The Design Behind Super Mario Odyssey
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 22. 05. 2024
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Super Mario Odysseyâs success can be traced back to the design philosophies weâve discussed on earlier episodes of Game Makerâs Toolkit. Letâs look at how these different ideas have been put into practice, in Marioâs latest game.
=== Sources and Resources ===
10 Things Nintendo Told Us About Super Mario Odyssey | TIME
time.com/4816417/super-mario-o...
The Definition of Idea | 1101
www.1101.com/iwata/2007-08-31....
A Game Design Vocabulary: Exploring the Foundational Principles Behind Good Game Design | Amazon
www.amazon.co.uk/Game-Design-...
How Nintendo turned Super Mario Odyssey into the ultimate vacation | The Verge
www.theverge.com/2017/10/31/1...
=== Chapters ===
00:00 - Intro
00:31 - Putting Play First
03:13 - Four Step Level Design
04:19 - Versatile Verbs
06:46 - Making a Mechanic the Core of the Game
10:10 - Mario: Breath of the Wild
10:48 - Removing the Hat
11:25 - Conclusion
12:05 - Patreon Credits
=== Games Shown ===
Arms (Nintendo, 2017)
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Retro Studios, 2014)
Super Mario 3D World (Nintendo, 2013)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo, 2017)
Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo, 2017)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (Nintendo, 2013)
Splatoon 2 (Nintendo, 2017)
Luigi's Mansion (Nintendo, 2001)
Pikmin 3 (Nintendo, 2013)
Yoshi's Woolly World (Good-Feel, 2015)
Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, 1985)
Super Mario 64 (Nintendo, 1996)
Super Mario Sunshine (Nintendo, 2002)
Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo, 2007)
New Super Mario Bros. U (Nintendo, 2012)
Assassin's Creed: Origins (Ubisoft Montreal, 2017)
Kirby's Epic Yarn (Good-Feel, 2010)
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Nintendo, 2011)
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Nintendo, 2004)
=== Credits ===
Music used in this episode
File Select (Super Mario 64)
To The Next Kingdom (Super Mario Odyssey)
Steam Gardens (Super Mario Odyssey)
Bubblaine (Super Mario Odyssey)
New Donk City: Daytime (Super Mario Odyssey)
Run, Jump, Throw! 2 (Super Mario Odyssey)
Caves (Super Mario Odyssey)
Another World (Super Mario Odyssey)
Sheikah Tower (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild)
Forgotten Isle 2 (Super Mario Odyssey)
Main Theme (Super Mario Odyssey)
Jolly Roger Bay (Super Mario 64)
=== Subtitles ===
Contribute translated subtitles - amara.org/v/C3BEp/ - Hry
The problem with Cappy is I never want to play another Mario game without him.
Ikr?
Same. Easily my favorite Mario companion alongside Starlow. I really hope he gets the same treatment in spin-offs like Rosalina did once Galaxy released.
@@elemangell2981 and it still really is till this year's
He really is the best of both worlds. He doesnât interrupt the gameplay to tell you something important, heâs the main mechanic of the game and he can be pretty funny too. So yeah, I really want him to stay in all future 3D Mario games. Sadly, I doubt that will be the case. Also, how do they make another game when you literally are the power up in Odyssey?
Playing 3d world after oddysey feels limiting the ways I can move. 3d world is a masterclass of linear platformer and most of the time have better platforming than oddysey but the later have an amazing movements.
I think that when nintendo takes your cap or fludd, they show you just how much you depend on it. When they first took cappy away I tried to do all those crazy moves because I was accustombed to, just to see that now I can't. And that made me feel powerless
It's almost emberrassing to admit that I felt like I was just kind of fumbling around like a fool for the while that Cappy, missing jumps and getting hit that had no real business hitting me. Still, that puts into perspective how much Cappy affects the gameplay in Odyssey, just as FLUDD did in Sunshine.
El Player Lolo But when you overcome those challenges, you feel more powerful, like you improved as a player. Then, when you get it back, you feel even more powerful.
It's very much like in first-person shooters where you can carry every single weapon in the entire game, like Half-Life 2 or Serious Sam 3: BFE, where you lose all your weapons at some point and need to find replacements.
