User:TheJoebro64/drafts/Odyssey

Super Mario Odyssey is a 2017 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the seventh 3D game in the Super Mario series. Controlling the player character, the Italian plumber Mario, the player must journey through various themed levels to rescue Princess Peach from antagonist Bowser, who plans to forcibly marry her.

Gameplay

Super Mario Odyssey is a 3D platformer with a strong emphasis on collecting items. The game follows a traditional storyline for the series: the villainous Koopa king Bowser, with the aid of the Broodals, a family of anthropomorphic rabbits, kidnaps Princess Peach from the Mushroom Kingdom with intent to forcibly marry her. After meeting Cappy, a sentient hat-like creature, the Italian plumber Mario, who serves as the player character, sets out on the hat-shaped Odyssey airship to pursue Bowser. While the previous 3D Super Mario games like Super Mario 3D Land (2011) and Super Mario 3D World (2013) feature linear gameplay in the vein of the series' side-scrolling entries, Super Mario Odyssey returns to the open-ended, exploration-based nonlinear gameplay featured in Super Mario 64 (1996) and Super Mario Sunshine (2002). In each level, called Kingdoms, Mario searches for and clears various objectives to obtain items known as Power Moons, which can power up the Odyssey and grant access to new Kingdoms. Checkpoint flags littered throughout each Kingdom allow Mario to instantly warp to them once activated.

Mario retains most of his moves from prior games, such as triple-jumping, wall-jumping, and stomping on enemies. Additionally, he can throw his cap (the physical form of Cappy) to attack enemies and use as a temporary platform. The cap also allows Mario to take possession of certain objects and non-player characters, giving him unique abilities. For example, Mario can possess a Bullet Bill to fly across large gaps, a bolt of electricity called a Spark Pylon to climb up electric wires, and a tank called a Sherm to fire at enemies and break blocks for passage. Some actions can be accelerated by using motion controls in the Joy-Con controllers, but the game is otherwise fully playable when the Joy-Con are attached to the Switch console. Although gameplay is mostly 3D, certain levels feature "flat" zones, where Mario is placed in a 2D side-scrolling environment similar to the original Super Mario Bros. (1985).