Super Mario Odyssey / Tropes A to D

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Tropes E-M HERE!

Tropes N-Z HERE!

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#-A

• 11th-Hour Superpower: Which turns out to be a 13th Hour Superpower: Mario Captures Bowser after the Final Boss, and uses his new giant, fire-breathing host to carry Peach out of Bowser's crumbling lair.
• 100% Completion: Getting all 880 unique Moons makes the Odyssey's sail golden and unlocks a harder version of the final boss. Beating it will have a group photo of everyone appear after the credits. Getting 999 Moons puts a top hat on Peach's castle that gives a fireworks display, accompanied by an orchestrated version of the Level Clear fanfare from Super Mario Bros..
• Absurdly Short Level: The Cloud Kingdom and Ruined Kingdom. Each one is a Boss-Only Level at first, but they can be revisited afterwards for a few more Power Moons, and have Moon Rocks that can be broken in the post-game. Even after unlocking the extra content, they have a much smaller surface area and less total Moons than the full-fledged kingdoms, and lack unique Captures or regional coins/shops. While both areas have more Moons than the Darker Side, neither are a Marathon Level like it is.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: New Donk City has extensive sewers Mario must traverse to restore the city's power grid. The game's developers say that the city on the surface is the setting of the Donkey Kong arcade game, and the sewers, with their abundance of green pipes, are implied to be the setting of the Mario Bros. arcade game.
• Achievement System: Once you beat the final boss, you can talk to Toadette, who will add a list of achievements to the Power Moon List. As you complete the achievements, you can talk to Toadette to get Power Moons.
• Acrofatic: Unusually for the series, the game provides two characters who are significantly hindered by their weight.
  • Madame Broode, who mostly lets her pet Chain Chomp do the fighting, is too heavy to run after it for very long after Mario Captures it, giving him a chance to wind up and fling it into her face while she stops to take a breath.
  • Cookatiel is too chubby to hold her body up with her small wings after she's been hit a few times, so she loses energy and falls into the boiling stew below.
• Action Bomb: Trapeetles, enemies in the Lost Kingdom, will grab Cappy if he's thrown at them and wind up before slinging themselves forward with their legs. They'll keep flying forward at the same elevation, and explode when they hit something or after a few seconds flying through the air without hitting anything. The brochure describes it as a "tragic display seen absolutely nowhere else in nature".
• Added Alliterative Appeal: Stupendous Stew. Fossil Falls and Lake Lamode, for area names.
• Adventurer Outfit:
  • The Explorer Outfit and Explorer Hat combination bought in the Wooded Kingdom give Mario this look. Peach has one, too.
  • In the Lost Kingdom, you can buy the aviator version of this look, though the Steam Gardener roadblock looking for an explorer doesn't consider the outfit to count.
• Affably Evil:
  • Bowser. Yes, he kidnapped Peach with the intent of forcibly marrying her and is stealing all sorts of sacred treasures from around the world, but he's really going all out to prepare for his wedding with nothing but the best things. He also doesn't consider blackmailing Peach to go along with the wedding (like he did in "Do You, Princess Toadstool, Take This Koopa..?"), or straight-up brainwashing her (like what happened in Super Paper Mario and Super Mario Adventures). He's noticeably very upset when Peach rejects him and Mario in the game's ending.
  • Bowser also seems to be on good terms with Crazy Cap, as he allows them to set up a branch in his Kingdom and document it with a flyer.
• After the End:
  • The Ruined Kingdom, Crumbleden, was once a civilization that used its towering buildings to harness lightning. No one knows exactly why it was destroyed, but archaeologists theorize that was destroyed in a great battle against whatever the people used the lightning for, which is implied to be the dragon boss you fight. The world is a Boss-Only Level with 5 Power Moons and no local currency or NPCs to talk to.
  • The Crazy Cap flyer for Culmina Crater on the Darker Side of the Moon theorizes that this may be why the Moon Kingdom is uninhabited and sparse: The cataclysm that created this crater might have also annihilated the Moon Kingdom. Whatever the case, it's only intact structures are a chapel and a building seemingly based on New Donk City Hall. Rabbit Ridge seems to have been built and populated after the Moon Kingdom's demise.
• Airborne Mook: In addition to bringing back the Parabones from Super Mario 3D World and the series-perennial Paragoombas (and allowing Mario to capture both), the game introduces the Urban Stingbies (mosquito enemies found in Metro Kingdom and a part of Darker Side).
• Airplane Arms: When Mario hits his top speed while running, he outstretches his arms, like he did in Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Downplayed, because it's meant to be somewhat comedic, but at the end of the game, Bowser's (forced) wedding that he worked so hard on is completely ruined and he makes one final attempt to win over Peach, only for both him and Mario to be rejected due to their childish rivalry. Bowser is left in soft tears, and even Mario, his sworn enemy, comforts him.
• All the Worlds Are a Stage: The Darker Side of the Moon has parts with gameplay from every kingdom, although not in order.
• Always Check Behind the Chair: Getting some of the purple coins, and some of the power moons, tends to come down to this. A literal example is three purple coins behind Peach's throne in the Mushroom Kingdom.
• Ambiguously Human: No, not Mario, it's the other way around. The inhabitants of New Donk City are simply called "New Donkers", not "humans". Which is a bit suspect, since, if the inhabitants of a Kingdom have a proper name, they'll be called that in the brochure instead of a demonym, such as the Lochladies of Lake Lamode and the Toads.
• And Now You Must Marry Me: Bowser's goal in kidnapping Peach this time around is to force her to marry him.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes:
  • The prize for beating the Broodal tower in the Dark Side is the King's crown and outfit, and the prize for clearing Culmina Crater in the Darker Side is the Invisibility Hat.
  • The specialized Wedding amiibo give Mario early access to the wedding outfits worn by himself, Bowser, and Peach.
• Angrish: Successfully answering all of the Sphinx's questions leads to him shouting out a bunch of nonsense out of irritation that you've done so.
• Animate Inanimate Object:
  • The inhabitants of Bonneton are all hat-like ghosts: this includes Cappy, who possesses Mario's hat after Bowser stomps on it, and his sister Tiara, who is a living tiara.
  • The Luncheon Kingdom has living kitchen utensils.
  • Mario's Capture ability isn't limited to living things; he can also capture things like pylons, cars, and manholes, granting these things limited mobility while he inhabits them.
• Antepiece:
  • The primary Capture mechanic of the Cascade Kingdom is Chain Chomps, and its boss, Madame Broode, must be beaten by Capturing her own Chain Chomp pet.
  • Throughout the Sand Kingdom, several small round cacti can be found. Hitting them with Cappy will grant you coins, and if hit correctly, one can set off a domino reaction as the cacti hit the ones next to them in sequence. Even if you've managed to not hit any or never tried to use Cappy on one while playing through the kingdom, the game puts a large group of round cacti before the doorway to face Hariet, to make sure the player knows they can be hit. Why? Well, they're meant to teach the player that Hariet's visually-similar spiky round bombs can be dealt with the same way. In fact, if you've discovered that the cacti can be chained, you'll likely realize that the small bombs can be smacked into Hariet to unhat her, rather than you having to wait for her stronger attack to give you an opening, and they can also be used to cut her counterattack short by knocking a bomb up into her flying hat.