Lugbzurg they essentially reward you with nothing and it reminds me of DLC in a way lol.
It's just brilliant from a pure gameplay standpoint.
There's a very similar feeling when going from any of the newer Super Mario non-3D Land/World games down to Super Mario 64.
In 64, he has nothing except himself, which is almost crazy to think about considering all the companion moves he's been given in games since. There's barely even any power-ups in that game. Despite that, it's still considered a very versatile game-play experience because he has so many moves and nuances. Thankfully, Super Mario Odyssey adds Cappy almost without taking away anything he could do by himself in Super Mario 64, making Odyssey the most versatile game-play experience we've seen in Super Mario games.
"The kick in Super Mario 64"
> Punches
This is truly a moment worth recording in a CZcams comment.
Yes and no, if you duck and stood still and push punch Mario would perform some kind of roundhouse kick, also if you combo the punch thereÂŽs a kick at the end.
But I agree the footage does not fit (in German design stuff we would call this a "Text - Bild (image) - Schere (scissors)".
Thatâs the punchline
@Rodri G why lol.
âAbove all, video games are meant to just be one thing: Fun for everyone.â
- Satoru Iwata
RIP Mr.Iwata
I think a lot of what Mr.Iwata believed about video games is still a core philosphy at Nintendo, and that's really cool. :D
He would have loved Odyssey for sure.
Rockstar and Witcher 3: We don't do that here
can i just say i appreciate that you don't end the video's last sentence with a dramatic pause like literally every other video essay youtuber.
This is so true, haha xD
Oh god yes
"Literally"? I'm going to need an example.
LRGonzales Raycevick tends to finish every video with a grandiose quote and a really dramatic sound effect that cuts the video to black
I like it when Let me explain
I cannot express my love for that pointy-beaked bird. It's my favorite capture in the entire game.
As soon as I saw it I was like "gotta capture it", then I saw its attack, and (as planned by clever Nintendo design) I began stabbing the floating coin blocks near the wall. I missed them once, and hit the wall instead, and that's when I instantly out loud said "holy shit". And instead of actually going through the level to reach Bowser, I mostly spent the time exploring every bit of those rooftops and walls. I fucking love that bird, it has the best capture mechanic in the entire game
I agree, the Pokio was my favorite capture too, and I had pretty much the same response. It built up using it very well, from scaling small walls, to a bigger wall, and culminating in a boss fight. It also added a few small things like poking your beak into the wall to get moons and small bonuses, repelling bombs to blow up boxes (which is always good fun), and just scaling the walls in general for a bit of exploration that would have been lacking without it.
Pokio is such a good capture, because it lets you take one of those Volbonans with you wherever you go! I really wish Cappy didn't outright tell you about its gimmick as soon as you get close to that wall. Like... at least wait five seconds before giving me the clue.
I LOVE THAT BIRD!
The Pokio is cool until you reach Darker Side, then it haunts your dreams
Epic312 unless you glided over the entire pipe section with Glydon and skipped right to the Bowser section
I love how a friend of mine described the game's core mechanics: the enemies _are_ the powerups. The game looks extremely fun, and I'd love to play it when I don't have to break the bank to do it.
It's important to remember that a low skill floor doesn't imply a low skill ceiling. That's something Nintendo does right.
Nintendo loves the "easy to learn, hard to master" approach to their games. It's evident in the great number of games they put out. Controls are typically made to be as intuitive as possible and the critical path of the game's main campaign is then typically balanced to allow you to make it through with the bare essentials (in this case, that would be just the simple jump and cap throw), while simultaneously rewarding the player for learning other, more complicated techniques by giving them more options, allowing them to be more efficient or opening up further side content (again in this case, that would be certain harder-to-reach Moons). Or if the game in question doesn't have a campaign, they at least make a point of making even just the most basic of controls fun. Smash is an easy example of that.
Perhaps you've watched a speedrun, but if you haven't, I've seen how fast Odyssey allows you to be if you understand and master its mechanics and techniques, it's really impressive. Speedruns, ignoring glitch abuse which is obviously not part of the deliberate game design, tend to make for a really good showcase of this design philosophy that Nintendo uses so frequently.
Laggalot101 This game literally has 600+ filler moons that take no effort and are so thoughtless and dull, a blind goldfish could beat it.
