Spoiler Warning for the ending of Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey is completely bonkers in the best way possible. It’s as if no design idea was ignored during development. The wide swath of creative levels, each with their own theme that gives them a sense of individuality and uniqueness, and the range of play mechanics available in those levels are consistently groundbreaking, giving players all manner of experiences during the game. This variety betrays the same story that has been the heart of Mario games since the dawn of time, in that Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach (again) and Mario sets off on a grand adventure to rescue her (once again). But this time, one of the core gameplay mechanics provides one of the most clever and fun twists I’ve ever seen in a Mario game.
The new gameplay concept in Super Mario Odyssey is that Mario uses his hat, occupied by the ghostly Cappy, to possess a wide variety of enemies and objects throughout the game. Everything from Goombas to power line transformers give Mario new abilities for traversing levels and defeating enemies. There’s always something new to discover with this ability, and it gives the player the sense that anything can happen.
Near the end of the main story, Mario incapacitates Bowser in an epic final battle to rescue Peach, but once he goes down, the entire battle arena is swallowed up in a massive cave-in. The three are shown stranded, surrounded by piles of rubble and helpless to escape as the cavern is coming down around them. As the player regains control of Mario, the realization comes that Mario must use Cappy to take control of the unconscious Bowser and use his brute strength to break free and escape. As the player performs the possession-by-cap action they have done countless times during the game, we know that this time is different. The player is treated to a cutscene of Mario falling into the psyche of Bowser, with renderings of all of their past showdowns across generations of Mario titles flying past him as he dives deeper into the mind of his nemesis. With the possession complete, Bowser opens his new Mario-blue eyes and we see him standing there in all his Koopa glory, adorned with Mario’s cap and mustache. And when Mario/Bowser picks up Peach and smashes through the level, alternating between the modern gameplay and 8-bit sections, I couldn’t help but let out a joyful laugh, as I appreciated the wink the developers were giving to fans of the series.
Alas, the segment lasts just a short time, leaving the player filled with the rush of the endgame. Once the trio has reached safety, Mario is ejected from Bowser’s consciousness leaving the two of them awkwardly acknowledging the deep connection that they just experienced. Mario (and by extension, the player) had just gotten a look at the innermost thoughts of his greatest enemy, and it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that after that experience, his perspective of Bowser shifted. The game doesn’t allude to what Mario found in Bowser’s mind, but maybe he caught a glimpse of a character who is more fragile than we thought, not simply evil but perhaps driven by insecurity or personal loss, driven to be the villain by coincidence of circumstances, lashing out at a life that has not been kind to him. Time will tell if this is explored in future games, but it’s fun to think about the possibility of future depth to this protagonist/antagonist duo that hasn’t been examined before.
Most players will probably have only amassed a fraction of the total Power Moons at this point, and the end of the story really represents the beginning of the game proper, granting access to new lands and new Power Moons, but the final sequence of the story comes off as a love letter to series fans (as do other sequences in the game, but that’s another post). Mario seems in no danger of stagnating, and I can’t wait to see what the developers at Nintendo have planned for us next.
Matt