Prediction Time: Super Mario Odyssey Will Be The Highest Rated Game Of The Year

I know System Wars as a whole seems to be more into Breath of the Wild, and there's a good reason for that, it looks incredible- but I gotta be honest, Mario looks better. A full featured 3D Mario platforming sandbox, with the finesse and ambition of Mario 64, simply opens up so many mind boggling possibilities, it is hard to even begin to consider them all.

I know this year will have some great games- Resident Evil 7, Horizon, Persona 5, Sea of Thieves, Mass Effect Andromeda, Red Dead Redemption 2, and of course, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild- but here's my prediction, Super Mario Odyssey will be rated higher than all of them. It will end up as the highest rated game of the generation on Metacritic (not counting remasters). It'll basically be as much of a new paradigm for 3D platforming as Mario Galaxy was. Yes, sandbox platforming has been done before- but never to this extent, never with this finesse, never with this ambition.

So you can book it, we can get back to this at the end of the year, if you want. Mario Odyssey will be the highest rated game of the year. Yes, that means it will be higher rated than Mass Effect, Red Dead, and Zelda too.

It looks incredible but with RDR 2 sitting there...I don't know.

Gaming critics, and gamers for that matter, love them some R* product. It wouldn't surprise me if it received nearly unanimous 10s.

Can Mario top that?

it could be. but highest rated never equal to good game. witcher 3 got 10 was biggest joke of last year when game suffer from horrible controls and combat.

Resident evil 7 looks like could be best in series.

Prey is most excited game that is releasing this year. but it wont recieve very high scores despite being most impressing game of 2017.

Red Dead Redemption (2010)

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (2010)

You tell me.

Has anyone found an English version of the short gameplay demo? BTW the small bit of camera rotation pisses me off. Lemme see the goddamn surroundings!

@charizard1605:

Yeah, that's real swell and all but these new iterations are different games.

People are starved for anything singleplayer from R* right now and the hype gets to critic's heads (and damn near everyone else's).

Does a new Mario create such anticipation?

A true successor to Mario 64? Yes, it will.

For context, Super Mario Odyssey's video has almost 2 million more views than Breath of the Wild's, and at its current pace will have overtaken the total views Red Dead Redemption 2's trailer has had since it went live in October. The trailer is currently trending across all categories on YouTube, the last time I remember that happening for a video game trailer was with Pokemon Go.

I think sometimes people tend to forget how huge Mario was- and if a true successor to Mario 64 were to come along, which Odyssey seems like it is, how much people would sit up and take notice.

@charizard1605:

Using YT traffic as a means to gauge hype...dubious, man, very dubious. The Pokemon Go comparison just doesn't work because damn near the entire world had access to that game without the need for special hardware.


By the by, of what do you make this, Char? How is Ninty not yelling about this feature from the rooftops?

I mean, I am using that as one metric haha. I am sure RDR2 will sell more, by virtue of being a multiplatform game- but I maintain SMO will score higher.

And I like the idea. Switch's focus on haptics in general, including with HD Rumble, is intriguing (as an owner of an iPhone 7, especially so)- I imagine they are keeping this quiet because as of right now, no game uses the touch screen.

@charizard1605:

Yeah, this tech makes me understand the price just a little more. Am prepared to pet my future Nintendog with satisfying rumble feedback.

It may not be a powerhouse but the Switch is jam packed with some cool shit.

It looks like a pretty weak year anyway. So yeah, it does have a good shot. Especially with so many loving Mario 64. Personally I never really was into Mario 64, I really like recent titles though, like 3D Word.

Yeah. I'd argue unnecessary shit, but hey. Here we are.

And I'll still never play it

Don't like (3D) Mario?

Oh shit...how 'bouts if they continue the trend of Mario having multi-player? I mean, local multi kinda goes out the window with the whole open world thing but just imagine navigating the levels all nimbly-bimbly like with a few friends. I wouldn't ever want to leave.

Do it, Nintendo. Do it.

I don't see this launching in 2017 and going by Nintendo's track record of delays these past few years, get ready for a barren 2017 folks. Sorry.

@22Toothpicks: Presuming the Switch reveal video was accurate, SMO has local multiplayer... somehow.

3D Mario has never gotten delayed, ever.

Well see if Nintendo doesn't pull a delay on us.

But for now, I'll go ahead and say yes, it'll be the GOTY contender cause Odyssey is going back to Mario 64 formula and I was really amaze by the trailer as well.

It has the potential the be, a full 3d Mario game has the benefit of different worlds, each with their own twists on gameplay, colors, music, layouts, from a pure gameplay perspective Mario is the one with the most diversity and that can mean the game can be the most fun out of all the big releases this year.

I will have to disagree with your prediction, and will take ownage if wrong.

While I am sure that Mario will score high like it usually does, there is just something about this new Zelda. I do not know what it is, but I think people are in for a treat.

Zelda is my prediction for game of the year.

@crashnburn281: You're on

But just to be clear, I'm not saying Mario will be the Game of the Year. I'm saying it will be the highest rated game of the year.

I'm sure it will be one of the most highly rated games of the year. Along with Zelda, Horizon and RDR2.

I don't think I will be playing it though. The price of the Switch games has put me right off, no way i'm paying £60 for any game.

Maybe when Nintendo release a budget range in 2 or 3 years time I will.

All of a sudden people in this forum like Super Mario 64?

@charizard1605: don't like the switch

You know they are adding online to classic games. And with an online fee I could definitely see them have online play in pretty much every game. Including Mario Odyssey. I could see them add it in later on when they start charging, if it's not there at launch. It's not outside the realm of possibilities.