I admire what you're saying, but that doesn't exactly apply to this game.
Laggalot101 Speedruns that require mastery can be done in any game. It isn't a nintendo specific mechanic, look at games like Clustertruck or Superhot to see how you can be as masterful as possible.
It is a really dissapointing game.
@@yu_cp8978 ok
The music in the beginning made me think that you're gonna go into what half A-presses are.
An A press is an A press, you can't say it's only half
But first, we must talk about Parallel Universes
Whatever you say, """""""Marcus""""""" Stockley.
It's the "you're about to learn some shit" music
Well """"""Marcus Stockley""""", hear me out.
I just realized that the way odyssey handles moons is much closer to how Banjo Kazooie handled jiggles than how mario 64 handled stars
Demented Duskull Super Mario Odyssey more like Super Banjo Threeie
Its also like spongebob bfbb
@@leonzhao8967 and most LEGO games.
0:19 - Just wanna appreciate making Mario flip in front of the logo like that. Very nice, hasn't gone unnoticed.
Yeah, must have been a bitch to edit
I don't think it took too long if he used a color mask, because the background is a light blue color that doesn't exist in Mario's clothes. You can actually see some articafts of it in slow motion. But still, awesome idea!
YOU CAN BE A GOOMBAS
YOU CAN BE A TREE!
Goombas let you run on ice without slipping too
YOU CAN BE A MEAT
Zimaras dunkey was right, this is better than knack 2
YOU CAN BE A CACTUS
0:20 Good, stealthy delivery right there.
Pausing _just_ for the fraction of a second for emphasis to make clear that this pun wasn't accidental, but not being blatant about it by keeping the flow of speech.
The platforming in this game is some of the best in any game Iâve ever played. It allows for an amazing self-imposed challenge to beat the game with as few captures as possible because the platforming, when mastered, can bypass things youâd normally need a capture to do. Not to mention moving around as Mario in Odyssey is fun as hell, which honestly shouldnât be overlooked; if you can make something as basic as moving your character around a room super fun, you know youâve done a good job.
I feel like you could almost make a graph based off of everything the cap adds to Mario's base moveset and play options, cos it's so much stuff! Same with the Fludd too, and even the Spin Attack to a lesser extent.
"Same with the FLUDD too"
No, not really.
Cappy ADDS platforming options. Fludd does the complete opposite.
Oh boy, more graphs!
subprogram32 Nintendo rocking it! Haven't owned a Nintendo home console since the playstation 1. Want the switch, but barley have time for my ps4 these days (massive backlog)
Cappy clearly builds off FLUDD but also learns to streamline things. Instead of switching between "offensive mode" (spraying water) and "vertical mode" (hovering) Cappy does both simultaneously with the same input.
Fludd adds more gameplay options than Cappy is adding platforming options.
It's always super satisfying being able to perform some wall jumping, really enjoyed the alternative route clip at 6:07. Great video as always!
Krynex This game has the worst wall jumping mechanic in the series, it isn't even worthwhile to use.
@@doormantdarner7815 are you ok?
@@doormantdarner7815 It is literally the same in almost every game?
@@doormantdarner7815 what?
"A cheeky chap who turns into Mario's hat"
That's such a pleasant sentence. I love you, Mark
HE CAN BE A TAXI?!
He sure can, though it's more of a warp to a different area mechanic than an actual controlling a taxi and taking it for a ride type of thing. He can ride around the city on a scooter though.
Not really...you can pocess a taxi that brings you to a new level automatically. Kind of lame.
YA YA YA YA YA
And a rock, a christmas tree, a manhole cover, aaaaand a cactus.
YOU CAN BE A GOOMBAS
Hats off to you mr. Brown.
One of my favorite things about oddessy is how itâs handles difficultyâs and skill ceiling . In my opinion skill ceiling is far more important than difficulty because difficulty is subjective and on later play throughs it naturally lessens. Skill ceiling never gets any less engaging if the game has proper skill ceiling and oddeseyy does that skill ceiling excellently. For example take the broodal boss fights. Instead of the traditional 3 hit attack defense phase boss formula the broodals have skill ceiling that makes them always engaging on repeat play throughs despite their easy difficulty. Instead of waiting for their defense phase to end skilled players can end the phase early and end the fight much faster than a player who isnât skilled. This makes It so repeat play throughs remain engaging,even with the player being a lot more skilled than they originally were
Just so you know it's "skill ceiling," as in the ceiling of a room.