  • The primary Capture mechanic of the Sand Kingdom is Bullet Bills, and the boss, Knucklotec, is beaten by Capturing one of his rocket fists, which controls in the same way and punching him in the face with it.
  • The Lake Kingdom puts extra emphasis on the flower trampolines that have already appeared earlier, letting you know what to use its Broodal boss, Rango's, hats for when you attack them, as they have identical flowers inside.
  • The Wooded Kingdom's primary hazard is poison generated by Piranha Plants, which can be cleared by a toss of Cappy. This teaches you everything you need to know to deal with Spewart, the region's Broodal boss, as he uses poison to attack and keep Mario at a distance.
  • The Wooded Kingdom also features Uproots as the primary Capture, and their stretching ability and tough heads are needed to weaken and damage the boss, Torkdrift.
  • The Metro Kingdom's first story section has you Capturing Sherms, which you should learn pretty well, as they're your only means of taking down the Mechawiggler menacing the city.
  • The Seaside Kingdom's main Capture are Gushens, which are the only way to chase down the boss, Mollusque-Lanceur, and, for the first hit, are the only way to damage him (you can ground-pound his head for the next two hits, though Gushens are still needed to get in position to damage him). In the rematch, they're your only way to win, period, since you fight in the open sky and cannot exit the Capture and survive.
  • The main Capture of the Luncheon Kingdom is the Lava Bubble. Traversing the level as one will prepare you for the boss, Cookatiel, as you are forced to remain in one during the entire battle, and its unique "platform" abilities in lava are key to defeating her. If you've discovered the Lava Bubbles' ability to deal contact damage from playing in the level or even from the first hit of the fight, you might also figure out that you can hit Cookatiel while she's flying low and attacking to cut short the phase and get right to the lava-vomit that will give you a chance to climb up and attack.
  • Bowser's Kingdom focuses on Pokios' beak-climbing ability, teaching the player early that soft materials are climbable, and towards the end in a vertical section, that metal is not. The level also showcases that bombs break metal things, and that Pokios can redirect bombs by smacking them with its beak, both of which are required to get a Moon Shard for a mandatory Moon. The final boss of the area requires the player to attack its metal armor plating with bombs to break it and expose the climbable wood underneath, which can be scaled to attack the boss's weak points.
  • One Power Moon has a particularly tricky 2D stage; instead of being purely 2D, it involves moving screens that take Mario out of the stage if he reaches the border. To prepare the player for that, the stage starts out with a small screen with a slow moving background. And in the event that the player gets taken out of element, a small platform catches them, safely and quickly teaching them about the gimmick and its consequences.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • To compensate for the massive worlds, Mario has a map that he can use to warp to any checkpoint flags he's activated in a kingdom or back to the flag on the Odyssey's deck, allowing a quick way out of a kingdom.
  • Should Mario have to exit a Captured character, the character will be stunned temporarily so that he can recapture it once he's ready. If he takes too long, the character or enemy will disappear and respawn again at the exact spot they were found in, so it's easy to find them again. In places where you need them for something, they'll also respawn when killed.
  • No need to worry about slipping off a platform to serious damage when you land — Falling Damage is one notable feature this game does not take from Super Mario 64. The worst that can happen is Mario getting stunned for a few seconds by the impact, which can usually be canceled by throwing Cappy before landing.
  • There are three different hint systems in the game to prevent Guide Dang It!: the Hint Toad^note Marks your map with a Moon location for the price of 50 coins, Talkatoo^note Gives you the name of an uncollected Power Moon for free, and Uncle amiibo ^note A scanned amiibo will retrieve a location on the map after a few minutes.
  • Upon re-entering a challenge sublevel, Cappy will tell you whether or not there is still something there for you to do there, alerting players to the presence of uncollected purple coins or Power Moons, or sparing them wasted time searching through a cleared area. Some sublevels gain collectibles in the postgame, so Cappy will still tell you to look again. Also, as a rule, each sublevel has two Power Moons, which lets you know in itself whether you've cleared the area.
  • For the first time, Mario doesn't have lives and there are no game overs. Instead, you just lose 10 coins (which are super easy to get). Somehow ran out of coins? Don't worry, you'll just be sent back to the last place you exited.
  • Characters with a big turning circle (such as Bullet Bills) will, when captured, be able to freely pivot for the split second after capture, so you can always face them the way you want regardless of which way they were going before.
  • On that note, "free movement"-type captures like Bullet Bills and Cheep-Cheeps project a flashlight-like beam in the direction they face to help guide them with higher precision.
  • In the post-game, the player can buy infinite moons from Crazy Cap stores for 100 coins each. This allows players to see the 100% ending even if they just can't complete a certain mission.
  • Have an amiibo like Mario or Peach and are low on health? You can re-use them as many times as you want to continue to receive the bonus health. Very useful if you accidentally fall or get hit too many times with a bonus heart.
  • Capturing an underwater enemy removes the air meter, and leaving them refills it again. This means a player who's out of air can quickly capture a Cheep Cheep to refill their air supply.
  • Collected items do not have to be collected again when the player dies, including purple coins, fruits that Yoshi eats, or Moon shards gathered in levels. They still appear, but faded out, and give coins if collected again. This is especially nice in the platform-heavy sublevels, where death won't make you have to re-collect the items along the way on your next attempt to complete the section.
  • In the final Escape Sequence, hitting ZL or ZR won't boot you out of your capture like with other captured creatures so that you won't accidentally do so in the middle of all the frantic running, jumping, and smashing.
  • Hearts aren't the only things that heal Mario. Entering the Odyssey heals him to full health, as does touching previously-collected Moons. So if you're low on health and you don't know where a heart is, but you're nearby one of those, you're good. Even if you're not near the Odyssey, you can always warp to it and pop inside. This will not be possible during the initial run of the Lost Kingdom, however, as you need to collect Moons to repair it.
  • If you fail a boss too many times, a Crazy Cap employee will appear and offer to sell you a Life-Up Heart to give you more health during the fight.
  • Moons found by following Hint Art are listed as though they belong to the kingdom where you discover the hint, instead of the one where you actually collect the moon, as the Moons match the art's kingdom, like the Kingdoms have been hiding their own moons in other Kingdoms and leaving treasure maps for you. That way, you'll be reminded to look for the art in each kingdom to get clues, but this also means that you won't be told about those Moons by the hint systems if you're in the Kingdoms where they're actually found.
  • The region-specific purple coins in a Kingdom can total 50 or 100 depending on the size of said Kindgom, and because they're smaller collectibles, they're a bit trickier to find. Fortunately, the game makes the burden a little lighter, as the coins never appear alone — they're either in pairs or groups, which means there's no hunting around for one solitary coin that you just can't find. The groups make them easier to see and faster to collect.
  • You don't have to exit a Captured enemy to use a spark pylon — you'll just get transferred into it on contact. This can reduce any potential mishaps like bumping into the enemy after exiting or accidentally re-Capturing it instead of hitting the spark pylon when throwing Cappy.
  • During the postgame, each Kingdom has a moon rock that will release more Power Moons into the world. Perhaps as compensation for the new amount to collect, all of the Moons from a moon rock get automatically marked on the map.
