Those who know gaming me pretty well know I loathe platformers. As you can imagine, it means eschewing a lot of old school games and Nintendo titles. The last Super Mario game I’ve played was Super Mario World for the SNES, and that console belonged to a friend. I sometimes enjoyed playing Super Mario 2 and Super Mario 3 on the NES back in the day, but I was never any good at them. Never got close to finishing them ever, even with the warps.

When I saw the E3 announcement for Super Mario Odyssey, I felt like this was a Mario game I could get back into. I’ve watched too much of Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy from friends to ever attempt to dabble in that. But for some reason, this one made me feel like I could handle it. Then I didn’t buy it until last week, because that’s me being me.

I am having so much fun so far!

I’m not super far into the game or anything, but I love the setup of it. You don’t like the tricky hardcore platforming parts? It’s cool; you don’t have to do all of them get the minimum number of Power Moons. Do you prefer the puzzles instead? Good news! You can do those. Do you like timed challenges? Here you go (you monster)!

This is the first Super Mario title I’ve played/seen where I feel like it’s made for everyone. It’s for the hardcore platformer fans and the newbies alike.Even my kids want to play, but if they think they’re getting their grubby hands on my Switch, they are SORELY mistaken.

Although, speaking of the kids, they like to watch me over my shoulder and backseat drive since they’ve seen so many streams of the title. Look, it’s my Mario party and I’ll screw it all up if I want to. So far, my favorite piece of advice has been, “Mom, don’t die there! You’re not supposed to!”

I guess there’s somewhere else I’m supposed to die? I’ve never come across that in a Mario game, but it has been a couple of decades since my last one. Perhaps that’s a new feature.

Those Damn Launch Games Tho

So far, I have one big complaint about it, and it’s the motion controls. Yes Mr. Switch, you still have motion controls like your predecessors. But did you have to shoehorn them in?

This is always my biggest issue with launch titles (including launch window titles): the need to force in every feature of the new console into one game. Nothing will ever be as egregious as Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and I better not hear some first-party developer saying, “Challenge accepted.”

I do not want to shake my Switch to throw Cappy 360 degrees. Or to throw him upwards. Or downwards. I’d go as far as to say the gameplay would be damn near perfect without the motion controls.

That aside, more games like this could get me back into Mario games again. Could. Now I need to stop being so chicken of playing Breath of the Wild.

The post I’m Playing a Mario Game and I Like It appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.