Game Review: Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario Odyssey on the Nintendo Switch

Super Mario Odyssey is not just the best game I've played on Nintendo's ace new Switch console, it's the best game I've played this year.

The game is slick, polished and full of classic Mario charm. But it's main selling point is that it's just so much damn fun. It's a brightly coloured explosion of jumping joy and wondrous exploration.

It's the first proper 3D Mario game in forever and it's easily - easily - the best 3D Mario game since the OG 3D platformer Super Mario 64. A big call I know, but I'm making it.

Odyssey transitions Mario into an open-world sandbox environment. You visit different worlds and each is wide and sprawling, packed with challenges, puzzles and hidden secrets and no set order in which to do any of it.

The game actively encourages you to explore and have fun experimenting with its many different mechanics.

Mario's move set is greatly expanded but it's his ability to leap into other characters and control them that is the game's big, new twist on the traditional Mario gameplay.

This system is introduced in the greatest way possible. You take control of a behemoth T-Rex in the first world you visit. The dinosaur handles atrociously but, by Jove, is it great fun lumbering across the world smashing through anything and everything that gets in your way.

Rather than being gimmicky, the mechanic is used in ingenious ways, opening up many new possibilities for the pint-sized plumber, like taking control of a flying Bullet Bill to navigate through a lava maze or inhabiting a frog in order to do giant leaps.

Your aim in each world is to collect enough power moons to open the next world. Some are easy to find, while others require dexterous platforming skills to acquire. Some are pleasant little surprises that happen when you just try something fun.

And that's the philosophy Nintendo has obviously taken with this game. They've focused laserlike on creating a gaming experience that is pure fun. And in that, they've more than succeeded. Essential.

Title: Super Mario Odyssey
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Rating: PG (Mild violence, online interactivity)
Verdict: The most fun game released this year