At first I didn't like picking this game up. It wasn't until I understood how Mario moves that it clicked for me. When that happened all the game fell into place, just running and jumping felt enjoyable. I ended up getting 100% in the game to keep playing as much as possible.

I found so many things to love in this game. Exploring every corner of the game was so gratifying, everything was intentionally placed and polished. Its music is the one that started my love for videogame jazz. And the platforming, which is a style of game i had been a little indiferent until then, was so interesting.

Indisputably the best (3D, at least) mario game. After revisiting the others through the recent collection, I do quite like all of the 3D marios I've played extensively, but this one simply elevates all of the minor nudges in progress. It feels like the cap mechanic was a first draft in Mario 64, switched for the cap mechanics there, and then rediscovered when development started on this one. And then 20ish years of experience poured into it. The moon collecting for the most part is way more streamlined than the replay levels you find in the older 3D marios, and everything about moving mario and collecting feels absolutely amazing. Also, as a sucker for alt costumes, I was so spoiled. Plus the quirky variety in the levels and the collage of stylistic choices were extremely well done. Frankly, I don't know how they'll be able to top this in subsequent entries. Even though I'm generally enjoying the rereleases, it's a disservice to SMO that they weren't remade properly.

aaaaa. Mario odyssey has such a good structure of an open sandbox game that is ruiend by one thing, welll, a bunch of them. First, The fact that you can't get a chunk of the moons unless you finish the story of it's respective world or the story as a hole. So everytime I replay this game it's better to just do the general missions and guess what. Mario odyssey as a platforming gauntlet is actually really easy and boring.

I hate that. Buuuuuut once you DO finish the main story it's incredible. The fact that I can go from moon to moon and almost complete a kingdom in a play session is satisfying. The music is mostly good but the fact that I can play some of my favorites on the go is a blessing. And people don't praize the amount of costumes this game has!

And the movement is good, not as good as sunshine but better than galaxy. Though the captures kinda ruin the entire movement since they are worse than regular capy bouncing. I don't find them really appealing.

However that flaw is a major one and I can't look past it. And another thing that prevents me from upping the score are the kingdoms themselves. Besides lost and maybe luncheon, I don't really like any of them. Since they feel like you are going to moon A to moon B all the time with layouts that don't feel confortable for a sandbox game. Examples:
- Forest kingdom is vertical and it does not do a good job at it.
- Metro kingdom makes me feel lost and I go to the same subareas more than I should + a regular city is a bit boring for a mario game.
-Then you have weird structures like snow and cap kingdom that just feel weird.

I like this game, but for a Mario game I expect much more. 6/10