Reviewing 2017: Game of the Year

Imagine going back even three years into the past and telling someone that the title of “Game of The Year” was a competitive race between Mario, The Legend of Zelda, a 16 bit Sonic game, and a rubber hose era cartoon inspired game. While I found Breath of The Wild and Cuphead to both be phenomenal games and Sonic Mania was a huge nostalgia trip that even surpassed the original Sega Genesis trilogy, Super Mario Odyssey was the most fun I have ever had with a video-game.

It was first announced at the Nintendo Switch Presentation back in January of this year with a surprise trailer, I was bewildered with the bizarre nature of the game since it included a mock New York City with actual humans, something that has never been seen in the cartoonish franchise. While the first trailer was great, it was the E3 2017 trailer that sold me on this game becoming a masterpiece. If everything I mentioned previously seemed crazy, this trailer was an absolute fever dream. Nintendo did all they could to market this as Mario’s return to the top of the industry, even claiming that it will be on par with Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, two of the most critically acclaimed games of all time. With all the hype circling around this game, it had a lot of impressing to do in order to not be viewed as a disappointment, and Super Mario Odyssey somehow not only lived up to my expectations, but even surprised me with the overall quality.

Super Mario Odyssey is the biggest game in the franchise to date, since usually there are around 150 stars to collect, while there are over 800 moons overall in this installment, making this the best value for your money in the market right now. The overall size of the game isn’t the only bar raising aspect of the game, as Mario himself controls effortlessly and has many options of movement, including using his own hat to jump on to get to bigger heights. Instead of having separate worlds to complete certain levels, Super Mario Odyssey has several open world areas to collect moons and explore. These worlds are all unique to different themes, with the shining star being New Donk City, the setting used for all the marketing of this game. Super Mario Odyssey introduces the new ability to take over enemies and objects to get through levels, ranging from dinosaurs to taxis. Mario can also acquire different costumes that all fit to that level’s theme and others that are both obvious and obscure references. Although the story is almost the same as always, I would recommend avoiding spoilers as there are several moments in this game that are surreal to witness without prior knowledge.

Super Mario Odyssey was one of the biggest surprises of 2017 for me, as it was very different from the typical Mario game and became my new favorite videogame. The controls, settings, surprises, customization options, and music all blended together perfectly to create a modern day masterpiece. Super Mario Odyssey should be played by anyone who enjoys video games in the slightest since it has something for everyone to enjoy and has brought the poster child of video games back to the quality that he is synonymous with.