How is Super Mario Odyssey a 10?

1. No it isn't. Try playing the whole game, lol.
2. Simple? How? More simple than platformers usually are? No.
3. Bigger than previous Marios. And the level design was great, I thought.
4. Agreed, but Mario bosses are always lame with the few exceptions.
5. Is your point that those games are better?

My personal opinion is that Odyssey is a fucking great game. I think it actually deserves its 10 from GameSpot. If MGS4/5 gets a 10, Odyssey should be a 15/10.

1399 to be exact.

Did you put your movie (Uncharted 4) on pause while you made that comment?

Lol hiding behind indies and multiplats.

Where are your exclusives lemming?

Hiding? you made a stupid statement and I just proved you wrong, so now we're moving the goal posts to exclusives, well i'm playing Forza 7, oh but wait it's on PC also, my bad I would have to give a shit about PC gaming to care LOL.

Are you another one of those cows that since November 7th also has a high end PC???

As long as you enjoy it, it doesn't matter if it is a 10 to you. Despite enjoying a game, I've rarely agreed with 10 scores.

@Litchie:

1. The main campaign is short and the end game does not not add enough new content to make it all that interesting. Still the same levels with modifications and objective placements.

2. It is simple. There is very little complexity and challenge to objectives.

3. Disagree on the level design. Basic and not that interesting for the most part.

4. We agree.

5. The mentioned games do some things better and some are made by much smaller teams and are not flagship titles. They have their flaws as well. I personally enjoyed the new Ratchet and Clank more than SMO.

SMO is just underwhelming. It is good, but not great and certainly not amazing or deserving of a 10. At no point was I really impressed by the game or did I think I was playing something special or possible GOAT. Deserving games of a 10 are games like The Witcher 3 and Ocarina of Time. Those games excel in so many aspects and really shine. They are not without flaws, but their overall packages are so strong and they engage the player in a way that very few games can.

I have had SMO since release. I could have finished it long ago if I wanted to, but I wasn't feeling it and played other games instead. I am definitely a fan of the Mario games, but the Mario magic just isn't strong with SMO.

OK cool. Totally understand where you're coming from. There are games I think deserves a 10 more than Odyssey, and there are games that have gotten a 10 that shouldn't have. Odyssey getting a 10 I'm way cooler with than MGS4 getting a 10 for example. To me, Odyssey is a 10 (maybe a 9) just because it's such a great game. It's a "gamey" game that stands out in a world of cinematic bullshit games. Odyssey does what I loved with Mario 64 and makes it better. That alone is almost worth a 10. For me, it has it all. Gameplay, challenge, music, graphics, controls, length, etc. All of it combined shouldn't be any less than a 9/10, imo.

@Litchie: Yeah, there are a lot of games that have gotten a 10 that do not deserve it. The 10s seem to be flying around way too easily the last few years.

@BassMan: According to who?

The Mario Galaxy games are better than Odyssey. Too many people drinking the Kool-aid on this game. Granted I haven't played a lot of it since I only borrowed a Switch, but it doesn't have that same wow factor.

It's definitely not a 10. Don't let the haters in this thread try to attack you for having your own opinion.

@Heil68: wait, how did xbox get brought into this.... Odyssey was most definitely a 10. Expertly designed... Better than anything that's come out for playstation or Xbox in years!

Xbox has ori and cuphead (which is awesome). Sadly they don't have much else that interests me that I can't get on my ps4.

I think that's only extreme Nintendo fans would give Mario Odyssey 10. Most of normal people gives this game an 8-9 rating.

Yeah, I know that Odyssey isn't a perfect game. It's short and has a weak story. But gameplay is amazing. I don't know a platform game with so much possibilities. I mean, most of platform games are linear and even if it's perfect story and graphics, there isn't any outstanding platform games at all. But wait, there is. Super Mario Odyssey. Just watch two films of Dunkey and you will understand what I'm talking about.

In short, Super Mario Odyssey is very fun game. From this year maybe only Cuphead is on 2nd place in ranking of platform games. Or maybe it's just a fault of "Mario" word in title. But personally I don't think so.

@deadlyyraven: You don't think there are any outstanding platformers?

Linear in what aspect?

@jumpaction:

"You don't think there are any outstanding platformers?"

Yes, that's right. Tell me at least 5 very good platform games from last 3 years (except Mario Odyssey and Cuphead).

"Linear in what aspect?"

