Unpopular opinions about the Mario series

[Mymy64]

I'm way overdue to close this background tab, so I'm going to stop worrying about presenting my opinions perfectly; sorry if they're rough or overwrought or come across the wrong way. If you like the game, more for you. Anyway, let's see.

In terms of gameplay, Odyssey hardly has any good content imo. Almost everything that there is to do is filler. The last four 3D games each offered hundreds of platforming gauntlets, while Odyssey has a dozen forms of trivial, uninspired busywork recycled over a dozen backdrops. Power Moons and regional coins are hidden completely interchangeably—down to a bunch of Power Moons just floating in plain sight—and the lack of other meaningful collectibles heavily damages the game. The dedicated platforming sections, all shoved into sub-areas as if the game is embarrassed of them, are strictly formulaic and often lack appeal. As for the other missions, it's a game's worth of Blue Coins from Sunshine, down to halting the flow of gameplay every time. I usually try to go for 100% with these games, but I got actual burnout trying to force myself to do that, and quit and haven't looked back.

"Will this Power Moon be any fun? No, but I'm already there so I might as well grab it." "Oh, this trivial action can give you a Power Moon, great, now if I want to get everything, I have to try that every single time I see that object from now on." "The Moon Rocks just make you backtrack over places you've already explored for the same kinds of Power Moons? But with compass pins so you can't even miss these ones?! Then what's even the point??" Thoughts like these echoed through my head hundreds of times, yet I've only seen them aired by a handful of other people. I genuinely felt like I was either being pranked or losing my marbles.

I don't even like that much challenge in games, but with most of Odyssey's enemies being powerup dispensers that are most efficiently controlled with shameless waggle (on a portable screen!), the biggest thing the game tests is your patience to slog across a barren plane with an umpteenth seed or Capture—with no obstacles to make these escort sequences more than a pure timesink. By any means, missions like "Love at the Edge of the Desert" or "A Treasure Made from Coins" ought to rival the infamy of the worst parts of TTYD and SPM.

The other elements of the game are barely present enough to be worth commenting on imo. There are a couple cool story sequences, a couple fun pieces of music, but I personally can't help but consider them drops in an ocean of tedium.

This is less of a value judgment than these other takes, but it also seems like it's an unpopular opinion that Odyssey is nothing like Super Mario 64, since it's generally treated as a revival of that style. 64 famously gave you a variety of courses, and you could choose whether or not to play most courses and most missions within them. On a macro-structural level, the first Galaxy is most similar to this, but that gets hastily ignored because some of the missions are linear and that's considered "objectively worse". Meanwhile, Odyssey requires you to get Power Moons in every kingdom, and their value doesn't transfer until the postgame. I really don't see the resemblance in gameplay style, beyond the surface observation that the courses are more open-ended. People are free to like both games but the similarities are overstated.

As long as I'm comparing these games, I vastly prefer Bowser's Fury. Good platforming, item variety, existent obstacles (with a giant, goopy one looming over you, no less). It's not perfect, but at the very least, it hits 100% completion long before it wears out its welcome.

Basically it comes down to doing literally anything you want, which sounds fine on paper, but comes off as just babying the player. Why bother getting the main one when I can just ground pound a random spot or why bother fighting an optional boss when there's clearly enough out in the open to completely skip the objectives all together? Its get to a point where they reward you for actually doing what you were suppose to do from the beginning(And they absolutely shower you with them).

And this one might just be a me thing, but have you notice how Bowser's just not that interesting in this game? 64 had him take over Peach's castle, Sunshine gave him a son, Galaxy gave him a galactic empire, even 3D Land and World had the chase segments. Odyssey just has him doing what he should of done ages ago, and he doesn't really lean much into the theming either. You think a game where you can possess people with a hat would involve a fight with the main antagonist. But no, he just throws his hat at you, creates easily could jumped over shockwaves, and throws boulders at you. There's just nothing really interesting about the fight besides how he looks and it comes off as incredibly anti-climatic.

 

[Koopa con Carne]

i loved odyssey but i think your opinion is valid, interesting and very well articulated, Agent Muffin

 

[AgentMuffin]

Odyssey just has him doing what he should of done ages ago, and he lean doesn't really lean much on the theming either.

I didn't even want to get into the plot or theming in the main post but I think the issues go beyond Bowser.

Spoiler: Premise

The idea of Bowser arranging a forced marriage is a solid one. Thing is, it's been done in Super Paper Mario, where it's the first in a series of interesting and high-stakes story beats, so there are more expectations to live up to. Odyssey never gets as far as SPM's title screen cutscene, and never presented things in a way that interested me much in the stolen wedding implements and whatnot.

Spoiler: Peach and Tiara

Peach is trapped with someone who can (presumably) let her possess other beings like the player does. How do they use this? Not at all, to the point that I write "presumably". Tiara was done so dirty. You could write her out entirely, using the attack on Bonneton as Cappy's motivation. And recall that in 3D Land, Peach was able to hold her own for a while. Massive step back for her, and from something most would probably write off as the standard Mario excuse plot. At least give her a more logical reason to be stuck than "character known for floating ability is standing on an aircraft and can bodysnatch her captors and just doesn't,"

Spoiler: Rising action

And so, Mario repairs a ship to pilot across the world map (SMG2) and has to chase after Bowser and the miniboss squad (NSMB series). Bowser strands him in a tiny abandoned kingdom. Then does it again—because this is Odyssey, why do something once when you can recycle—but now with a realistic dragon that came out of nowhere. Plot twist: The wedding is randomly on the moon. There, Bowser and Peach just push the Binding Band at each other. The guests, all the characters you've met across your journey, just, do nothing to help. This stalemate feels so contrived. Then the floor gives out to send you to the boss arena / escape sequence (SM3DL). This has jack to do with the wedding setpiece the whole game was building up to, rendering that an anticlimax as well.

Spoiler: Ending

Finally, Mario proposes to Peach… time and place, dude. The game pulls a "not so different", with him and Bowser fighting for her affection, even though I don't remember Mario ever being so pushy before. Flipped from "surprised to receive a kiss" to "as entitled as the serial kidnapper" real quick. Peach walks away to the ship and starts taking off, which, if you miss the barely audible "Let's go home!", makes it seem like she's stranding Mario on the moon. Now, I don't hate the idea of this scene, and it has some funny imagery. As an ending, though, it raises more than it resolves, and leaves the characters without time to learn. In fact, Mario only digs the hole deeper by consoling Bowser. There's an attempt to show that no one is upset for long, but I still just feel bad and awkward for these people. Sour note to end on. But of course it doesn't end here, you still have a thousand Power Moons to collect—

I remember this being called one of the best and most original stories in the series—at least right around release—so hopefully this second wall of text is still on topic, haha. These complaints are still negligible compared to my aforementioned points, but I think if I'd liked the story as much as other people seemed to, it could have made up for the gameplay (like in SPM proper).