Send him flying towards objects in the environment and he'll often interact with them, flipping switches or spinning them to make coins and other bonuses fly out. Tossed out in front of you, he can be a platforming aid.

'The creature capturing is a genius idea - we're used to wild power-ups in Mario, but now any enemy and even the occasional friend is a potential power up.'Ĭappy, a sentient hat from a land populated entirely by sentient hats (because why not?) is a little bit of everything. The versatility of Mario's new pal Cappy adds a great deal of additional utility, and this is really where Odyssey comes into its own and becomes more than just another good by-the-numbers Mario title. Mario still has a lot of the familiar moves from previous outings intact, but it's the ones that he gains in Odyssey that really help to tip the scales. That's instantly a pathway to a great game - but then Odyssey goes beyond in smart and sometimes surprising ways. Mario controls as tightly as he has in all his 3D outings, following the same template that allowed Super Mario 64 to define third-person 3D character movement.

Some things are just sort of a given in 3D Mario by now, but many of those things are still vital to Odyssey's success. This is by far and away the most free-form, open-ended Mario game yet - and it's all the more impressive for it. One of the early lines in Super Mario Odyssey's vocal theme song is 'it's freedom like you never knew' - and while as a lyric for a game theme it's a little on the nose it's also completely accurate to Odyssey. Odyssey is the best Mario game in many, many years - and while it returns to the N64-style formula, its triumphs are firmly its own.

World peace super mario odyssey