@@tz4601 ah, my bad
One thing I want to add, though. You definitely made the point about how each world starts with a sort of story driven "action stage" path (which I will be calling gauntlets) that follows the four step design of Mario Level design, and that Mario's further refined core move set plus Cappy make Mario's movement more powerful than ever before, allowing Mario to reach once unreachable places. But I think you could've either segued from the "4 step design" section to "Mario's jump", or make a call back to the "4 step design" while talking about Mario's movement options, by bringing up that there is sort of a "5th/alt 1st" step in the 4 step design of most of the game's gauntlets.
The player encounters this special, or rather "alternative" step to the level design philosophy either as they play and learn the moves, go back to gauntlet areas post-game/post story objective, or in a second playthrough. When the player has mastery of Mario's movement suite, they can not only circumnavigate (ha, get it?) most platforming obstacles and world/stage gimmicks, and even complete chunks of a gauntlet's path in the story objectives or action stages.
The game has been meticulously designed to not only suit normal play through the 4 step level design, but also suit high level play with alternate shortcuts, hidden reward areas and completely capture/gimmick free solutions and paths that completely negate the 4 step level design. A grand majority of walls and gaps are designed to be just tall enough or wide enough that they normally completely block Mario from getting past, but can be overcome using Mario's full range of movement. The capture tutorial with the frogs can be completely skipped with Mario's advanced movement techniques only, and the whole of the Tostarena gauntlet can be completed without a single capture. I can't say for sure but I'd bet almost every level can be beaten without using the capture ability.
I call it the "5th/alternative 1st" step because of it's nature as a world of options locked off by a gradually developed, yet always accessible skill set. It's a blanket "alternate route" designed with speed runners and challenge seekers in mind. This alternate route brilliantly coexists with, yet completely replaces the "4 step" path and it makes either play style optional.
My only problem from this is that as far as I could tell, there isn't an alternate way to beat any of the bosses without the capture ability. It would've been the cherry on top to have a challenging but interesting way to beat each boss.
Actually! I was wrong! This speedrunner design mentality plays into the bosses as well! There are many very fast ways to beat the bosses without waiting for the obvious attack period weakness opening! I'm so glad these bosses can be fought efficiently and are par for advanced technique players!!
An intelligent CZcams comment that is a very pleasing and interesting read! I'm pleasantly surprised! :)
Honestly one of the most well-designed games I've ever played. Pretty much pure fun the whole way through.
You sure are a fan of masking, aint ya Markyboy? Mario falling in front of the Odyssey logo, the Hat Throw text appearing behind him. As an editor, I'm sure that took you ages and I bet there aren't enough comments praising that, so WELL DONE! Super nice job of making it all look seamless.
Your motion graphics work is honestly so impressive to me, it adds such a layer of "huh that's really neat" to your content. None of those cool little transitions or logos are "needed" bit they really do add to the feel of these videos. Maybe that's also because I just completed a university semester of doing motion graphics work so I realise just how much of a pain it is to mask things frame-by-frame.
its crazy to think that this legendary game came out 4 years ago
The production value of your videos gets more crazy every time I watch a new video. Really an excellent format. Great topic, great video, great job!
MikeFeyrer What production value? It's literally copy pasting clips, text and photos.
@@doormantdarner7815 Bro, calm down, no need to hate on every comment you see.
Your channel is truly fantastic. I sincerely enjoy the peek behind the curtain in game design. You have quite the talent for breaking down complex ideas into digestible chunks.
this ties in really well with your video about putting play first.
Could you talk about Steamworld Dig 1 & 2 with the topic of procedural generation vs. hand-crafted experiences?
that's not a bad idea
check the playlists section, they're all in there under stream archives
@@GMTK I know this was 3 years ago but Steam World 1&2 were some of my fav games back then so seeing a video about them would be cool and the suggested topic also seems interesting to me.
Great video as always, thanks for making this.
One thing that I'd like to add, is that the co-op mode is actually more interesting than it might seem at a first glance.
