History YMMV / SuperMarioOdyssey

* EvenBetterSequel: ''Odyssey'' comes on the heels of the critically acclaimed ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld''. While ''3D World'' was already considered a vast improvement from its own top-notch (if comparatively debated) predecessor, ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand'', ''Odyssey'' is considered ''even more'' of an improvement due to its unique, creative characters and bizarre worlds and exploratory nature as well as having a bit more than your typical ExcusePlot, reaching the heights of ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy''.

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: Playing ''Odyssey'' is typically a surreal experience. The worlds and their inhabitants are a part of this – from a land populated by sentient forks to New Donk City, whose citizens, except for Pauline, are unusually realistic-looking but [[SpeakingSimlish speak simlish]], and have the visual uniformity of people in a [[Creator/ReneMagritte Magritte]] painting unless they are important – but the body-snatching capabilities brought by Cappy make the game reach surreal heights. Occupying the bodies of ememies is to be expected – and this in itself can be weird, such as when you control a ten-plus stack of Goombas – but Mario can occupy some truly out-there things, most of which gain his cap and moustache: a manhole cover, a ''T. Rex'', a traffic cone on a building, a fork, a zipper in a wall or a floor, and a ''giant slab of thick, flabby meat'' that he can make flop around and fall into a giant stew pot. Hats abound in setting-appropriate varieties, so Bullet Bills can be found wearing fancy wedding hats and even sheep can be found wearing sombreros.

** [[spoiler:Bowser. He put in so much thought and dedication to setting up his wedding... by stealing vital artifacts from various kingdoms, but still, he clearly cared about his scheme. Mario's presence naturally has the wedding crash and burn, and when he and Mario both get rejected by Peach after proposing to her rather abrasively, he doesn't get angered or force Peach to accept him. He... just cries. He doesn't cry in OcularGushers fashion like he did in some earlier games -- here he lets out truly pitiful, ''heartbroken'' sobs along with Mario, [[AllLovingHero who of course comforts him]], [[HurtingHero but is also clearly heartbroken from being rejected.]] Regardless of how one-sided the marriage was, his robberies, and him destroying the Odyssey twice, you can't help but just want to hug the Koopa King after everything he built up amounted to ''nothing.'']]

** Previous ''Mario'' games such as the ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' series were praised for their gameplay, but criticized for recycling the same basic VideoGameSettings with little variation or mixing and matching. The levels in ''Odyssey'' exhibit a huge variety of creative designs that emphasize surprise and variation, even if that makes them dip into the UnintentionalUncannyValley a little bit.
** In contrast to the ''New Super Mario Bros.'' series, Bowser's given much more recognition by [=NPC=]s, is seen more often, and performs some truly awesome things, like [[spoiler:raiding every kingdom without a hitch, riding a dragon, striking down Mario and the Odyssey twice, and eventually becoming PromotedToPlayable right at the end]].

** The [[LevelAte Luncheon Kingdom]] is a creative take on your typical LethalLavaLand, featuring some of the game's most surreal visuals, NPCs, and challenge rooms. It's also decently challenging.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Interestingly, {{averted}}. The game managed to play to fans of ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' despite abandoning major elements credited to its acclaim, such as replacing the "play courses in any order" progression with a level select screen, paring down the HubLevel to a tiny airship with a wardrobe, and losing the focus on Mario's base moveset in favor of a GameplayRoulette through the Capture mechanic. Instead, ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' and its shift to [[SlidingScaleOfLinearityVsOpenness linearity]] started to draw negative comparisons against ''Odyssey'' -- despite ''Galaxy'' being the only ''Super Mario'' game to bring back ''64''[='=]s large-scale progression structure, with ''Odyssey'' forcing the player to progress through each kingdom in a linear order.