  • If you find a Moon corresponding to a piece of Hint Art, the art will get a check mark on it, reminding the player that it's already been used and preventing them from checking and screenshotting pieces they forgot they used.
  • In the post-game, remembering which area each of the bosses' rematch paintings are found in could be confusing given that some are in identical structures and others are reached through pipes. To help, the game provides hints on the overworld. For the four identical towers, which contain rematch paintings of Knucklotec, Torkdrift, Mechawiggler, and Cookatiel, NPCs from the world the boss was fought in will stand next to the corresponding tower (e.g., Tostarenans are found next to the tower where Knucklotec's painting is kept, and New Donkers near the Mechawiggler's, etc.). For the other two, however, the hint is in the location. The aquatic boss Mollusque-Lanceur's rematch painting is fittingly reached by using the underwater pipe near Dorrie, and because the Ruined Dragon came from a castle civilization, its painting is reached by the pipe at the bottom of the castle moat.
• Aquatic Mook: In addition to featuring Cheep Cheeps in the water worlds, the game also introduces the Gushen. They are purple-colored creatures reminiscent of flapjack octopi that travel above the surface of coastal waters while being encased in their own bodies of water. When Mario possesses one with the help of Cappy, he can efficiently travel around the water and also propel upward to hover several meters in the air (similar to FLUDD's Hover Nozzle in Sunshine), though this will reduce the volume of the encasing body of water until Mario goes back to the sea's body to refill it.
• Arc Symbol:
  • Hats: Mario, Bowser, and the Broodals use them in combat, the Odyssey is shaped like a hat, the Cap Kingdom's inhabitants, airships, and buildings are all hat-shaped, many enemies and most NPCs have hats, the Insert Song mentions them, etc.
  • Moons: The main collectible in the game, the moon is visible in every kingdom (with a huge one hanging in the sky of the Cap Kingdom), the square in the Metro Kingdom has a big one on the ground, the Insert Song mentions the moon, the last level is on the moon, etc.
  • Within the Sand Kingdom, a certain face and fists appear everywhere in the carvings of the ancient structures. The end of the kingdom's story reveal that they are images of Knucklotec, the boss of the area and an implied god of the old civilization.
• Arc Welding: Downplayed. None of it really connects to the main plot, but the sheer number of Continuity Nods to previous games effectively tie together every 3D Mario game and the Donkey Kong series in a nice little bow, thus defying the series' usual adherence to Negative Continuity.
• Arc Words: Not in the main story, but the Brutal Bonus Level. It's "Thank You", shown by the massive crowd gathered to cheer you on and stated in the level by the Sphynx, some spark pylons, and at the very end, Cappy.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The fishing Lakitu's song concludes with him saying he'll fish "through poison, fire, or mold".
• Art Evolution:
  • Mario's overalls are a bit more detailed than they have been in previous games, though nowhere near Super Smash Bros. Brawl levels. His hair, eyebrows, and mustache are also made up of visible, individual hairs, when they used to be simply solid blocks of color.
  • Trailers shown in the September 2017 Nintendo Direct show how polished the game became since E3 2017. For example, character models were more detailed and full of life, Peach especially.
• Artistic License – Chemistry: As cool as the idea of the Seaside Kingdom’s carbonated ocean sounds, it wouldn't work in real life, because carbonation requires an airtight container.
• Art Shift: The various Kingdoms have very different art styles from each other and most Mario games in general, creating this effect.
• Ascended Extra: Toadette makes her second appearance in a main Mario game (the first being Super Mario Run, and not counting her very brief cameo in Super Mario Galaxy). Due to her main role in Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, she's now a member of the Toad Brigade, who also make their typical appearance.
• Ash Face: Mario ends up covered in soot if something blows up in his face or sets him on fire. It lingers for a bit before fading away.
• Asian Lion Dogs: The Jaxis from the Sand Kingdom resemble an Egyptian-themed version of this, being statues of lion-like beings with teeth permanently bared in a snarl and "wearing" loosely pharaonic headdresses. You'll only find one that moves and talks, but that one refers to the statues as his family.
• Astral Finale: The final area in the game is the Moon Kingdom. By extension, the Brutal Bonus Level takes place on the moon as well.
• Attack Its Weak Point: If you come up against a Stairface Ogre while capturing a Pokio, Cappy will suggest attacking it in the glowing spot on its head. Poking said spot with the Pokio's nose causes the Ogre to explode the same way it would if it took a Ground Pound.
• Autobots, Rock Out!: The final leg of the post-final-boss Escape Sequence is accompanied by an upbeat, inspirational rock song.
• Automatic New Game: The first time you start the game, you're asked if you want to play on Normal or Assist Mode before going into the opening cutscene. Subsequent startups include the title screen.
• Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: The content ratings of Super Mario Odyssey are higher than usual for the series; it has a B rating (ages 12 and up) in Japan, a PEGI 7 rating in Europe, a PG rating in Australia, and an E10 rating in North America. While the content of the game is largely the same as other Mario games, the game heavily advertises its "realistic" elements such as the Tyrannosaurus rex and has a few very bleak stages with nightmarishly-designed bosses. The most likely intent was to market Odyssey as a "cool adventure game" — just as the creators always intended for Mario to be — and to give it more immediately obvious appeal to older audiences as well as kids (not that Mario wasn't an "all-ages" franchise in the first place).

B

• Badass in a Nice Suit:
  • Mario can wear a dandy white wedding outfit.
  • Bowser's wedding uniform is a white suit and top hat. Mario can purchase one to wear himself (differentiated from his outfit mainly by the spiky turtle shell on the back).
  • If you return to Cap Kingdom, you can purchase a black tuxedo and top hat from the local Crazy Cap.
  • Once you get to the Metro Kingdom, you can buy Mario a black pinstripe suit and matching hat.
  • Updates later added the options to buy the suit Pauline's backup musicians wear and (of all things) the various Broodals' suits. Including Hariet's, complete with heels.
• Bait-and-Switch: The first two trailers for the game start off looking like something else entirely before revealing that it's a Mario game.
  • The initial reveal trailer starts off with a pan across a realistic cityscape before panning down to a wiggling manhole; Mario hops out to begin the trailer proper. The only tip-off before Mario's appearance is that the various advertisements in the city are references to Donkey Kong.
  • The E3 2017 trailer begins with a picturesque landscape that's interrupted by a ferocious and realistic-looking T. rex. It isn't until we see a familiar red hat on its head that we learn it's really Mario, with the entire scene serving as a hint towards the capture mechanic that's properly introduced later in the trailer. Many commentators, upon first seeing the T. rex, ended up mistaking the trailer as one for Monster Hunter until they saw Mario's cap on its head.
  • Extending from that, several scenes are deliberately edited to remove plot details in the earliest trailers. The reveal trailer hides the existence of Cappy until the very end, showing Mario to be wearing his normal cap in several gameplay moments. Also, Tiara wasn't revealed at all until the September trailer.
  • Before the game's release, a number of early reviews promised the game would change the status quo. This is true to a point, as while Mario does finally attempt to ask for Peach's hand in marriage, him and Bowser fighting results in Peach rejecting both of them out of frustration, ultimately preserving the status quo. Edge Magazine in particular also promised a significant post-game role for Peach that would leave fans surprised, which turned out to be her simply showing up in the lands as an NPC alongside Tiara and handing out Moons.