For starters, It slightly extends Mario's move set, which I'm curious to see how it will be exploited by speedrunners, a demographic to which the game design winks at more than once in my opinion.
But to me the most remarkable part is how it enabled two players of different skill level to play together. More specifically, an advanced player playing as cappy, is able to help out a beginner Mario player by correcting her jumps, and fending off enemies with more ease.
I played most of the main story as cappy, with my less experienced girlfriend playing as Mario, and I was truly impressed on how the design of the challenges sustained co-op mode without making it feel too reductive or oversimplified.
While playing I couldn't stop thinking about veteran players helping out their children playing their first Mario. Amazing stuff.
Although I'm 2 years late, 2 player makes a a lot of levels significantly faster to the point that a lot of the cips that were edited to make the fastest speedrun possible are done in 2 player mode either with 1 guy playing with hands and feet 2 people
I can't do anything with the punctuation I'm mobile
8:57 best rap Mark ever did
This is amazing. Your videos are so high-quality it feels like I should have to pay for them. They're so well edited well written, and insightful. Not only that, they continue to improve past a point that I even thought was possible. The look and theme of your videos are SO GODDAMN SLEEK! I feel like there could be a "Video Makers Toolkit" channel just about the graphical style and content of your videos. As soon as I have more than $10 in my wallet you better believe I'm going to be a patron of this channel. You make me think about design in a whole new light, where simplicity is as valuable as complexity. Thank you for this fantastic service, and keep up the good work. It is not going unnoticed.
Also the fact that you paused for a few seconds to say "Goombettes" at 2:33 had me rolling. Not sure why.
I gotta say, I absolutely love how you edit all of these videos. It's so crisp and flows nicely!
I love your videos, your smooth voice is just the icing on the cake.
Alright, fine. I was kinda holding out on this game, because I'm not the biggest fan of Mario games, but it looks like I'll have to add it to the ever-growing list of "Games That I Want to Play But I Rarely Have Time For." Way to go, Mark. Way to go. :P
To be fair, as great as Odyssey is, if you didn't care for prior 3d marios then there's nothing here that will really change your mind. The same general gameplay, just done "better" for the most part.
Gidaio The 3D mario games tend to be amazing
ya only bbies like MARIO what a bab game am i right evr1
Leaf tailed Geckos are my favourite By telling us Mario is a kids game? Um we know lol
Spectral Gatekeeper Who are you to tell people not to âwasteâ their money on games? Get over yourself.
Thats one thing I love about Mario (or Nintendo in general), they can always be nearly the same, IE Mario 64 and Mario sunshine where both have to collect an object to complete a level. But then all of a sudden they add a new mechanic in their game. Flood, Luma, and Cappy are all strikingly different. One is a water based jetpack/squirt gun. One is a living star that helps you spin jump. And one is a cap that can make you turn into a creature then to Mario AND help you make nearly impossible jumps.
Heck even Pikmin has the same concept ofOlimar using pikmin to help him get his space ship repared, but the use of different colors of them have diffrent abilities. Yellow can be thrown higher while the white are resistant to poison and and are poisonous themselves.
I could go on and on about every single Nintendo game out there but that would take so long. By the way, great video!
Odyssey is like,
30% Sunshine
20% 64
25% Galaxy 1& 2
25% 3D Land/3D World
I love it. Itâs the perfect combo.
What exactly makes it galaxy?
The only "galaxy" thing what I see is starbits as coins and those "planets" which are required to get 2 moons
The intuitive gameplay, easy to learn yet hard to master controls, the spin dash and cap throw being surprisingly similar, the way enemies are handled (such as the yellow goombas) and the overall aesthetic of the game
Now we have two games about hats:
* Team Fortress 2
* Super Mario Odyssey
P.S. There is also game called "A Hat in Time".
Cappy makes odyssey extremely fun. Iâve spent at least half of my time attempting to make some crazy jumps and using my action moves in place of capturing something in the environment and it adds a whole new dimension of replayability. The beauty of odyssey (IMO) is that you DONT have to actively obtain moons to have fun. Itâs a whole, complete experience trying to push the limits of mario and his physical abilities. Thatâs why I think this iteration of mario is the most successful at being a sandbox game. Sunshine, 64, galaxy were all wonderful, but in terms of being the definitive mario, odyssey has it down
Agreed.
the cap-based screen wipes in this episode are WAY more effort than was necessary but I LOVE it! Great editing & design as always, Mark.