I mean, almost every platform game is the same and there isn't any innovations in this genre. Only Mario series can really do some innovations.

@deadlyyraven: Oh you mean in the last three years? I thought you meant in general.

Anyway, Shovel Knight and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze are two examples of outstanding platformers that exhibit excellent level design and an understanding of player expression (particularly the Specter of Torment campaign for the former). Donkey Kong is not only brilliant in its aesthetic designs but its three step design parameters. The layouts can be both linear and layered to offer quicker routes or a slower, accessible route within a condensed and cohesive space.

Turbo Button breaking down a Tropical Freeze level

I'm not sure how linearity is synonymous with originality or uniqueness. :/ Could you explain a bit more?

I haven't been interested in a mario game in over a decade. I tried Galaxy 1 on the Wii, got bored after 10 stars, never played it again. Not like Demon Souls with you and you stopped becuase it was too hard. :P

@jumpaction:

"Oh you mean in the last three years? I thought you meant in general."

Yeah, I didn't meant the entire history of platform games haha

"Anyway, Shovel Knight and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze are two examples of outstanding platformers that exhibit excellent level design and an understanding of player expression (particularly the Specter of Torment campaign for the former). Donkey Kong is not only brilliant in its aesthetic designs but its three step design parameters. The layouts can be both linear and layered to offer quicker routes or a slower, accessible route within a condensed and cohesive space."

That two games were amazing, here I have to agree with you. Ori and The Blind Forest is a very good platformer to. But that's all. These three games + Cuphead, Super Mario Odyssey are in general the best platformers of 2010s. You can correct me now if there are some amazing platformers in this decade but I don't think so.

"I'm not sure how linearity is synonymous with originality or uniqueness. :/ Could you explain a bit more?"

Sorry, maybe I've misunderstand the definition of word "linearity". That is because English is not my national language and I can make mistakes. I mean, "linear" isn't the synonymous for originality or uniqueness, it's the antonym for this two words. Sorry once again.

@deadlyyraven: It's quite alright. :)

There are quite a few more if you expand to include the last 10 years. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (which I would argue is even better than Odyssey in some respects), Super Meat Boy (Edmund McMillan is a great game designer), 'Splosion Man, Braid (Johnathan Blow is another great designer) and Spelunky are all terrific platformers I have played released within the last decade. I know others would extend that to include the quality Sonic games like Mania and Colors too.

It's generally a very strong genre, which makes sense when you consider that platform games have been great since the 80's. There are decades of design practices to research and learn from in this genre so it's understandable how platformers are still so good.

I really enjoy the game, and I personally would give it a 9, but yes TC you have valid complaints.

The game is short, if you just get the bare minimum moons you can complete it fairly quickly (But there's tons of other moons to get)

The boss battles suck and to me it's my biggest complaint. They are short, easy, and recycled.

Why is the sky blue and the grass green?

Eh, reviews are just opinions. I think its an awesome game.

Gamespot is Gamespot sometimes their opinions do not align with Metacritic, but in this case the game has received universal acclaim so it must be doing something right. I cannot comment more than that because I have not played Odyssey, but past Mario titles always were top notch stuff for me.

But I have played Yoka Laylee, I own that game, I definitely felt it was underrated. So maybe it is not Mario that is overrated, but rather other platformers that are underrated. I dont know, just a thought.

@Alucard_Prime: Yooka-Laylee is decent. The gameplay is good, but the level design was very hit and miss. Less than half of the worlds were well designed. I give that game a 6/10. Poi a 7/10. It's an impressive effort for such a small team. I really want to play A Hat in Time.

There have been so many good platformers in the past.... Mario, Banjo, Rayman, Jak, Ratchet, Sly, Psychonauts, PoP, Crash, Sonic, DK, etc.. I don't really see much special about SMO.

Personally, I have really taken to the metroidvania style platformers like Ori and Hollow Knight lately. Both those games are great and better than SMO.

For me no game is a 10. This is the issue when Gamespot changed their scoring system. Now every game is perfect. I miss the good old days of the 9.8 and 9.9. That was beautiful. Whenever a game got a 10 it would be the end of the world. Gamespot spent almost a decade without awarding one.

@needhealing: I agree. The current scale sucks. They should have at least gone to a half point system so we can get some more differentiation. SMO is a perfect example. I give it a 7.5/10 because it is neither an 8 or a 7. However, I rated it a 7 on GS because I didn't feel it deserved an 8.