• Balloonacy: Luigi is held aloft by a balloon on his back. As the player's rank in Balloon World increases, he attaches more balloons to a maximum of four.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: No one seems to have any difficulty breathing on the Moon. A spacesuit is available in Crazy Cap, but given how the dog on the moon wears just a helmet with no trouble, it's more than likely just cosmetic. Further supporting this is the fact that the textures of said Crazy Cap spacesuit makes it look like it's made of cloth. Of course, this isn't the only time Mario and his friends have been to space without spacesuits. However, the Astro-Lanceur enemies seem to avert this, wearing bubble helmets with a breathing apparatus. The Ground Pound symbol on their helmet texture lets you know what to do, and the animation of shattering glass drives home that Mario has killed them merely by breaking their helmets, and not by the usual effect of such an attack.
• Battle in the Rain:
  • The Mechawiggler in New Donk City is fought in a thunderstorm.
  • The rematch battle against Mollusque-Lanceur is in a rainstorm, because this time there isn’t a floor, meaning Mario needs to use water jets to stay aloft but also doesn’t have anywhere to get it; pausing for a second or two lets the rain refill his supply.
• Battle Theme Music: Every regular boss has its own theme, while the Broodals (who are minibosses) share one. Madame Broode plays a stylized remix of her fellows' track, Knucklotec plays a theme that has strong Mayincatec vibes, Torkdrift plays a techno-inspired theme, Mechawiggler plays a theme reminiscent of the jazz-styled soundtrack of 3D World, Mollusque-Lanceur plays a French-inspired theme, Cookatiel plays a quirky track reminiscent of the Paper Mario series, the Ruined Dragon plays a very somber, ominous track, Robobrood plays a track that has a strong Japanese vibe (and includes Variable Mix for when the boss is incapacitated), and Bowser has once again two battle themes, with the first being based on Autobots, Rock Out! and the second on Orchestral Bombing.
• Big Applesauce: "New Donk City" of the Metro Kingdom is New York in all but name.
• Big Boo's Haunt: The Cap Kingdom/Bonneton is a gloomy London-esque area inhabited by the ghostly Bonneters. It's a rare non-scary example, as said ghosts are universally on your side.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: The Urban Stingbies are mosquito relatives of the Stingbies (the bees from Super Mario 3D World), and come in two forms: Larval and adult. They attack by charging at Mario and exploding when hitting him or a solid wall.
• The Big Rotten Apple: New Donk City mid-Bowser attack adopts most of the traits on the trope page, being overrun with crime (abundance of Sherm enemies), infestations (Urban Stingbies also serve as enemies while rats are just part of the environment), and pollution (the New Donk City Power Plant below is full of Poison Pirahna Plants and is mostly full of poison). Post-invasion, the city is in a much better state.
• Big "SHUT UP!": In the ending when Peach is cornered by Mario and Bowser fighting over who she should propose to, she shouts, "ENOUGH!" to shut them up before rejecting them both.
• Bilingual Bonus: Many of the lanterns decorating Bowser's Castle read "寿空覇" ("kotobuki kuppa"), which can be translated as "Long live Bowser". The characters used to represent Bowser's Japanese name 空覇 (normally pronounced "kūha") translates to "sky conqueror".
• Bittersweet Ending: The day, and Peach, is saved, and Mario's about to pop the question, but, due to Mario and Bowser fighting for her hand, Peach decides there should be No Romantic Resolution and rejects both of their proposals, breaking their hearts. She does, however, call out to the both of them for a ride back to the Mushroom Kingdom on the Odyssey, which Mario is able to board at the last second, although Bowser isn't as lucky.
• Black Comedy:
  • After defeating Cookatiel, it falls into the stew arena and gets cooked alive, and the people at Mount Volbono remark that the stew is "chewier" and "stewier".
  • In the Steam Gardens, one of the steam gardeners will talk about how the Steam Gardens are objectively superior to all other regions, as several others cheer. The signifigance being that the Wooded Kingdom is based on the forests of Germany. That's right; extreme German patriotism; they seriously went there.
• Bleak Level: The game features the Ruined Kingdom, a derelict land of crumbling Gothic towers covered in fog and swarming with bats. The boss of the level, the Ruined Dragon (also called the Lord of Lightning), is a frightening and abnormally realistic-looking dragon the size of a Kaiju and implied to be responsible for destroying the kingdom in a Great Offscreen War. The Kingdom and the Dragon look much more like something from Dark Souls than something from a Super Mario Bros. game.
• Blinded by the Sun: Cappy will warn the player not to look directly at the sun this if they attempt to while using the Binoculars.
• Body Surf: The main mechanic of the game, referred to as Capturing, lets you possess and control others with Cappy. You can control Goombas and Hammer Bros., Bullet Bills, taxis, frogs, Lava Bubbles, binoculars, trees, dinosaurs, and even other people. The only limitation is that he can't possess anyone that's wearing a hat.
• Bookends:
  • Mario's first and last Captures in the main story feature Mario traveling through the mind of the entity he's Capturing.
  • Mario's first Capture (in the Cap Kingdom) and his last Capture (in the Darker Side of the Moon) is a frog.
• Boss-Arena Idiocy: Torkdrift, Mechawiggler, Brigadier Mollusque-Lanceur III, and the RoboBrood all have enemies spawn in their arenas that can be Captured and used against them.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: The Yoo-foe enemies that appear in the postgame in some Kingdoms. They're encountered in the open world like any other enemy and can easily be avoided and don't force you to fight them, and have no cutscenes, but they have an alternating attack pattern, are harder to defeat, taking two hits and usually requiring Captures provided by them (Goombas) or the area (an Uproot in the Steam Gardens), and they give better rewards, with two granting Power Moons and a third giving a Life-Up Heart. The one in the Wooded Kingdom even earns one of the Kingdom's more intense music tracks while it's present.
• Boss-Only Level: The Cloud Kingdom and Ruined Kingdom are extremely small levels that only serve as boss arenas in the main story. There are additional moons to collect if you return to these locations, but far less than any other Kingdom. The Moons in these locations also sport the generic yellow color shared with other lesser/minor locations.
• Boss Rush: Located at The Dark Side of the Moon, where you fight the Broodals again, all in a row, with no checkpoints and no healing in between. If that weren't enough, they're a lot tougher this time around.
• Bottomless Pits: The game features areas that counts as bottomless pits. There are some fake ones as well like in Wooded Kingdom.
• Bowdlerise: Pre-release versions of the box art featured a shot of Mario wearing the Sombrero/Poncho outfit in the Sand Kingdom. The final box art replaced it with a shot of Mario swimming around with the Swim Goggles/Swimwear in the Lake Kingdom to avoid portraying Mexican stereotypes.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • This is the first main series Mario platformer to lack a proper Big Boo's Haunt level since Super Mario Bros. 3^note Though there are some e-cards that contain haunted house levels for that game's World-e in the GBA remake. The closest thing to come to this territory is the Cap Kingdom, and even then, the ghosts that reside there are friendly, with Boos being absent from the game entirely.
  • The game does away with Video-Game Lives, a staple of Mario platformers since Donkey Kong. Losing a life only results in a ten-coin penalty and loss of a life-up heart if you had one.
