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 wordplay 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 that would normally be out of his reach. When Mario captures something, that thing will gain his 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 it for a while. However, if an enemy or other being wears a hat or similar headgear on its head, Mario can capture it only after knocking the hat by jumping onto it or throwing Cappy.

When Mario throws Cappy at an enemy or object and captures it, the hat is shown to be Mario's cap and does not correspond to any hats Mario wears.

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. There is also picture of Mario capturing Princess Peach, which implies that she was originally intended to be a capturable character.
 * 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, though the pole's in-game model retains the mustache.
 * Many of the enemies captured by Mario resemble their Big Mario sprites in Super Mario Maker. The only differences between Bowser's appearance in the 8-bit section of the final boss sequence and his Big Mushroom form are the lack of cap and a different mustache.