FAKE RONJAN!!Nintendo's Odyssey: Breath of Fresh Air
2017 was an incredible year for video games top to bottom, but nothing defined 2017 like Nintendo's return to prominence. The Nintendo Switch is set to surpass the Wii U's lifetime sales by next spring and Nintendo has their swagger back. You can make a compelling argument that the Nintendo Switch had the best first year of any system ever. When Nintendo is motivated, no one can top them.
Motivated Nintendo created two of the greatest games ever in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. And when selecting my favorite game of 2017, these are the only two choices that matter. So who wins? Let's find out.
Even before they were released, both of these titles had a lot of pre-release hype. In particular, each of them had a series of incredible trailers, with these being my two favorites:
So epic!
That T-rex reveal! That song (more on that later)! And that transformation mechanic! Oh my!
Then the games came out, and they delivered on the hype. Zelda and Mario were the top two reviewed games of 2017 and have established themselves among the all-time greats.
Once I started playing both of them, my early impressions were just as strong. Both games had late title cards that set the appropriate mood. (And a perfect way for me to test out the Switch's screenshot feature!)
Zelda's sweeping vista set the stage for open-ended exploration:
While Mario's weird opening sequence laid the ground for an adventure that would only get wackier:
Off of those strong starts, I naturally kept going with both games, but my experiences and focus could not have been more different between the two!
With Zelda, I spent most of my 30+ hours with the game running across the map, climbing towers, and seeing what cool sights I could find. I only completed 2 of the 4 "dungeons" and 33 of 120 shrines, and I never made a run at Hyrule Castle to try to finish the campaign. For whatever reason, Zelda: BotW was about the journey: it's the least interested I've ever been in completing the story in a Zelda game.
Meanwhile, I only spent 10 or so hours with Super Mario Odyssey, but it was a focused beeline through the surprisingly fun story. I stopped playing shortly after beating the game and currently have collected only 185 of the over 800 moons in the game. I've beaten several Mario games in my life, but never one as fast as this.
Ultimately, I think the key difference between the two games is that Mario had more memorable moments that kept me driving to the next one. My time with Zelda was built around seeing amazing sights; my time with Mario was built around feeling amazing feelings. The latter just made a more lasting impact on me.
[SPOILER WARNING FOR SUPER MARIO ODYSSEY]
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While the entirety of Super Mario Odyssey was sheer concentrated joy, nothing prepared me for the exhilarating New Donk City festival:
This love letter to Mario's history is so earnest and so well-executed that it's one of my all time favorite moments in gaming, period. It's perfect. And holy crap, that song! According to Google Music, I've played Jump Up, Super Star! 363 times, meaning I've spent more hours listening to this song than I have playing the game. Yikes.
Mario wasn't finished in New Donk City. Next we had the best version of Bowser's Castle since Super Mario Bros. 3, with an amazing new Japanese empire theme:
Then, after a final battle on the moon, you transform into Bowser in order to survive (in 3D and 8-bit) as the world around you crumbles:
Finally, Peach leaves all the Bowser-Mario drama behind and decides to explore the world on her own terms, and Mario consoles his longtime nemesis Bowser before returning to a familiar place:
As fun as exploring Hyrule was in Zelda: BotW, no moment in that game matched the highs of Super Mario Odyssey. And that's why Super Mario Odyssey is my 2017 game of the year!
Mario's latest adventure joins Super Mario World and Super Mario Galaxy in my personal Mario Hall of Fame. It's top tier and a game I plan to come back to time and time again.
As for Zelda, Breath of the Wild in my book falls just short of the overall experience of both A Link Between Worlds and A Link to the Past, the charm and story beats of The Wind Waker, and the level design of Ocarina of Time. It's an amazing game, just not my favorite in the series.
In any event, Nintendo is back, Zelda is back, and Mario is back. It's a great time for gaming.
-rj
RJ's Game of the Year List
2006 - Elite Beat Agents (DS)
2007 - Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
2008 - Littlebigplanet (PS3)
2009 - Punch-Out!! (Wii)
2010 - Heavy Rain (PS3)
2011 - Uncharted 3 (PS3)
2012 - The Walking Dead (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
2013 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS)
2014 - Valiant Hearts (PS3/4, Xbox 360/One, PC)
2015 - Super Mario Maker (Wii U)
2016 - Pokemon Go (Android, iOS)
2017 - Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)
RJ's Game of the Year Posts
2006 - 2015
2016