  • The game departs from the mission-by-mission (or, in the case of 3D Land and 3D World, level-by-level) format that has been characteristic in all previous 3D games, meaning that you won't leave a world upon collecting a Plot Coupon; even the story-related Power Moons keep you in the current world.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In demos played in New Donk City, uniting all four of the Super Mario Players and getting the quest to turn on the Underground Power Plant allows you to get a unique piece of dialogue; a taxi is parked on the manhole that leads to the plant, and a nearby New Donker will tell you that "We'll have to wait for the full game to go any further."
• Brick Joke: In the postgame, you Capture binoculars to spot the Sphynx flying through the air on an airship sail in the kingdoms where it otherwise wasn't present, and zooming in and looking for a few seconds will get you a Power Moon. Later, the Sphynx's bonus quiz on the Moon will ask how he got there, with the correct answer being "on an airship sail", which you should have learned from those binocular views.
• Brutal Bonus Level: The Darker Side of the Moon, which is a very long and difficult level during which Mario has to use a lot of Captures masterfully. On top of that, it requires a whopping 500 Moons to access. However, compared to previous entries, it is very generous with health, and some sections can be outright skipped if you know how to play it right.
• Build Like an Egyptian: Unlike the majority of Mario games with desert worlds, Odyssey plays with the trope. The Sand Kingdom has pyramids as a reference to the pre-Columbian (Aztec, Toltec and Mayan) architecture, since that level was inspired by Mexico instead of Egypt.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Pauline from the Donkey Kong/Mario vs. Donkey Kong series makes her main series debut here.
  • Dorrie makes his first appearance since New Super Mario Bros. back in 2006.
  • Donkey Kong himself. No... not him, but his grandfather. The original Arcade Ape appears in the 2-D Festival in New Donk City and later in a 2D section of the Post-End Game Content.
  • Klepto, who hadn't appeared in a mainline Mario game since Super Mario 64, returns in Odyssey to steal Mario's hat in the Lost Kingdom.
  • As well as characters, some game mechanics return after a long absence, such as a trampoline flower and a boss alluding to the Spindrifts last seen in Super Mario 64 and the diving attack last seen in Super Mario Sunshine.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • The Broodals come off as this. They manage to complete their objectives of gathering the wedding items, but they constantly fail to kill Mario and end up beaten by him three times in a row, even while using a giant robot. The post-game reveals that their failure to stop Mario from ruining the wedding has ruined their reputation and thus NOBODY will ever hire them again.
  • To a lesser extent, Mario himself. He gets the crap beaten out of him by Bowser in the first 25 seconds of the intro, gets his beloved hat shredded to pieces, fails to stop the Broodals from making off with the stolen wedding items, suffers Amusing Injuries several times. Oh, and at the end of the game, he lets his impulsiveness get the best of him, which leads to his attempt to proposing to Peach (which he likely planned for a long time) completely going down the drain. At least he's now finally seen as a world-class hero for his actions, and even gets a replacement cap if the postcard you get by beating the harder version of the Bowser fight in the Moon Kingdom is any indication.

C

• Cake Toppers: Bowser's cake doesn't just have him and Peach, but a few Piranha Plant bouquets as well.
• Calacas: Tostarenans in the Sand Kingdom are colorful skeletons wearing ponchos and sombreros, often seen carrying maracas.
• Call-Back:
  • Pauline, Mario's original love interest from Donkey Kong, is back here as the mayor of New Donk City. She has a new outfit for this role (for the festival segment she dons her usual dress) in the form of a pantsuit, though she still has her usual high heels on with it.
  • In the Mushroom Kingdom, the Super Leaf tree from Super Mario 3D Land makes a cameo.
• The Cameo:
  • The silhouettes that represent the many minigames look like hat-wearing Game & Watch figures.
  • Some of the hidden Hint Art features Poochy from the Yoshi's Island games finding Power Moons. He makes a physical appearance in Bowser's Castle, where a captured Lakitu fishes him up instead of a Cheep Cheep to get a Power Moon.
  • The conspicuously absent Bloopers and Boos, as well as the Fire Flower, appear respectively on Peach's fan, mask, and kimono in Bowser's Kingdom.
• Cast from Money: Capturing a Coin Coffer lets you shoot Coins out of its mouth, in either single shots with the Y button or in a radial spread by shaking the Joycon. Each Coin you fire off depletes your Coin count by 1.
• Central Theme:
  • A journey to an unknown world. This game sees Mario leaving the Mushroom Kingdom to pursue Bowser around various kingdoms across the globe. This extends to Capturing, which allows Mario to see the world through the perspective of various objects and creatures, including enemies and the realistic humans.
  • Hats and caps. Throwing and using Mario's cap is a mechanic, his Odyssey airship is in a shape of a hat, and nearly every revealed character has a unique hat. The enemies have different hats in each world, the NPCs in areas like New Donk City and Tostarena wear appropriate headgear, and even animals like rabbits and birds wear tiny caps!
  • The Moon. It's visible in every Kingdom Mario visits (though not necessarily all the time), Mario collects Power Moons, the Odyssey's sails resemble phases of the Moon, getting fuller with each segment assembled, and in every cutscene that ends with Bowser's Airship, it's going in roughly the direction of the Moon in the sky. This all leads to the climactic wedding itself being set on the Moon, as well as the Boss Rush and Brutal Bonus Level.
• Character in the Logo: Cappy, in the form of Mario's hat, appears in the game's logo.
• Chase Stops at Water: If you throw Cappy at the dog in the Seaside Kingdom, it'll chase Mario around to return the hat, but if you get into the water, the dog gives up the chase and Cappy simply flies back to you.
• Checkpoint: The Checkpoint Flag that debuted in the New Super Mario Bros. games and appeared in the 3D games from Super Mario Galaxy 2 onwards makes another return appearance here, though they function less as checkpoints, and more as landmarks. While you will respawn at the last one you touched (and you can touch a flag any time you want to set your respawn to that point), their more useful function is letting you warp to one on the map after you've activated them.
• Checkpoint Starvation: Checkpoints become a lot less frequent in the post-game locations. Of note are Rabbit Ridge and Culmina Crater, whose main challenges have no checkpoints at all.
• Chekhov's Gun: The mysterious, metal-like cuboid stones found in each Kingdom. They don't appear to do anything at first, and Cappy wonders what their purpose is. They're Moon Rocks. In the post-game, the Rocks become active, and when interacted with, cause several new Power Moons to appear across the Kingdom before disappearing.
• City Noir: When you arrive at New Donk City, it's dark and raining, with Sherms and Urban Stingby enemies looking for trouble. This lasts until you defeat the first boss, after which the city becomes vibrant and populated.
• Clamshell Currency: The purple coins in Bubblaine are shaped like scallops.
• Climax Boss:
  • At roughly the halfway point of the game, Bowser intercepts the Odyssey en route to the Metro Kingdom, initiating a battle. Following the fight, he shoots down the Odyssey, sending Mario to the Lost Kingdom.
  • The Ruined Dragon is a surprise encounter that begins a three-part endgame, alongside the RoboBrood and the final battle with Bowser himself.
• Clothing Appendage: The Lochladies have scales and fins in the shape of a dress.