*** The game pauses for five seconds to play the victory jingle [[BrokenRecord every time you get a Moon]], and with how many there are, [[https://youtu.be/wmDs_fuVi2c that time adds up]]. This interrupts the flow of gameplay just as Blue Coins did in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine''. Power Moons that would have been 1-Up Mushrooms or Star Coins in previous games are treated with the same bombast as clearing an entire course.
*** Some Power Moons are rewarded for extremely mundane actions, like kicking a specific rock, which otherwise grants one coin. From then on, completionists will have to kick every other rock in the game in case it also contains a Moon, turning a mildly stimulating free action into a chore. The same applies to Ground Pounding glowing and rumbling spots, throwing Cappy at knobs and flower patterns, breaking crates, catching rabbits, lighting torches, and so on. Most of these grant coins, some grant Moons, and you can't tell which give which until you try them.
*** Due to the Hat-and-Seek missions, completionists will have to inspect every [=NPC=]'s hat for Bonnetter eyes.
*** Planting seeds and the like. Mario can't use faster moves like the Long Jump while he's carrying a seed. There are rarely obstacles on the way to the plant pot, and some seeds are on the other side of the kingdom from the pots. The same complaints apply to missions like putting turnips in stewpots and bringing Goombas to Goombette, such as "Love at the Edge of the Desert", where the player must waddle across the barren Sand Kingdom as a Goomba for several minutes. Seeds are arguably even worse because, once planted, it takes real time to blossom into a Power Moon, making the player either wait or double back to the pot ''again''.
*** The music note challenges are far more numerous than in past games, but now play very basic scales instead of other ''Mario'' tunes, making them feel rather soulless and paint-by-numbers.
*** Toadette's achievement-like Power Moons are a pain because she gives them out one at a time, and only once per conversation. The ContextSensitiveButton is flaky, too. ButtonMashing tends to make Mario jump in place instead of talking to Toadette again, in an {{inversion}} of ShallIRepeatThat. Even if you queue up every achievement in advance to collect their Power Moons most efficiently, [[https://youtu.be/wmDs_fuVi2c?t=3822 it takes nearly ten minutes to get through this]].

** [[MetropolisZone Metro Kingdom]] (a.k.a. New Donk City) is seen as one of the most notable parts of the game, with its semi-realistic setting, the various nods to the ''Donkey Kong'' games, and the last level (in the main game, anyway) being a feel-good BreatherLevel with Pauline and her band performing "Jump Up, Super Star."
** [[PalmtreePanic Seaside Kingdom]] is an [[UnderTheSea underwater level]] that's ''actually fun''. Thanks to the Cheep-Cheep and Gushen captures, traversing between Land and water is breezy and fun, making exploration an absolute delight.

* BestLevelEver:
** The Metro Kingdom (a.k.a. New Donk City) is seen as one of the most notable parts of the game, with its semi-realistic setting, the various nods to the ''Donkey Kong'' games, and the last level (in the main game, anyway) being a feel-good BreatherLevel with Pauline and her band performing "Jump Up, Super Star."

** Believe it or not, the wedding itself. [[spoiler:When we finally get to see the wedding in the final stage of the game, it's mostly just Bowser trying to put a humongous ring on Peach than won't fit her finger at all, as well as the noticeable lack of a minister before Mario [[BigDamnHeroes rushes into the scene]]. All this to say that, despite all the work he went through, Bowser still isn't quite as close to marrying Peach as he was in other Mario adaptations before Mario's inevitable intervention, most notably ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario.'']]

** Luigi. Many of his fans were displeased that this gigantic ''Mario'' release left out the green guy initially (though it's justified storyline-wise as the game about Mario, Peach, and Bowser's relationship, in which Luigi has no part in), whether his status as a host of a fun post-game minigame makes up for this (as opposed to having him fully playable in some capacity) is up to debate.

*** On the more understanding side of things, some say that Peach was rightfully angry that [[spoiler:Mario and Bowser were both acting immature by treating her as a mere prize to be won]], and she just needed a brief moment for everybody (including herself) to calm down. Others interpret Peach's decision as the result of trauma, since she spends most of the game trapped into a forced marriage from Bowser only to immediately find herself in a situation where [[spoiler:both Mario and Bowser are shoving flowers in her face, forcibly trying to convince her to marry one of them]]; essentially, it was "too soon!" for her. There's also those who think that [[spoiler:if Bowser hadn't butted in, and Mario had the chance to give Peach a nice, simple proposal like he was trying to, she would've said yes]].

** Luigi. Many of his fans were displeased that this gigantic ''Mario'' release left out the green guy initially, though whether his status as a host of a fun post-game minigame makes up for this (as opposed to having him fully playable) is up to debate.