Fantastic video, Mark! Much like Super Mario Odyssey, this video feels like it's retroactively what all of your other amazing Nintendo design videos have been leading towards! Both are culminations of everything we know and love about how Nintendo makes games.
One quick note about the piranha plants: you can just run up and kick them while they're eating Cappy. I think it was intended to be an easier way of dealing with them compared to precisely jumping on their heads.
You can also feed them rocks to get the same effect. While they are eating the rock, you can even properly capture them.
Why does everyone shit on the motion controls? In my opinion, this is the best implement of motion controls not just in a nintendo game, but ever. Yes the joycons can get a bit out of sync, but if you go to controls and just reconnect, they resync. Also, they are very fluid. I've noticed how in Mario Galaxy, it felt better to swing the controller inward towards myself, but in Odyssey for some odd reason, I throw outward, as if throwing the hat myself, and feels unnatural to do the same as Galaxy, and ive clocked some heavy hours. Throw up to throw up, to the side to spin instantly, and down for down. Best part is none of the motion controls are needed for platforming, simply to make getting moons more fluid and easy. Only complaint I would have is that with motion controls i cant extend the time for cappy to fly as to jump on him, and with pushing Y I can't do a homing attack.
I know this shit is a year old, but tell me one thing that actually needs to be motion based in SMO? If anything they've made things worse, by making for example the spin throw, which had a better responding version in Sunshine. And if you want a look at a game that not only implements its motion controls in a necessary way, but actually makes the game *better,* look no further than JapanStudio's VR title Astrobot. They're not only used consistent and are needed to complete the game, it makes the game a far better and more memorable experience in just using the Dualshock. Let alone the VR head movements
The circular hat throw is fucking useless in portable mode
another great thematic visual motif in this game is the moon - you constantly collect power moons, then once you slow down and look at the background you realise that the moon is always visible somewhere in the sky, no matter the kingdom, and culminates in the game's climax taking place ON the moon itself. what a good game
Binging on your videos. Theyâre so well-done and engaging!
An option to pull off all moves in handheld mode would be much appreciated, Nintendo.
Great vid.
Yeah that sucks. At least those moves are fairly niche though
The only problem with Odyssey is beating it and going back to playing 3D World. I canât tell you how many times Iâve jumped into pits thinking I could use my cap to get across that ledge.
Small Details like you masking out Mario just to put him in front of the logo at the beginning make me so fucking happy. Good stuff.
Iâve been waiting for this :) Of course you didnât disappoint. Great work!
For the first time I'm early so I want to say thank you, I love your content
9:34
So THAT'S what the Luma popping up means? Hell, I went 10 years without realizing that...
That song you played at the end.. Jolly Rogers Bay. Does things to me... I love it so much.
Another killer GMTK! Great job, Mark!
Oh damn
That's the term I was looking for. *Orphaned Verbs*
You get an item/ability, but since you are already overload or have a preference, you forget about them
It is interesting how for some weird reason slap in Cuphead became Orphaned Verb to the lot of people (just like to the lesser extent dash).
Yeah that's what Hollow Knight lacks too.
You get to use every ability throughout the game
There were two orphaned verbs I never used on this game, but they were so obscure and useless that they didn't change anything. It was the one that let you make a long jump from behind and then that obscure weird circular hat throw that doesn't work properly on portable mode.
When I first saw my cousin play it and played it myself, I wanted to just say that it's a silly kids game but when I saw the art book I was floored at the variety and care they give each world
Agreed.
This was a great episode, I got chills towards the end... Good job :]]
I have played tons of great games this year. I don't care if a game that is fun is on PlayStation or Switch or whatever. But the one thing I enjoy about Mario Odyssey so much is the simple fact that you actually play. I mean, just running around and throwing your hat is fun. You don't even have to look for moons or follow the "story". Thank you for that, Nintendo. Oh and thank you for BOTW, too, which felt the same way to me.
Do you think that lakitu cameraman is still following Mario all these years later?
Ok i see now two reasons to buy a switch
This video is extremely well edited!!