• Clothing Damage:
  • Mario's hat is shredded in Bowser's ship engine in the prologue, which prompts Cappy to retrieve it and find Mario.
  • Bowser's tuxedo explodes when Mario knocks him out in his final boss fight.
• Cold Open: The game's logo doesn't appear until after defeating Topper for the first time and clearing the Cap Kingdom.
• Collapsing Lair: Bowser's base on the Moon starts to fall apart following his boss battle, forcing Mario to Capture the unconscious Bowser and high-tail it out of there with Peach on his shoulder.
• Color Contrast: Most of the Power Moons contrast with the overall color scheme of the kingdoms they are in, to help make them stand out and to follow the game's themes of contrasts. Luncheon Kingdom has cyan Moons against the pink lava and surroundings, Snow Kingdom has orange Moons against the white snow and light blue ice, Sand Kingdom has green Moons against the red sands, Wooden Kingdom's blue Moons stick out in both the greenery and the orange metal, and so on.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The Power Moons and the poles on Checkpoint Flags are colored differently for each kingdom, as follows:
  • Cap Kingdom / Cascade Kingdom / Cloud Kingdom / Lost Kingdom / Ruined Kingdom / Dark Side / Darker Side: Yellow
  • Sand Kingdom: Green
  • Lake Kingdom: Pink
  • Wooded Kingdom: Dark Blue
  • Metro Kingdom: Bronze
  • Snow Kingdom: Orange
  • Seaside Kingdom: Purple
  • Luncheon Kingdom: Cyan
  • Bowser's Kingdom: Bright Red
  • Moon Kingdom: Light Yellow
  • The Mushroom Kingdom uses the golden Power Stars in lieu of Power Moons.
• Commonplace Rare: Power Moons are given out as prizes for races, as gifts, and one has even been buried in garbage in New Donk City, meaning they're of minimal importance to anyone but Mario in comparison to the public value of Power Stars or Shine Sprites in their games. Speaking of New Donk City, they use a near-infinite supply of Power Moons as energy for the entire city!
• Continue Your Mission, Dammit!: When you're approaching an encounter with Bowser, Cappy will prevent you from backtracking, forcing you to move on to the next kingdom. Also, if you attempt to do the Sphinx riddle prior to the final showdown, it'll insist you've got better things to do at the moment. He also discourages you from backtracking from the Metro Kingdom the first time you visit it and the Moon Kingdom, but allows you to anyway so you can pick up any Moons you've missed.
• Continuity Cavalcade: There are actually four in the game:
  • New Donk City is littered with references to the Donkey Kong series, including Donkey Kong Country.
  • At the start of the festival mission in the Metro Kingdom, one of the NPCs near the entry pipe mentions that the festival tells the story of the city's beginnings. As the mission takes place within a multi-sectioned 2D sprite zone that is one long send-up to Donkey Kong, it's really telling the origins of Mario himself.
  • Mario's closet will eventually become this, as most of Mario's outfits are direct references to older games, promotional materials, and other characters in the Mario and Donkey Kong franchises.
    • Black Tuxedo and Hat = Box art for Super Mario All-Stars and official art for◊ Mario Paint.
    • Caveman = 1993 German Club Nintendo comic "Super Mario: Verloren in der Zeit"
    • Sombrero and Poncho = the Game Boy version of Qix
    • Cowboy and Pirate = Costumes from Mario Party 2
    • Swimwear = 2016 Club Nintendo calendar◊
    • Explorer = Manual art from Mario's Picross
    • Scientist = 1994 Dutch commercial for the Super Game Boy
    • Builder = Super Mario Maker^note Some feel it can also be considered a reference to Wrecking Crew, where he wore a similar outfit.
    • Golf = NES Open Tournament Golf
    • Chef = Yoshi's Cookie
    • Painter = Mario Paint and Mario Artist
    • Samurai = Super Mario Run promotional artwork
    • Hakama = 2016 Club Nintendo calendar
    • Mario 64 and Metal Mario = Super Mario 64
    • Fashionable Outfit = 2014 Japanese commercial for New Nintendo 3DS featuring Kyary Pamyu Pamyu
    • Mechanic = Manual art from Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally
    • Classic = Donkey Kong
    • Doctor = Dr. Mario
    • Gold = New Super Mario Bros. 2
    • Pilot (helmet only) = Manual art from Super Mario Land ^note In the Super Mario Land manual art, he otherwise just wore his standard shirt and overalls. The suit was created for Super Mario Odyssey.
    • Space Suit = Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
    • Sunshine Shades and Outfit = Mario's unlockable outfit from Super Mario Sunshine
    • Baseball Uniform = The color scheme is likely a reference to the Seattle Mariners, a team that Nintendo of America holds stock in
    • Satellaview Outfit = Japanese TV commercial for the Satellaview service
    • Zombie Outfit = Zombie Wario from Wario Land II, 3, and4
  • When Mario Captures Bowser during the final stretch, images of his boss battles from previous games briefly flash by while Mario is within his mind, with the original NES title, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and Super Mario 64, followed by images of Bowser's scenes from Odyssey.
  • The Mushroom Kingdom as a whole is a reference to several games, especially Super Mario 64. The boss fight rematches are accessed via paintings, with the same jingle as the Nintendo 64 installment, a number of Power Moons are accessed by doing similar actions (such as looking at the ceiling from the sun tile in the castle lobby), the purple coins are the familiar star coins, and the Power Moons and accompanying jingle are replaced by 64's Power Stars and jingle. Two of these stars are also located in the courtyard, which is rendered identically to its low-poly appearance in 64 and can only be accessed by wearing the 64 costume, which makes Mario appear identical to his model in that game. There are mushrooms with the color palettes of the original Super Mushrooms, modern 1-Up Mushrooms, and Mini Mushrooms. The Tail Tree from Super Mario 3D Land appears as well. Meanwhile, the area reached by the secret painting in the Luncheon Kingdom is Yoshi's house, with the original appearance now translated into 3D. Finally, Toadette appears in her attire from Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In the Luncheon Kingdom, Mario can pick up and carry turnips much like in Super Mario Bros. 2.
  • Micro Goombas are a bright yellow color, resembling their appearance in the NES version of Super Mario Bros. 3.
  • Isle Delfino is visible here on one of the maps used in promotional materials, down to the dolphin shape and the Pinna Park island amusement park, next to the Mushroom Kingdom.
  • Platforming challenges in the vein of Super Mario Sunshine's FLUDD-less missions return, only this time they're, naturally, Cappy-less missions.
  • The way Mario holds his outstretched hand when collecting a Power Moon can either be a V-Sign (64), an open palm (Sunshine), or an outstretched fist (Galaxy).
  • The Gushens that are capturable in the Seaside Kingdom play similarly to FLUDD's hover nozzle, and you can even use them to clean up lava-like goop.
  • As in Super Mario 64, Yoshi can be found on the roof of Peach's castle.
  • The City Tripper from Mario Kart 8 (or if you prefer, the Sugarscoot/Bon-Bon from Mario Kart Wii) appears in the game, with a new color scheme.
  • There are a couple of 8-bit missions that utilize Gravity Screw mechanics similar to the Super Mario Galaxy games: one of these in the Moon Kingdom even has "Galaxy" in the name of its moons.