** Believe it or not, the wedding itself. [[spoiler:When we finally get to see the wedding in the final stage of the game, it's mostly just Bowser trying to put a humongous ring on Peach than won't fit her finger at all, as well as the noticeable lack of a minister. All this to say that, despite all the work he went through, Bowser still isn't quite as close to marrying Peach as he was in other Mario adaptations before Mario's inevitable intervention, most notably ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario.'']]
** [[spoiler:Peach denying the chance to marry Mario, as this could have been an opportunity to explore Mario and Peach's relationship past it being simply the [[ImpliedLoveInterest implied romance]] it's always been.]]

** [[spoiler: During the wedding at the end, the fact that we don’t get to see any of Bowser’s family like Bowser Jr or the Koopalings, or even his closer subordinates like Kamek (who basically [[ParentalSubstitute raised Bowser]]). Considering that it’s Bowser’s wedding and that they’re part of his family, you’d think they they’d be invited, but nope. They’re nowhere to be seen in the game]].

* BizarroEpisode: Again, [[spoiler:the Ruined Kingdom drops you feet first with zero warning into a devastated medieval castle landscape floating in an endless void of storms where you fight [[NonStandardCharacterDesign an incredibly realistically detailed dragon]]. It looks and feels absolutely nothing like anything in ''any'' other Mario game, and seems to have been [[OutOfGenreExperience pulled right out of an entirely different and much darker video game]] - not for nothing has it been [[FanNicknamed nicknamed]] "The ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' Level."]] It's even more jarring because the level ''immediately'' prior to this one had you [[MoodWhiplash fighting a goofy chef bird in colorful cartoon food land.]]

** This is not the first time that Pauline has been portrayed as the lead singer of a band; that one goes way back to the 1982 activity book ''[https://www.mariowiki.com/Donkey_Kong_(coloring/activity_books) Donkey Kong Strikes Again!]''

** This is not the first time that Pauline has been portrayed as the lead singer of a band; that one goes way back to the 1982 activity book ''[https://www.mariowiki.com/Pauline#/media/File:DKSA_Pauline.jpg Donkey Kong Strikes Again!]

* MemeticPsychopath: This version of Mario can invade someone else's body by throwing his hat. Everyone had a field day with this.

** [[spoiler:The Ruined Kingdom and the boss battle against the Ruined Dragon are incredibly out of place, even in a game as wacky as this. Even in the context of the story, it comes out of nowhere. How did Bowser tame the Ruined Dragon? What happened to this kingdom?]]

* EvilIsSexy: [[EveryoneLovesBlondes Hariet]] [[CuteAndPsycho Broodal]] seems to have this appeal to her judging by all of the various fanart of her. See EnsembleDarkhorse above for more information.

** A few fans across the two franchises tend to state (jokingly or otherwise) that ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' "stole" from ''Mario'' in a number of ways, the most well-known being the style of ''VideoGame/SonicLostWorld'', which was often compared to ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy''[[note]]never mind that Sonic actually did it first in a level of ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2''[[/note]]. This time, it seems the plumber is the one taking a little inspiration from his ex-rival, if the comparisons made to ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' purely on the trailer seem to be any indication. The addition of a ''vocal theme song'', a first in ''Mario'' history, which Sonic games have been doing as early as ''1993'', only compounded the comparisons, as well as Mario's ability to curl up into a ball and roll to gain speed, one of Sonic's signature abilities. Also, Mario spills coins when he dies which can be recollected, similar to Sonic spilling rings upon taking damage, and Pauline's voice actress in this game, Creator/KateHiggins, previously provided the voice of Tails in ''VideoGame/SonicColors'' and ''Lost World''. Odyssey even borrows heavily from ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'', in the idea of a colorful mascot embarking on a world adventure with a cute little sidekick and an major gameplay gimmick centered around a transformation.

** Mario has traveled outside of the Mushroom Kingdom in "strange new worlds" in ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3''. Luigi has also done this in games like ''VideoGame/MarioIsMissing''. And of course, the ''VideoGame/MarioAndSonicAtTheOlympicGames'' series involves the characters participating in the real-world Olympics outside of the Mushroom Kingdom. And as far as crossovers go, Mario, Luigi, and Peach were {{Guest Fighter}}s in the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube GameCube]] versions of ''[[VideoGame/{{SSX}} SSX on Tour]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/EASportsStreet NBA Street V3]]'', both of which are set outside of the Mushroom Kingdom as well.

