knew that they wanted to have a city environment in the game that would resonate with players. As Donkey Kong-inspired elements in the city came about, Pauline's presence in the series inspired the team to have her be the mayor of New Donk City. Some character development for Pauline was required in her transition from a damsel in distress to a major character, and it was decided that she would have an interest in jazz. This led to the composition of the game's theme song shown in the E3 2017 trailer, titled "Jump Up, Super Star!", which was made to give the game energy and help get the audience excited.

To develop the game's camera system, the team looked at previous 3D Mario games. Miyamoto discussed how the 3D camera in Super Mario 64 worked very well, as it had the joystick as well as the C buttons to adjust the automatic camera. Super Mario Sunshine had the C stick in order to control the camera freely, although they received feedback that the camera control was "a little bit difficult". With later 3D titles such as Super Mario Galaxy, the minimal control of the camera also attracted some negative feedback. Miyamoto added that it's "very difficult to find the right balance". With Super Mario Odyssey, we made sure that the camera controls are really really smooth and easy to use, and the Switch controllers can really serve to that. [We] really made a sandbox-style game that's really easy and feels good to control.

Vocal Theme: Jump Up, Super Star!


A unique aspect of this title is a vocal main theme, sung by Pauline (interpreted by Kate Higgins, credited as Kate Davis). The song is big-band jazz style, and details an adventure across the worlds from this game, with Pauline referring to herself as Mario's "1-Up Girl". It was released worldwide on October 20, 2017 on the, while the short version is downloadable for free until January 2018.

Critical reception
Prior to its release, EDGE Magazine gave Super Mario Odyssey a perfect score of 10, praising the game for "taking big risks with an established formula and having them all pay off handsomely".