  • The poison goop in Wooded Kingdom is similar to the goop in Super Mario Sunshine. It hurts Mario if he touches it and covers his entire body if he does. It can be cleaned up with the help of Cappy and can even be spat out by certain Piranha Plants. The similarities are stronger in the Seaside Kingdom, where you use Gushen enemies (who behave much like F.L.U.D.D.'s nozzles) to spray away some molten goo in one section.
  • In addition to the beachy setting, goop, and FLUDD-like Gushens, the Seaside Kingdom's boss is fought out on the open map without a defined arena, which resembles the redux fight against Petey Piranha and the fights against Phantamanta and Wiggler in Sunshine.
  • Besides the Gushens, the Rocket Flowers also work a lot like Sunshine's Turbo Nozzle, minus the ability to stop at will. Seemingly to highlight the similarity, there's a downhill ramp-jumping challenge course using Rocket Flowers that's very similar to a secret Shine Sprite course requiring the Turbo Nozzle in Sunshine.
  • Poochy being found in a sea of poison isn't too outlandish, since he's been known to No-Sell any possible hazard in existence in his home series, including lava.
  • One particular Power Moon requires making use of a classic trick. In Peach's Castle, standing on the sun carpet and using First-Person View to look at the ceiling will cause a Power Star to appear. This is the same trick in Super Mario 64 used to access the hidden Tower of the Wing Cap.
  • The Mushroom Kingdom is surrounded by grasslands, but if you look far enough out to the horizon in one direction, you can see a desert. Desert-themed worlds are typically the second world after the grasslands in most Mario games.
  • In New Donk City you can find a hat, umbrella, and purse modelled after those same bonus point items from Donkey Kong. It'll even play the same "points" sound effect from that game the first time you pick them up, and you can return them to Pauline to earn a Power Moon.
  • In the Mushroom Kingdom, there is exactly one tree that has a Tanooki tail. If you get Mario onto the right part of the branch, Mario will sit down on it the same way he does in the opening cutscene of 3D Land.
  • The currency in the Moon Kingdom is referred to as "Star Bit-esque". Likewise, the currency in the Mushroom Kingdom looks nearly identical to a purple version of the coins from Super Mario 64 and are referred to as "64-esque".
  • The Jizo statues in Bowser's Kingdom look exactly like the statues Mario can turn into using the Tanooki suit, including the scarf from Super Mario 3D Land.
  • At the end of the credits, :you can hear Mario say, "Thank you so much for playing my game!", which he also said at the end of the credits for Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy.
  • After the credits, it cuts to Mario sleeping in the Mushroom Kingdom, with Cappy suggesting that their trip to the Moon Kingdom was All Just a Dream. Mario then immediately wakes up, and Cappy states that it's a good thing that it wasn't.
  • You can refight bosses by jumping into their paintings in the Mushroom Kingdom. It even plays "Game Start" from Super Mario 64!
  • During the New Donk City Festival, Pauline does her animation from Donkey Kong during the chorus.
  • The tourist binoculars, and with them, the ability to zoom in on interesting distant things to get rewards, return from 3D Land, though here, the binoculars are a new design and accessed by Capturing.
• Convection, Schmonvection: The Luncheon Kingdom plays this completely straight. Not only does it follow the typical Mario logic of no-contact proximity being harmless, but it's actually cooler than the Sand Kingdom according to their brochures, and Mario can dress down to be more comfortable. Next to lava. But in the Sand Kingdom, nothing allows Mario to be cool enough to fall asleep outside.
• Cool Airship:
  • Mario travels around the world in an airship named the Odyssey that's shaped like a hat and has a huge sail on top, which gets more sail panels the more collected Power Moons from the different Kingdoms the Odyssey travels to. By the time the Odyssey gets to the Moon Kingdom, the sail is now a glowing yellow hot air balloon envelope.
  • Bowser is shown to have an airship whose colors match his outfit.
• Cool Crown: Tiara, Cappy's sister, is being used as a bridal substitution for Peach's crown.
• Co-Op Multiplayer: Building on the 2-player modes from Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel, Odyssey lets a second player assist Mario by taking control of Cappy, who then floats above Mario's head instead of sitting on it. With the ability to fly freely around Mario (even while Capturing), a second player greatly simplifies many of the actions, especially against enemies and bosses that require multiple hits in a row. The first player can still throw Cappy when the second isn't using him.
• Cosmetic Award: In addition to clothes and Power Moons, Crazy Cap sells stickers and souvenirs that Mario decks out the interior and exterior of the Odyssey with.
• Crate Expectations: The game uses wooden crates to hide coins, small hideouts, and on rare occasions Power Moons. Fortunately, Cappy can be thrown to break them.
• Creator In-Joke: According to the tie-in artbook, one Nintendo employee tasked with designing the Ruined Dragon's appearance and boss fight would often say "ああー疲れた…" ("Ah, I'm so tired..."), due to the difficulty of their task. That quote would become that character's only line of dialogue, worded exactly the same as the designer's phrase — but from an outsider's perspective, you probably wouldn't be able to tell that there was even an In-Joke at all, given that it makes sense when it's said in-context.
• Creepy Centipedes: One of the bosses is the Mechawiggler, a massive robotic Wiggler, only far less cute.
• Critical Annoyance: When Mario is down to a single point of health, a buzzing alert will sound (it will sound the first time you fall to one point, then sound whenever Mario is standing still until his health is raised higher than one).
• Cumulonemesis: Ty-Foos, the gigantic cloud enemies from Super Mario 3D World that blow gusts of wind at Mario, reappear in this game and can be captured by Mario to blow enemies and wooden blocks away.
• Cuteness Proximity: One of the Lochladies from the Lake Kingdom loves Cheep Cheeps, and will reward you if you bring her one.
  Lochlady: CLOSE-RANGE CUTENESS! I can hardly stand the adorability!

D

• Darker and Edgier: The game is just as optimistic and cheery as most other Mario games, but returns to the "cool, epic adventure" vibe of Super Mario Galaxy and takes it even further, with a number of "realistic" elements that are deliberately out of place in a Mario game but make the game feel more complex and daring. Some of the bosses and levels, such as Mechawiggler and the Ruined Dragon and their respective stages, are very much this, and bring a feeling of darkness and despair. The game's content ratings are also higher than usual for the series, being E10+ as opposed to the usual E.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Rather than losing Video-Game Lives, if Mario dies, he simply loses a small amount of coins that he can regain if he makes it back to where he died (unless he fell into a Bottomless Pit or similar hazard). Additionally, you can't even get a Game Over either — you still respawn even if you have no coins left.
• Death Is Cheap: Literally. When Mario dies, he loses 10 coins and goes back to the last checkpoint.
• Death Throws: The first sandbox-style game to apply this, with Mario getting thrown off the screen at the vertical coordinate relative to his current position (making this the first truly 3D example) if he either loses all his health or touches poison water.
• Demoted to Extra: After having been playable in the previous four 3D games, Luigi is relegated to being the host of a balloon-collecting minigame that's only available in the post-game.
• Descriptiveville: Almost every greater location follows the Mushroom Kingdom pattern of "defining characteristic/theme + Kingdom".