I very cautiously brought this up when BotW came out... and was absolutely flamed to hell. Lol.

I still think there's an element of it with SOME reviewers. Not saying they're bad games by any means, but maybe not the absolute masterpieces that a lot have made them out to be.

@hrt_rulz01: I also questioned the 10 that BOTW got. Another overrated game with some serious issues.

I know it's very subjective, but I just don't see how BotW is any better than something like the Witcher 3... I know both are critically acclaimed, but BotW was consistently rated higher by most people. I don't get it. But that's me :)

@hrt_rulz01: TW3 is definitely the better game and the best game of this gen.

Agreed.

Yea, honestly I don't get why Gamespot changed. Not sure if you remember their GOTY awards. Used to be amazing and very detailed. Now they are really lazy. I mean is it really that challenging?

840 out of 999 moons and I'm still having fun with the game Its a 10 in my book.

That was my take away a LOOONG time ago. The game is overrated but what can you do. The power of nostalgia and brand name is very strong.

Who plays Super Mario games only for the boss battles? Much of the fun of Super Mario games and what make them rememberable are the levels. Some are more challenging than the most difficult boss character.

@jumpaction: "There are quite a few more if you expand to include the last 10 years. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (which I would argue is even better than Odyssey in some respects), Super Meat Boy (Edmund McMillan is a great game designer), 'Splosion Man, Braid (Johnathan Blow is another great designer) and Spelunky are all terrific platformers I have played released within the last decade. I know others would extend that to include the quality Sonic games like Mania and Colors too."

I don't include Mario series in my statements; Mario games are always innovative. I can't agree with you in Super Meat Boy. In my opinion, this game was too hard and zero fun. I don't know the other 3. And in my opinion there was never innovative Sonic game; still the same game with better graphics after 26 years.

"It's generally a very strong genre, which makes sense when you consider that platform games have been great since the 80's. There are decades of design practices to research and learn from in this genre so it's understandable how platformers are still so good."

I don't think so. Platformers are for casuals and hardcore fans of some series like for example Rayman or mentioned above Sonic series. Mario is exception for this. We must wait the next few years to innovation in this genre. I understand that the platformers is 80s was the best entertainment in video games but that changed. I mean totally changed. RPGs and Action games are now the best genres and platformers are I think at the maybe 4th or 5th place.

You must understand that these game critics grew up with Mario being their only friend, and their NES being the only ray of sunshine in a cruel, abusive world full of bullies and child molesting uncles.

So, these perfect tens are not a score, but a tribute to Nintendo for helping them survive as scrawny, nerdy little runts in a world that hated scrawny, nerdy little runts.

Me, I played sports as a kid, and never had nintendo those days, so I have no need to bow down to anything Nintendo manages to put out.

I think it comes down to whether or not Nintendo succeeded in making Mario work on a portable system AND a home console with one game. To that degree I think they succeeded with flying colors.

It's got a ton more replay value than previous Mario games. The gameplay and environments are extremely polished. The game looks and runs amazingly. It's got a ton of fan service included. It is probably the least frustrating 3D Mario game to date. I disagree on the length of the game. You can probably rush through the main game in ~10 hours, but if you take your time exploring the levels then you're looking at ~20-25 hours for the main game, plus a ton of time with the end game stuff. To 100% the game without a guide I would estimate takes atleast 50 hours.

Its only drawbacks are its easy difficulty and the stupid 9999 coin costing endgame costume that you have to farm coins for.

It's a 9/10 game at worst.

Stopped reading right there.

@deadlyyraven: It depends really on what platformers and what roleplaying games.

There aren't that many contemporary roleplaying games that I would consider more fun than Super Meat Boy, and it's not like roleplaying games are a particularly innovative genre in the gameplay space. If anything, some contemporary RPGs have regressed in terms of player expression and roleplaying opportunities.

Not to mention that many roleplaying games that receive top billing like Fallout and The Witcher are talked about more for their narrative than their gameplay, a decidedly weaker component to the rest of the elements in those games. Platformers are the inverse of this. When a platformer is good, it's usually because of some triumph of the gameplay and level design. Then there are genuinely thrilling and just straight up good action-roleplaying and roleplaying games like this year's Nioh and Divinity: Original Sin 2 respectively.