** Also relating to ''Super Paper Mario'', [[https://66.media.tumblr.com/695cf06c64f1c73a33afda1cea008e60/tumblr_pgm9f7rwwf1wnhojco1_500.png Bowser's trophy depicting his wedding suit in]] ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'' noted that "this might just be the last time we ever see Bowser in a tuxedo". Turns out that would be proven wrong with ''Odyssey'', and Bowser's suit is fairly similar in the previous game.

** Mario in a parody of New York City was the main plot of the [[Film/SuperMarioBros 1993 live-action movie]], which featured a parallel universe version of Manhattan called Dinohattan. Parts of the movie also took place in Brooklyn, which is one of the five boroughs of New York City. The realistic dinosaurs also call the movie to mind, as does one sub-area where a giant ''T. rex'' chases you through the city.

** The secret level [[spoiler:Dark Side of the Moon]] contains challenges that are remixes of existing ones. For some of these challenges, the remix is that you don't have Cappy, which makes them absolutely nightmarish. One has you navigate the invisible Poison Piranha Plant maze, and without Cappy, you can't clear the poison. Another sends you to a timed motorcycle challenge without the motorcycle (or Cappy). You need to be able to quickly use advanced movement techniques like rolling, long jumping, and diving, and your timing needs to be near-perfect. And then there's the Bullet Bill challenge, especially the Moon behind the wall that only the Banzai Bill can break. Since you can't capture it, you have to lure the Banzai Bill back to the start of the level. The way back is a single row of blocks with long spaces between them. You have to constantly long jump across these small blocks with the Banzai Bill chasing you, a mission that requires expert skill and timing.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** One of the standard complaints about several 3D ''Mario'' games are that most bosses aren't particularly challenging. This game works at rectifying that by having the bosses change up their attack patterns after each hit and not all of them are of the "hit the boss on the head" variety. Even if they are, it takes much more effort to do the bop. Likewise, the repeated boss fights with the Broodals adds different phases to their fights, and shortcuts to skip counterattack phases. The bosses are still rather easy, but they’re much less predictable and easy to exploit making them much more engaging than most Mario bosses.
** Another one of the most common complaints, particularly about the 2D ''Mario'' series, was that the games didn't push the boundary enough. Some of the sub-complaints include that most of the friendly characters were Toads, most of the gameplay was recycled from ''New Super Mario Bros.'', and the games tended to reuse original bosses or used the Koopalings, Boom Boom, and Pom Pom instead of creating new ones for each area. In ''Odyssey'', Toads are probably the rarest friendly character type you'll encounter in any of the Worlds[[note]]each Kingdom has its own standard residents, such as Tostarenans and New Donkers, and Toads are framed as the Mushroom Kingdom's equivalents[[/note]], the gameplay is entirely its own thing while taking cues from many 3D ''Mario'' games, and all of the bosses [[RecurringBoss that aren't the Broodals]] [[ClimaxBoss or]] [[FinalBoss Bowser]] are entirely unique.
** Before the 1.2 update, getting all of the gold coin costumes (especially the Skeleton outfit) and buying the 119 Moons needed to bring the Odyssey's total to 999 required a lot of tedious coin grinding. The fastest way to get coins was to do a particular sub-section in [[spoiler:Bowser's Kingdom]] over and over again — a perfect run of the level netted 180 coins, and your required total was typically 10,000-20,000. The 1.2 update introduced Luigi's Balloon World, a post-game minigame that gives out coins in spades, allowing players to quickly get the gold they need to get those {{Last Lousy Point}}s and have fun while doing it. However, the minigame requires an internet connection, so for those in a vehicle or otherwise without internet, the problem remains until they can connect. And as with any feature that requires an internet connection, it can be discontinued at any time.

** [[spoiler: During the wedding at the end, that fact that we don’t get to see any of Bowser’s family like Bowser Jr or the Koopalings, or even his closer subordinates like Kamek. Considering that it’s Bowser’s wedding and that they’re part of his family, you’d think they they’d be invited, but nope. They’re nowhere to be seen in the game]].