• Deuteragonist: Mario's new sentient hat, Cappy, plays a major role in the game and has more of a presence than previous power-up sidekicks in the 3D games.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • While jumping off several types of friendly NPCs, Mario does not stomp on them, like he would an enemy. He instead vaults off of them, using his hands. Strangely, though, this does not apply to every friendly NPC; you can stomp on Toads and Bonneters, and most of the other "cartoony" NPCs, all you'd like.
  • Unlike previous games, performing a Ground Pound over an upright Pipe or Rolling into a sideways Pipe will now cause Mario to fall/roll into the Pipe respectively instead of performing his normal Pipe animation, accompanied by a sped-up Pipe sound effect. This detail was later retroactively added to Super Mario 3D World by way of its Nintendo Switch port.
  • If the player is skilled enough to reach certain out-of-the-way areas, the developers reward them with large coin caches. Speaking of coin caches, while most normal coins will respawn whenever you teleport or re-enter an area, coin caches respawn with a reduced number of coins, to discourage players from grinding the same cache of coins over and over again. The same is true for the hidden 8-Bit Luigis added in the update, as they'll give you 200 coins when first found, but only 10 when uncovered again.
  • When Mario's standing near Source Music, he dances to it. He's actually dancing in time to the music, and using the in-game Sound Test to override the music reveals that he'll dance in time to every song.
  • If Mario is in water that's above his waist, he won't lie down and fall asleep. He'll just keep yawning and doing exercises.
  • During the battle against Brigadier Mollusque-Lanceur III, the player can enter a 2D section and hear an 8-bit version of his song, even though the battle doesn't involve 2D sections. However, because this isn't intuitive, you won't need to do so to unlock the track on the music list — it comes with the regular battle theme.
  • In the final battle, Bowser will comment on whatever costume Mario has on at the moment, such as complimenting him if he has the wedding outfit on or accusing him of trying to scare him if he has the Clown costume.
  • During the boss battles, their prefaces, the Klepto chases, and Culmina Crater, Mario will not go through any of his idle animations, to show how focused and determined he is.
  • It's possible to skip many of the game's story missions and boss fights by collecting enough Power Moons to leave the kingdoms early. Doing this before encountering Bowser in the Sand Kingdom results in a unique cutscene, in which his airship leaves the Inverted Pyramid.
  • Talking to Luigi while wearing certain outfits, such as the wedding suit, the same outfits Bowser is scared by, or the Luigi outfit, will yield some extra dialogue from him.
  • A number of kingdoms have scattered seeds that must be put in pots and then let time pass to allow them to grow. In the Seaside Kingdom, you can instead water them with a Gushen to make them grow much faster — "Flowers need water to grow".
  • The developers thought ahead with some of the costume-locked Power Moons, so trying out things like a skeleton costume to party like a Tostarenan or wearing a Satellaview suit for a Lochlady wanting to see a spaceman will still work. Not all of them have alternatives, but there are some costumes which aren't hinted at that will still work for the NPC characters.
  • When fighting Topper, the obvious way to damage him is to knock off his hats with Cappy and then jump on his head. However, it's also possible to damage him by jumping on his back while he spins facedown on the ground to sweep the arena with his stacked hats. If you do this to finish him off, he'll still be wearing his hat in his defeat animation, since you didn't knock it off for that final hit. This also makes Topper the only Broodal who can be beat with his hat on.
  • If for any reason HD Rumble isn't available, such as it's turned off or the game is being played on the Switch Lite, any Moon challenge that requires you to find the area that generates the most rumble will be replaced by the screen shaking instead.
  • If you skip a platforming segment with the techniques at your disposal, Cappy will acknowledge this by complementing your jumps.
  • If you go out of your way to obtain a lot of Power Moons without returning to the Odyssey to deliver them (such as by going through Warp Paintings), the list of undelivered Moons will keep going and going until 15 rows of 10. Go beyond that, and the final moon on the list will be replaced with an ellipsis (an "...") to show that the game has actively given up tracking them on the list.
  • Being over- or underdressed for a certain climate will have Mario reacting accordingly during his idle animations. For example, Lost Kingdom is a tropical island, so if you wear the thick aviator outfit there, Mario acts like's he's about suffer a heat stroke, but if you switch to the caveman outfit, he'll be just fine.
• Did Not Get the Girl: After Mario and Bowser's squabbling for her affection, Peach decides not to marry either of them. She doesn't sever ties with either party, though, and is still happy to see Mario and give him Moons when she takes a world trip with Tiara.
• Difficult, but Awesome: The movement system is pretty deep, and proper use of Cappy can allow for amazing jumps. For example, the long-jump cap dive combo requires some decent dexterity to pull off, but doing so nearly doubles your maximum jump length.
• Difficulty Levels: The game has the standard Normal Mode and a more forgiving Assist Mode, where your maximum health is doubled to 6 HP, arrows are placed on the ground in order to steer you towards your objectives, you cannot drown, and Bottomless Pits no longer kill you outright — you are put in a bubble when you fall and put right back where you started from at the cost of a single hit point.
• Disconnected Side Area:
  • Almost every kingdom has a painting in it that takes Mario to some distant unreachable area (typically a floating island) in another kingdom, where a Checkpoint Flag and a Power Moon are guaranteed to be waiting for you. Some of them allow you to go down to the rest of the level, but others are floating so high and far away from the rest that you would need to warp with the map to the main area. Some of the former can be reached from within the Kingdom with ridiculous advanced jumping, but none of the latter can.
  • The VR missions make these out of locations from the main game, which are only reachable with the slingshots; the Cap Kingdom gets Top-Hat Tower, the Seaside Kingdom gets the top of Glass Tower, and the Luncheon Kingdom gets the pot atop the volcano.
  • After defeating Mechawiggler, Mario can collect a Power Moon from its scrapped remains. Under normal circumstances, it is impossible to avoid fighting the boss. If the player somehow manages to skip it (i.e. via glitches), the scrap doesn't appear and the Power Moon is unobtainable.
• A Dog Named "Dog":
  • Tiara, Cappy's sister, is a living tiara.
  • Cappy's default appearance, outside his true form, is Mario's cap.
• Double-Meaning Title: "Odyssey" is both the name of Mario's Cool Airship and the journey Mario and Cappy undergo to save Peach and Tiara from Bowser.
• Downer Beginning: The game begins with Bowser defeating Mario and escaping with Peach, also destroying Mario's hat in the process.
• Dragons Are Demonic: One of the bosses, the Ruined Dragon, is an absolutely gigantic dragon in service to Bowser whose visual design is more in line with The Elder Scrolls or Dark Souls than anything you'd expect in Mario.
• Dressed to Plunder: Mario can don a pirate outfit, and the Goombas in Bubblaine wear captain hats.
• Dungeon Bypass: The Brutal Bonus Level is generally much kinder than most of Nintendo's earlier levels of the type, since it provides you with frequent opportunities for health, but it still has hard platforming sections. Perhaps the hardest comes with a section where you have to climb a wall of blocks that pop out before they all pop out and push you into the lava. You activate them by hitting a scarecrow, too, so you can't use Cappy. However, the scarecrow is on the underside of a block which rises away once it's hit, so if you jump on top and use the motion controls to throw Cappy downward just right, you'll hit the scarecrow and get an elevator ride to the top, sparing you the challenge.

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