References to other games

 * Game & Watch series: The silhouette of a hat-wearing Mr. Game & Watch appears on minigame icons.
 * Donkey Kong: The location New Donk City looks to be a throwback to Mario's early origins as Jumpman. There are steel girders that resemble the ones seen in this game, and the taxi cabs have license plates reading "1981-ND", referencing the year Mario and Donkey Kong made their debut. The name New Donk City is also a reference to Donkey Kong himself. Pauline can also be found here, who originated from this game. The melody from the 25m theme can be heard halfway through the vocal theme song. The bassist can also be heard playing the 25m theme when Mario first finds him. Also, the sound effect played when Mario jumps over a barrel in the game can be heard at the end of the aforementioned riff. In an 8-bit segment using sprites from this game in New Donk City, Mario must dodge barrels while climbing girders. Oil Drums also appear, along with Coins spelling out "DK". Pauline's original design (then known as Lady), as well as Donkey Kong's original design, also makes a brief cameo as a graffiti art on a building. Pauline's purple sunhat in her standard attire may be a reference to the Pauline's lost items from the game.
 * Super Mario Bros.: Several parts of the game allow Mario to walk within walls from a 2D perspective, uses sprites and sound effects from that game, as well as altering the stage music to an 8-bit variation.
 * Family Computer Golf: U.S. Course: One of Mario's outfits originates from this game.
 * Super Mario Bros. 3: The music that plays in the slots minigame room is an arrangement of the minigame music from this game. The sound effect that plays when using a rocket flower is the sound effect that plays when the P Meter is full in this game.
 * : The Sombrero and Poncho originates from the Game Boy version of this game.
 * Super Mario Land: Mario traverses through several kingdoms, similarly to how he explored the four kingdoms of Sarasaland. Several enemies of the Sand Kingdom resemble enemies from this game. One notable enemy is the Moe-Eye, with glasses similar to the Moai statues found in the Easton Kingdom.
 * Dr. Mario: One of Mario' outfits originates from this game.
 * Super Mario World: A piano remix of this game's overworld and underwater themes can be heard on radios in New Donk City. When controlled by Mario, Moe-Eye sometimes hums the game's ending theme while walking around with its sunglasses on. Sprites of Fuzzies from this game are used when Fuzzies appear in 8-bit segments.
 * Mario Paint: One of Mario's outfits is an artist outfit that was used in this game's artwork.
 * NES Open Tournament Golf: One of Mario's outfits was iconically used in this game.
 * Yoshi's Cookie: One of Mario's outfits originated from the NES version of this game.
 * Donkey Kong Country series: In addition to New Donk City being named after Donkey Kong, characters' names from this series appear as street signs such as Diddy Kong, Cranky Kong, Rambi the Rhino, Expresso the Ostrich, Squawks the Parrot, Dixie Kong, Tiny Kong, and King K. Rool.
 * Mario's Picross: The Explorer Hat and Explorer Outfit originates from this game.
 * Super Mario 64: Super Mario Odyssey is considered a spiritual successor to both this game and Super Mario Sunshine. The structure of the kingdoms carry over what was established in this game, such as the lack of a time limit and having areas change each time the player visits them, based on what the player previously completed. Mario also relies on a Health Meter rather than Mushrooms. This game also first introduced utilizing variations of Mario's Cap as power-ups. The number on Mario's football jersey is "64". There is a minigame involving foot racing Koopa Troopas, much like with Koopa the Quick. Mario can jump into some paintings in specific kingdoms to get to other kingdoms. Mario's idle animation is similar to this game, in which he falls asleep and begins to mutter about various pastas. The jingle that plays when collecting a non-plot-specific Power Moon is a remix of the "Course Clear" jingle from this game.
 * Mario Party 2: The cowboy outfit closely resembles the one Mario uses in the Mario Party 2 board, Western Land.
 * Super Mario Sunshine: Super Mario Odyssey is the first 3D main series game since Super Mario Sunshine to feature open sandbox-style levels, as well as Mario's Dive move. Additionally, Mario can once again sidle while grabbing on a ledge. Mario retains his Spin Jump move as well. Some areas feature platforming challenges without the aid of Cappy, similarly to some of the secret courses in this game required completion without the aid of F.L.U.D.D. Isle Delfino, the main setting of this game, is visually referenced on the world atlas present on an Japanese billboard advertisement for Super Mario Odyssey.
 * Super Mario Galaxy: The animation of Mario and Cappy getting a Multi Moon is similar to Mario getting a Grand Star in this game. The low health buzzer sound also plays when Mario is low on health. The Ground-Pound Switches and Rainbow Notes that first appeared in this game also reappear. Captain Toad, together with the Toad Brigade theme, appears in the game. The Life-Up Heart functions exactly like the Life Mushroom from this game. Mario's idle animation of falling asleep is similar to this game.
 * Super Mario 3D Land: The white birds from the game return in the Wooded Kingdom. Goomba Towers also return and Mario can create his own when Capturing a Goomba.
 * Super Mario 3D World: Some of the elements and sound effects are reused in this game. Cat Mario's Costume Mario sprite from Super Mario Maker can be seen on the side of one of the skyscrapers in New Donk City, a building in Tostarena, and a pillar in the Mt. Volbono region; and Cat Peach's sprite can be seen behind the right black-colored wall in the New Donk City Auditorium and on the base of the lighthouse in the Seaside Kingdom. Captain Toad's design in Super Mario Odyssey was first introduced in this game.
 * Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker: The Jaxi maze in Tostarena uses the same arrangement of the Super Mario Bros. underground theme from this game.
 * Super Mario Maker: The Builder Helmet and Builder Outfit originate from this game. A sprite of Costume Mario's Cat Mario costume can be seen on the side of one of the skyscrapers in New Donk City and a building in Tostarena, and a sprite of the Cat Peach costume can be seen behind the right black-colored wall in the New Donk City Hall Auditorium and on the base of the lighthouse in the Seaside Kingdom. Koopa Shells retain their spinning animation from this game's Super Mario Bros. style.

Trivia

 * Super Mario Odyssey is the first ever Mario series title to receive a B rating by the CERO in Japan. All other titles released prior have been rated at A. Similarly, Super Mario Odyssey is the first Super Mario series title to receive "Everyone 10+" by ESRB in North America. All other titles released prior have been rated E.