#16
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you could say my hat is off to you
I've been thinking about this thread for the past month and I decided I'm finally ready to return to it and give my actual top ten games of the decade instead of by year.
Number 1, Game of the Decade Super Mario Odyssey It seems like it's an unfair choice, choosing the "latest and greatest" game, but honestly, the more I thought about it, the more I felt that Super Mario Odyssey really was the big game for me this decade. I was super hyped both before and after the game released. I remember when the big E3 2017 trailer dropped and we were treated to things like the capture mechanic, Princess Peach in a wedding gown, and of course "Jump Up, Super Star!", I rewatched it so many times that, if the view counter was by individual views and not one view per person, half of the views would have easily been mine. I imported the beautiful four-disk soundtrack as well as the beautiful hardcover art book (and then when they translated that a year-ish later, I double dipped and bought it again). And of course I picked up the wedding amiibo set when the game came out, because why wouldn’t I? When we first saw the revealing of the Switch, we see about three seconds of Mario in a new platformer, and that was enough for me to be sold on buying a Switch (I mean.. not that I wasn't going to to begin with, but it definitely sealed the deal!). As I'm sure you can imagine, I absolutely fell in love with it, being the game I was most hyped for in the decade. It hit a lot of right notes for me. While ranking Mario games is very difficult for me because they're all works of art and I love them all so much, I considered Super Mario Sunshine my favorite of the 3D Marios because of how much fun it was to just control Mario and jump around and explore the worlds. I'm not sure if I think Odyssey has topped it, but it's definitely able, in my opinion to stand toe-to-toe with it. And while they may have removed Isle Delfino from the map in the final game, it still lives on in my heart. But where were the Chucksters? I liked the level variety a lot! Dinosaurs! Traditional Japanese culture! Photorealistic New York City! A lot of stuff that I wasn’t really sure fit or made sense in the Mario universe but, you know what? A food world with purple lava and sentient forks is a-okay with me! Some of them were definitely a little weird comparatively, but it was fun and I think it was a nice break from the usual Mario tropes of grassland, desert, ice world, etc. And then when we did have those tropes, they were pretty different: desert went with a Mexican influence instead of Egyptian. Ice had an underground town and was all about racing by rolling around at the speed of sound. Jungle was… well, it was still jungle, but it looked really pretty and had a lot of fun platforming! The separate platforming challenges they had behind pipes / entrances was a good way to add more content outside the bounds of the initial level design, kinda like the secret courses in Super Mario Sunshine. I liked the one where you wind up in an alleyway in New Donk on a moped and suddenly the t-rex is after you! It wasn't particularly challenging, but it was good visual. Or the one where you had to grab the Power Moon and run back before a Banzai Bill hits you and destroys the path you're on, with the second moon on a more challenging route back. And then, like, in the main levels the game rewarded you for going off the beaten path with coins and hearts, even if / especially if you went off trying to get to where you're probably not "supposed" to go. It was nice. And capturing enemies and using their abilities was really fun and changed up the gameplay pretty often. I liked using Pokio, the bird enemies in Bowser's Kingdom, and scaling walls with them. And Gushens, the squid enemies in Bubblaine, felt an awful lot like using F.L.U.D.D... also i definitely teared up some during the new donk festival there's no power-up like dancing Fantastic soundtrack across the board. A lot of variety, both in musical genre, and instrumentation. Did you know the Luncheon Kingdom’s Peronza Plaza music uses knives and lids and spoons for percussion? I love it. The orchestral majesty of Fossil Falls, the big band of New Donk, bossa nova Bubblaine, the sort of surf punk for Steam Gardens… This should surprise no one, but I love “Jump Up, Super Star!” a lot. Big band is something that’s just so appealing to me, and Kate Davis’ vocals are so good and the lyrics are so fun and then the New Donk Festival version throws in some chiptune mixed in and I love it so much. Let’s do the Odyssey! Koji Kondo himself wrote a lot of music too, which is in contrast from the last few games where he only contributed a little here and there. One of my favorites was the athletic challenge theme, reminding me a lot of the slide / athletic theme from Super Mario 64. I was surprised when I found out he wrote it- I would’ve bet from the style that it was Shiho Fujii since it sounds similar to some of her previous work, but I was wrong! Similarly, I thought Kondo had written New Donk City, since it reminded me of his athletic theme from Super Mario 3D World but it was Naoto Kubo, who hasn’t done a lot for Nintendo yet but he’s certainly talented and I can't wait to see what he does next. i mean, it's been out for a few years but superspoiler-ing ending stuff: Spoiler:
Clicking this link will show a major spoiler. Don't do it if you don't want to know! Show Me!
It definitely wasn't a perfect game- some of the levels were less developed than others (looking at you, Ruined Kingdom / Cloud Kingdom), and a couple of the Power Moons, even with the parrot and Toad / Uncle amiibo help, weren't super clear on what to do (such as using the binoculars to spot the flying Sphinx), but I was definitely compelled to seek out and find every last Power Moon. It's weird to me that while a lot of other major Nintendo properties received free updates or DLC, this game only received minor updates with some new costumes. I'm hoping it means that come E3 this year, they'll maybe announce a sequel, not unlike Super Mario Galaxy 2, building on and expanding the original game with all new ideas. I can only hope!! .. Games 2-10 I dunno, Steel Diver or something ..
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