Finally, someone who is just passionate about Nintendo. No bull, no drama, just good honest gaming passion. Nice work.
10:40 - How comw no one seems to mention this in reviews. I feel that this lone change alters the whole progressive cohesion of gameplay objectives, instead of segregating the gameplay sessions.
Could you do a video on Nintendo colour theory? Everything from SNES Kirby Dream Course to BOTW. How the bright colour and colour choices make it iconic as a Nintendo game.
So glad to see you reference my favourite game design book :)
"Dire Dire Docks" always hit the right spot. Nice video
*The Design Behind Sonic Forces | Game Maker's Opposite Day*
Arsch Dee *April fools
*The Design Behind SANIC Forces
I knew this video is coming
Dammit, man, you never cease to refresh my inspiration to get into and learn philosophies of game design. Definitely gonna sign up for Patreon
dude your editing skills are amazing
Super Mario Odyssey + Breath of the Wild= Nintendo is BACK everyone!!
Ben Wasserman More like Mario + Metroid.
Breath of the Wild was completely OpenWorld, while Metroid and Odyssey have a order in which you explore this world and your not just thrown into it... there are also a lot of other comparisons to draw between Odyssey and Super Metroid, for example how "tricking the Game" or just doing stuff the developers wouldn't think most people would do or could pull of is rewarded.
Ben Wasserman They never left though
You can possess the Pirahna Plants. Throw a rock in their mouth first, and they can't eat the hat. Voila.
One other thing I like about Odyssey is how the capturing mechanic leads very naturally to clear showcases of new mechanics. You know right away what you can do as an Uproot before you even capture it, because when you walk into a room with them they start extending their legs, Pan bros. jump around and throw things at you, and Goombas waddle around in stacks, so their unique mechanics are naturally shown to you as the enemies do it.
Some other Mario games try this to some extent, Galaxy especially comes to mind, but it seems to come across a bit more awkwardly in those games than in Odyssey
playing fetch with a dog using your hat in this game is adorable.
Mario Odyssey is one of those rare games I'd describe as pretty much perfect
Glad to know I'm not alone with the horrendous motion controls while in portable mode.
Dr Dunn Itâs best in TV mode with a pro controller.
It's clear to me that the game doesn't really intend you to use the motion controls while in handheld mode, though thankfully, as far as I can tell, you don't really need the motion controls for much of anything, though they can certainly help.
I'm surprised they never fixed that. Tying moves to motion controls when some controller set-ups are counter-intuitive to motion controls just seems stupid.
Excellent video! As someone who studies game design, your videos are really helpful and insightful. :)
Thanks! Glad to be of assistance!
Man u have done a lot of work to make this video. Great Job!
Even though mechanically speaking, this game is great, I often felt disappointed with the creative aspect. It's been kind of a "oh, that sounds cool !" to "huh ? that's it ?" rollercoaster world after world. There is a slight twist to the mario world stereotype each time, like "forest world but with robots", "beach world but with sparkling water", but for the most part it doesn't go any further (except the low poly food world and the oriental bowser world).
The best example of that would be the ruins. There's this awesome looking dragon Bowser shows up with in the middle of a cutscene that wrecks your shit once more, then you land on a superb bloodborne-looking ruins world, and then you find out that it's only going to be a boss room for the dragon, that actually is only going to throw small electric saws at you. Even though it looks awesome, the creativity of Galaxy's bosses for example just crushes Odyssey's. Not even talking about the rabbit bosses, that was just a waste of time and potential, they're as interesting to fight as the koopalings in mario 3.
TimtheEnchanter
I agree, although conceptually I think the Galaxy games have the best set of bosses in the 3D games.
Caleb Jaaniste that huge ghost with rock hands in galaxy 1 was just awesome, I thought entering the ruins world in odyssey that the dragon would be kind of an equivalent to this one. That makes me think : odyssey has no ghosts ??
Yeah the dragon boss was insanely underwhelming and off
my only critique of the game was how easy the "story" was. all in all you only need a couple hundred moons at most to finish the games story. there are over 900 unique moons in the whole game... and if you cant be bothered doing that you can just.... buy them.... so yeh. my only critique is that it has too MANY moons making anything but a 100% or min captures run trivial. yeh, i know mario games arent renowned for their difficulty and i dont feel its "too easy" for a mario game. i just feel like it hands out too many freebee moons such that you have no need to try. would have prefered a more limited number of moons that took longer to get. same gameplay length but just something more meaningful when you DO get them.