I'd like to see that too. I know that a large quantity of gamers would like it.

I think it's very likely to be a 10/10 rated game here. If you were going to bet on any game this year I would say this one is the safest bet. I'm pretty hyped from the trailer. I was more excited for this than Zelda to be honest.

@mems_1224: you folded for the lolVita of all things, you're gonna get this eventually lol

Looking forward to it, might be another reason for me to buy Switch.

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. If I really had to bet on it I'd say the order would be:

Mario = RDR2 > Zelda > Horizon.

Though of course that's a whole lot of assuming and things could go either way.

I think a whole lot of people have always liked the template of Mario 64. Not me personally, but people never really stopped begging Nintendo for a more open sandbox style Mario game.

And as for the game specifically, yeah I've seen a lot of opinions rotate back to loving Mario 64. Whereas not too long ago, lots of gamers were openly shitting on it. So I do see where you're coming from lol.

@KungfuKitten:

Yeah I was a little startled when I read about online in VC games.

I wanna play something like Turtles in Time online but it's probably going to be restricted to Nintendo's own library.

@charizard1605: Vita has a decent indie lineup. I seriously doubt Nintendo will. Honestly debating getting a WiiU instead

I don't really know how it will go down with critics. I think it looks excellent though. Nintendo have been focusing on 3D Mario titles will isolated level design and challenges since the Super Mario Galaxy franchise. It's nice that they're going back to explore the more open level design of Super Mario 64 since I think they've pretty much nailed those linear level designs in recent years.

@charizard1605: You bet on it ?

They will talk about their online system later on... and that will be a very interesting talk. People are down on the idea of getting a classic game for only 1 month, understandably so, but it could lead to something very interesting. Suddenly everybody who is paying for that service will have that same classic game with online play for a month. You would actually be able to find random people playing it.

I already have consoles and my PC with classic games on them. So I'm not to keen on buying classic games for a second or third time. Even if they were handed to me for free I'd be like been there done that. This move from Nintendo caught me off-guard. It's the only way that they could get me to play some of these old games again. We haven't seen anything concrete so I'm not getting my hopes up. You are right that it may be restricted to Nintendo licensed games...

Amidst all the negativity there is some cool stuff happening.

That's definitely the safer bet. It'd be much cheaper and the library is already there, including BotW in March. You could scoop it up on the cheap, play what you want to play, and then dump it because you already know it's not getting anything else.

Better than early adopting a Switch and playing the waiting game for games that you may or may not even like.

@charizard1605: I comprehended your meaning. I was assuming a general metacritic approach.

Considering the surprising stalling of most pillar franchises this gen, I'm gonna have to disagree to be honest. This is the gen of weird and negative slanted surprises related to real big long lasting legacy franchises.

But Nintendo is actually able to deliver. Mario Kart 8 is, in my opinion, the best Mario Kart ever. Same goes for the latest Smash. They managed to revive Pokemon, the new Zeld alooks fantastic, 3DS Zeldas were fantastic, the 2D Marios were superb and 3D World was great as well. If somebody can save a long running franchise, it's Nintendo and what we've seen so far is fantastic.

@misterpmedia:

Sure, it could go either way. Plenty of upsets this gen. No developer or franchise is infallible. And the last time we got a sandbox style Mario game, it was Mario Sunshine. lulz.

But it seems Nintendo has an iron grip on what makes Mario work at this point. In the worst cases they churn out uninspired stuff like the NSMB games, or unambitious stuff like 3D World. Still very solid platformers with plenty of variety and quality content, just not what you'd expect from Nintendos best.

I'm not expecting this game to dethrone Mario Galaxy 2, but I do have a feeling (admittedly based on absolutely fucking nothing), that this game will be one hell of a great 3d platformer. At the very least, you can already see that it plays like a dream and you can already see the ambition is there.

It doesn't matter if they deliver to your own personal metrics, we're talking about how well it will be 'rated', and judging by this gen I believe it might be lower than normal.

doubtful.

It'll be one of the Highest Rated, but I think Zelda has a huge shot at being Higher.

I don't think either Mario, or Zelda will be the highest rated games on MC this year.

Zelda definitely could. I'm only hesitant on believing that because being a Zelda game, a massive open world Zelda game at that, there are so many more aspects that could potentially go wrong. Too many moving parts. Whereas a Mario game just needs to nail the core mechanics, level design, and variety to come out a winner, and have a streak of brilliant creativity to push itself over the top.

I could see that. Galaxy 2 was immaculate, and unlike Zelda, Mario never had much of a slump with its main platforming series. Sunshine would be considered one I guess, but it's a fine game in its own right.

There's a lot of factors, sure. Heck, Red Dead Redemption 2 could pull through and be the Best Game we've ever seen in our entire lives so there's that.

Just saying both Zelda and Mario will be the highest rated games of this year with Zelda maybe getting 1 more point then it.

No way broski.

Zelda getting a 10/10 here with GoTY on lock.

RDR2 will get a 9

SMO will get....hmmm...9

Bring on the ownage!!!!

I am ready to eat crow

P.S Didn't realize you were talking overall ratings.

Zelda: 97

RDR2: 94

SMO: 95

I have more doubts that it will come out 2017 than that it will be the highest ranking ame the year it will eventually be released.

I understand where you're coming from, but it's just that general atmosphere of the industry. I don't expect the next GT to review highly either. It's all these long running franchises that reviews are being absolutely brutal to.

Well they did receive fantastic reviews everywhere. On Metacritic MK8 stands at 88, Smash at 92, Zelda a link between worlds at 91, Pokemon Moon at 87 and 3D World at 93.