World Exploration
Super Mario Odyssey vs. Breath of the Wild
Surprisingly, both Breath of the Wild and Odyssey have morphed their series’ core gameplay around exploration, but in different ways. Super Mario Odyssey puts a big emphasis on collecting Moons, literally dumping them around the game’s various worlds for you to find. Only by exploring will you really find all of them, along with some fun characters, areas, and sidequests too. The strength of the game lies in the varied locations you can explore, and how each one is brimming with characters and content to uncover. There’s still plenty of traditional Mario platforming and puzzle solving, but much of it is uncovered through exploration. This hearkens back to the style of Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine, which were more focused on exploration than mostly linear platforming, like Mario Galaxy and Mario 3D World.
Still, for how exciting and pleasing Super Mario Odyssey’s exploration can be, it just isn’t on the same level as Breath of the Wild. In Breath of the Wild, you have a world entirely based on exploration, really it’s the main point of the game. After only a few minutes of opening, the world is completely opened up to you, letting you explore a small section of it, before moving onto the world at large. Breath of the Wild really nails exploration by constantly rewarding you for doing so. There’s tons of shrines to uncover each of which hold a little puzzle, different towns to uncover, sidequests littered all over the map, and collectibles and items everywhere. There’s always a motivation to keep going, and Breath of the Wild’s structure lets you approach even its main story in any order you want to.
Mario Odyssey’s self-contained areas arit’se a joy to explore and run around in, and yet, it just doesn’t stand up to the vast open world of Breath of the Wild. There’s just so much to see and do, so many characters and stories, with everything feeling connected and part of the same world. Breath of the Wild was an impressive new entry for the Zelda series, and even open-world games in general.