It's tough to cross lines like that though. Games can succeed by their own merits. Super Meat Boy has incredibly tight and responsive controls, excellent level design and lots of hidden challenges for people who like their games to have tasty gameplay, while the Witcher 3 excels in the realm of story-telling in this medium - probably won't enthuse anyone who is looking for strong gameplay.

I personally agree that the game isn't a 10, but it's at least a 9.5. My only gripes were about the camera, certain motion controls, and the final battle with Bowser.

Everything else was amazing.

@jumpaction: "It depends really on what platformers and what roleplaying games."

Yeah, that's right, but I meant that in general RPGs have more interest from gamers. There are better and worse RPGs, same as platformers, that's right.

"There aren't that many contemporary roleplaying games that I would consider more fun than Super Meat Boy, and it's not like roleplaying games are a particularly innovative genre in the gameplay space. If anything, some contemporary RPGs have regressed in terms of player expression and roleplaying opportunities."

Yeah, but that's you. There is a lot of RPGs more fun than Super Meat Boy. Older and newer. I don't want to tell examples; there is too much of them. Okay, maybe one example: Undertale. And RPGs are innovative. They're "evolving" a lot faster than platformers. In 2011 we have Skyrim, and in 2015 we have Witcher 3. And in 2011 we have Rayman Origins, and in 2015 we have Ori and the Blind Forest.

"Not to mention that many roleplaying games that receive top billing like Fallout and The Witcher are talked about more for their narrative than their gameplay, a decidedly weaker component to the rest of the elements in those games. Platformers are the inverse of this. When a platformer is good, it's usually because of some triumph of the gameplay and level design. Then there are genuinely thrilling and just straight up good action-roleplaying and roleplaying games like this year's Nioh and Divinity: Original Sin 2 respectively."

Yes, that's right because narrative was very good, and gameplay was very good too but maybe as gameplay is very good in other games too, narrative in Fallout and Witcher is so much better. You know what I mean? Yeah and all about the platformers you say - that's all true but I think this is exactly the reason why they are don't sell that good as RPGs. People don't want a 10 hours game with amazing gameplay but no story at all. People want a 50 hours game with amazing narrative and maybe weaker gameplay.

"It's tough to cross lines like that though. Games can succeed by their own merits. Super Meat Boy has incredibly tight and responsive controls, excellent level design and lots of hidden challenges for people who like their games to have tasty gameplay, while the Witcher 3 excels in the realm of story-telling in this medium - probably won't enthuse anyone who is looking for strong gameplay."

Yes, you're right in this paragraph.

@deadlyyraven: Of course this is just me. Everyone has different tastes in games. Personally, Super Meat Boy is a creme de la creme game. :)

I'd argue neither The Witcher 3 or Skyrim are innovative in a gameplay space at all though. What is innovative about them? The Witcher 3 is certainly an evolution over Skyrim in the voice acting and graphics department, and I feel it's general story-telling is better but in the gameplay space, I wouldn't consider The Witcher 3 that great an evolution. Looking at other action roleplaying games, The Witcher 3 is arguably regressive compared to Dark Souls. The Witcher 3 encompasses many popular mechanics to make a very modern but not all together very innovative game.

I'm not in disagreement with you regarding sales and the impact story has on a player's preference. After all, The Witcher 3 is widely regarded solely for its storytelling. Personally speaking, it is more valuable that a game has good gameplay over a good story.

I can't give a good answer since I don't own the game or a Switch yet. Have other stuff in life to worry about. From what little I have played the game, I really enjoy Mario's movement which happens to be the deepest yet out of a 3D Mario game and the way that the hat throw works with the platforming is genius. Really need to get a Switch eventually because that, Breath of the Wild, Metroid Prime 4, and Bayonetta 3 have my attention.

@Heil68: someone forgot to put in an easy mode in that game. Bastards

Also, I never got into galaxy either. Odyssey is incredible though. Extremely inviting, so well designed. Like a breath of fresh air if you've been playing uncharted for the past decade. :P

Also, without a switch (or wiiu) you're missing out on the best open world game ever made... Zelda.... I'm now playing Skyrim which is so freakin awesome as a portable game. Sooooo good.

Advert dollars do wonders. Thank you MS, for not paying the ransom fee, stay strong... Baby!!! Just sayin. :P

Because it's Mario and because it's Nintendo

:p

Didn't ya hear bruh, Nintendo games get an automatic free pass and higher scores from critUCKS becurz Ninterndo.

You're right, I don't how any of those games scored a 10.