Hey Mark, I think I know of another game that tries to delve into the same kind of open world design seen in Mario Odyssey and Zelda: Breath of the wild, which takes form of a DigDug/Metroidvania hybrid. It's Steamworld Dig 2 of course. I have only put some few hours into the game but what captivated me is that like previously mentioned games, they have little rooms sprinkled around the world, so if you're interested enough of entering them you would have to overcome a little challenge that plays with the mechanics a lot. With the many hours of playing Mario Odyssey, this kind of design really makes me think of how other game developers would approach open world games.
Great video! I'd love if you could make one about the game's "odyssey" theme too (traveling the world, changing clothes, buying souvenirs). I feel it reflects the "Nintendo" creative process behind mechanics quite perfectly, only this time in the narrative (and I have the feeling that they did it with Breath of the Wild too)
Most importantly, this game is so damn fun - something most modern games forget about.
well most modern games are designed around being unfun so you buy microtransactions so you skip over the unfun parts.
I disagree. I find almost every Nintendo game fun, new or old. :D
Did you really fucking ROTOSCOPED the hat to make the "hat" title ?
Bro you did not win the game, you are the game.
i shouldn't be allowed near Adobe After Effects
Great video, great analysis! đ
Mark,
Great video! While playing Odyssey, I actually often thought back to your videos on Nintendo.
I've noticed that in several of your videos you've mentioned speedrunning, and you seem to be familiar with it. Have you considered making a video about games which are designed with speedrunning in mind? For example, you could cover games which incorporate individual level time trials, leaderboards, replays, dedicated speedrunning modes, or even just speedrunning integrated into the level design itself. Many indie games are developed with these in mind, and some bigger games do as well. In the speedrunning event Games Done Quick, some runs even have commentary from the developers that provide insight into the design. I think it would be a very interesting topic to make a video about.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for the wonderful video!
God I need to get a Switch and play this already. Sucks to be broke.
You didn't mention that in your live videos you played the amazing SPELUNKY :) ! You left it
for the part "and more" :D !
The best part about the move set is that there is entire moves that arenât talked about like how when you press the jump button when youâve just caught your hat mid-air Mario will do a tiny spin giving you a bit more distance. It rewards players who experiment and push Marioâs move set to the max.
I love the freedom of movement in this fame and all the trickjumps
YOU CAN BE A TREE
You can be a rock.
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Great videos Mark Thank you so much!
The ending song you chose is perfect. To me it's is as if a statement, that progress and the new thing, can never assume form the magic that's come before it. Regardless of improvement, there are always small yet important things lost upon change. To me this is an optimistic feeling of balance of strengths.
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MAXIMUS Knack 3 Babyyy!
5 out of 5 hohly SHIT!!
*knackstapiece
M A S T A P E E C E
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Lol, saw this comment and totally forgot for a moment that this is the GMT channel, not Dunkey's.
"FAHV OUTTA FAHHHV, babee"
"But... Super Mario Odyssey is so overrated! The reviews were certainly paid! They've just hyped up the developer! How I hate professional critics, me, as an expert gamer that obviously studied design, I'm a more reliable source!"
I mean, uh... Critics generally play only a few hours and they do it as fast as they can so they can get the review done before others. The result is often a rush mess. I mean, really:Are you gonna tell me that a 5 min IGN video is better than a big analysis by Game makers toolkit?
@@legrandliseurtri7495 It's why I trust the completionist. Sure he doesn't always get it right, but dammit he's fucking thorough.
A pinnacle of game design. Masterful work.
Nossa, um dos melhores canais de games que ja vi.
Muito obrigado Arthur por legendar os videos pra portugues.
8:47 tf2 in a nutshell
Can you please make a video about how to do video game sequels right? Gamespot's Reboot made a video on it but they didn't go deep enough and didn't give much practical advice, would love to see you take that one
Terrific video, as always!
This video has been on my Watch Later list since it came out but after taking my time to finish the main story of Odyssey I can now finally watch it.