The problem with Cappy is I never want to play another Mario game without him.

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

“Above all, video games are meant to just be one thing: Fun for everyone.” - 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

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

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.

"The kick in Super Mario 64" > Punches

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.

0:19 - Just wanna appreciate making Mario flip in front of the logo like that. Very nice, hasn't gone unnoticed.

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 music in the beginning made me think that you're gonna go into what half A-presses are.

I just realized that the way odyssey handles moons is much closer to how Banjo Kazooie handled jiggles than how mario 64 handled stars

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.

The platforming in this game is some of the best in any game I’ve 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 you’d normally need a capture to do. Not to mention moving around as Mario in Odyssey is fun as hell, which honestly shouldn’t be overlooked; if you can make something as basic as moving your character around a room super fun, you know you’ve done a good job.

YOU CAN BE A GOOMBAS

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!

Hats off to you mr. Brown.

"A cheeky chap who turns into Mario's hat" That's such a pleasant sentence. I love you, Mark

One of my favorite things about oddessy is how it’s handles difficulty’s 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 isn’t skilled. This makes It so repeat play throughs remain engaging,even with the player being a lot more skilled than they originally were

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.

this ties in really well with your video about putting play first.

HE CAN BE A TAXI?!

Honestly one of the most well-designed games I've ever played. Pretty much pure fun the whole way through.

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!

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.

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.

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.

I gotta say, I absolutely love how you edit all of these videos. It's so crisp and flows nicely!

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.

Could you talk about Steamworld Dig 1 & 2 with the topic of procedural generation vs. hand-crafted experiences?

8:57 best rap Mark ever did

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.

its crazy to think that this legendary game came out 4 years ago

I love your videos, your smooth voice is just the icing on the cake.

Odyssey is like, 30% Sunshine 20% 64 25% Galaxy 1& 2 25% 3D Land/3D World I love it. It’s the perfect combo.

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.

Binging on your videos. They’re so well-done and engaging!

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

For the first time I'm early so I want to say thank you, I love your content

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!

I’ve been waiting for this :) Of course you didn’t disappoint. Great work!

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.

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.

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.

So glad to see you reference my favourite game design book :)

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.

An option to pull off all moves in handheld mode would be much appreciated, Nintendo. Great vid.

This was a great episode, I got chills towards the end... Good job :]]

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

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

Cappy makes odyssey extremely fun. I’ve 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. It’s a whole, complete experience trying to push the limits of mario and his physical abilities. That’s 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

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.

Dammit, man, you never cease to refresh my inspiration to get into and learn philosophies of game design. Definitely gonna sign up for Patreon

Now we have two games about hats: * Team Fortress 2 * Super Mario Odyssey P.S. There is also game called "A Hat in Time".

The only problem with Odyssey is beating it and going back to playing 3D World. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve jumped into pits thinking I could use my cap to get across that ledge.

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!

9:34 So THAT'S what the Luma popping up means? Hell, I went 10 years without realizing that...

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

"Dire Dire Docks" always hit the right spot. Nice video

dude your editing skills are amazing

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.

Do you think that lakitu cameraman is still following Mario all these years later?

This video is extremely well edited!!

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.

Ok i see now two reasons to buy a switch

You didn't mention that in your live videos you played the amazing SPELUNKY :) ! You left it for the part "and more" :D !

one thing i loved about SMO is all the tricky shortcuts that i attempted, as in, before i saw anything Online about it, finding these things myself (like a complex long cap jumping shortcut to the top of a cliff in the lakebed kingdom)...and i thought i was So Clever for finding my way to this 'secret spot' like it was Out Of Bounds or something... ...but Nintendo put a big pile of Coins there, or Cappy will chime in with some kind of "Whoa! Nice Jump!" if you do it right...in other words, They Knew that i would try to be sneaky...Nintendo KNEW that speedrunners would rip the game apart to shave seconds...so instead of crumbling to dust, the game just rolls with it...

Thank you for the great insight into Super Mario Odyssey!

*The Design Behind Sonic Forces | Game Maker's Opposite Day*

I knew this video is coming

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!

Excellent video! As someone who studies game design, your videos are really helpful and insightful. :)

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.

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.

Excellent analysis. Thank you !

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.

oh hi mark. haha yeah this game is super good some how i wonder why. you know i play Assassin's Creed and that game like here 1000 loot to collect i was like meh fuck it but Mario odyssey here 999 power moon i was like let's fucking go danm this game is so good maybe you can make a video tell how why so game make we want to plya more and other is meh

Super Mario Odyssey + Breath of the Wild= Nintendo is BACK everyone!!

Man u have done a lot of work to make this video. Great Job!

Really enjoyed this Episode(like all of them) but the level design? I mean I have not played it myself so I don't know how great the hat is woven in, but the holy 6 planes of Mario: "plains, dessert, ocean, jungle, iceworld, fireworld" are all there so even if Nintendo says:" ohh yeah we totally thought of something epic with snow so we had to do a snowland" They do it in 99% of their games so that feels to me like the only part where I thought(Irony) yeah sure I bet they thought of how to use the hat random and did not think about their usual level environments in a "hat" context(end Irony here). still taught me that I have to make the abilities more (ab)usable for the Player to not have it feel like a one place use gimmick. As always already looking forward to the next episode.

Glad to know I'm not alone with the horrendous motion controls while in portable mode.

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

I feel like few people understand Nintendo like you do. I hear so many others commenting on the way Nintendo doesn't include enough plot and they didn't have the best locations for Mario. This is because it all serves the game play. They also very rarely simply cash in on a franchise and make a direct sequel. They instead go from Ocarina to Majora to Windwaker. They easily could have made Ocarina 2 and 3 and cashed in big time but Miyamoto doesnt want to do the same thing again. I love Nintendo and I love your appreciation for the company. Their impact on the industry can't be overstated. I especially can't wait to see what they do with the Zelda franchise next since more likely than not it won't be the same.

Finally, someone who is just passionate about Nintendo. No bull, no drama, just good honest gaming passion. Nice work.

日本語字幕ありがとう

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

Great video, great analysis! 👏

God I need to get a Switch and play this already. Sucks to be broke.

Did you really fucking ROTOSCOPED the hat to make the "hat" title ? Bro you did not win the game, you are the game.

This is why I love Nintendo so much. They're not afraid to try new things and they so cleverly implement the idea in so many different and fun game mechanics. This is also why I hate when people say, "it's just another Mario game. They all play the same." I also love how they gave Mario different costume options in this one. It adds homage to previous titles/characters and is also fun dressing up Mario in different outfits.

Nossa, um dos melhores canais de games que ja vi. Muito obrigado Arthur por legendar os videos pra portugues.

Mario Odyssey is one of those rare games I'd describe as pretty much perfect

YOU CAN BE A TREE

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)

Thanks for the video, really interesting to see a little about how Nintendo goes about game design!

8:47 tf2 in a nutshell

Most importantly, this game is so damn fun - something most modern games forget about.

A pinnacle of game design. Masterful work.

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.