Odyssey is a 3D Mario game at face value.

It looks like a Mario, sounds like a Mario and feels like a Mario…sometimes. I believe the game is worthy of the critical praise it is recieving, however for me, the game made a few changes that left the game feeling a bit empty to me. I could write a review of the game but instead I’d like to focus on a reoccuring thought I had throughout my playthrough. What if Mario Odyssey, wasn’t a Mario game?

This thought admittedly has everything to do with the capture mechanic. I noticed that I really enjoyed capturing enemies and using their abilities with the Pokio and Gushen enemies particularly standing out. However, the fact that I enjoyed this mechanic made it even more evident that this didn’t feel like a Mario game. I often prefered to not capture enemies because I loved just using Mario. Running, flipping, long jumping, twirling and rolling. It all felt like Mario should…until I had to capture an enemy to progress through a level.

Mario and Cappy aside, there is another Nintendo character that is quite well known for capturing his enemies and using thier power. I’m reffering to everyones favorite pink blob with a black hole for a stomache, Kirby.

As I played through Odyssey, all that I could think of was “this is what a 3D Kirby game should be.” Kirby has never had a truly 3D game, with the closests we’ve gotten being controling him without a star in Kirby Air Ride’s City Trial Mode. I love the Kirby series personally and would love to see a 3D iteration at some point. Odyssey just made too much sense to me as a fit for Kirby. Imagine absorbing a Pokio to become Needle Kirby and needling your way up a wall too high for Kirby to float to. The list could go on forever, Burning Kirby to swim through lava, Water Kirby to swim and spray water, Wing Kirby to glide, Spark Kirby to travel through electric lines. It all just made way too much sense to me. Beyond this, I also felt the collect-a-thon format also suited Kirby much better than it did Mario. Mario always felt focused and objective based. Here’s a level, here’s a task (get to a flagpole/defeat this enemie/collect these coins), complete it and return to a hub to pick your next target.

With Kirby, things seem a little more open, particularly in games like Kirby and the Amazing Mirror. It just makes too much sense for Kirby to go around and collect shattered crystal shards or fragments of mirror or whatever the story calls for. I feel that this style would not only be the perfect way to usher in a new era of 3D Kirby games, but would also act as a catalyst for Kirby games to be taken a little more seriously with the addition of some extra challenge and difficulty.

Those are just my thoughts and I’m sure you have your own. Would you like to see a “Kirby Odyssey” game in the future? Let me know in the comments!