I really, really tried to love Super Mario Odyssey. The game is undoubtedly good. It has some truly creative ideas in the possession mechanic, and Cappy’s additional moveset allows for some truly game-breaking movement.
Seriously, a ground pound jump into a Cappy throw, back into a ground pound jump, bounce off Cappy, throw him, then dive to climb up a ridiculous height.
It’s good stuff, and the worlds you explore are next-level creative. We’ve got the Luncheon Kingdom, the Cascade Kingdom, and even the Moon to explore.
But, in my opinion, there’s one thing holding the entire game back: the collectible Moons.
Super Mario Odyssey Moons Feel Like Filler
Moons, by themselves, aren’t a bad thing. They’re fun rewards for completing in-game challenges like breaking through rock with the classic Chain Chomp, or completing tough platforming stints without Cappy.
But the problem is, the majority of these fun, challenging Moons are gated behind boring, repetitive content that has nothing to do with the core mechanics.
For example, why would I want to play a match game with random face parts, trying to recreate a Goomba’s face from scratch? Sure, it’s fun once, but the game has you do it multiple times, making the challenge even harder to win.
You can also buy Moons with coins that are super easy to gather, removing any sense of challenge associated with them. There are so many filler Moons that it gets to a point where finding one is devalued. I want to feel excited when I find a Moon, not disheartened and annoyed. Super Mario Odyssey is a collectathon, after all. I should want to find everything.
I miss the challenges of Super Mario 64 and Sunshine, where each Star or Shine Sprite was a worthy challenge. Sure, a few of them were annoying, but at least they all involved platforming challenges or something creative like using FLUDD to navigate a melon past a bunch of enemies to make a smoothie.
However, the Super Mario Odyssey team seems to have understood this complaint. With their next game, Donkey Kong Bananza.
Donkey Kong Bananza Banandium Gems Are The Perfect Contrast
Donkey Kong Bananza has a similar gameplay formula to Super Mario Odyssey. At least, on the surface, it does. But DK’s collectibles, Banandium Gems, are the perfect contrast to my problem with Odyssey’s Moons.
See, one of Bananza’s core features is its destructible environment, and players are loving it. Rather than platforming around surreal worlds, you play as DK, smashing through anything he can see. Rock, mud, and even rainbows are fair game here. Even better, Banandium Gems are littered throughout the material, rewarding your destructive nature.
Now, there are a lot of Banandium Gems in Bananza, no doubt, but because you’re constantly digging around and actually engaging in the core gameplay loop, it feels rewarding every time you achieve one. Of course, with how many Banandium Gems there are in the game, this could have gotten repetitive over time, just like Odyssey’s Moons. But Bananza has an answer to this as well.
Instead of filling the entire game with Banandium Gems, Bananza has an alternative collectible in fossils. Where Odyssey would have a filler Moon, Bananza has a fossil.
This isn’t to mention that both Banandium Gems and fossils have gameplay benefits as well. The former provides you with skill points to fill out an extensive skill tree, while you can spend the latter on outfits for DK and Pauline, which give you benefits based on the world you’re in. Basically, you can create entire builds with Bananza’s outfits.
The combination of keeping Banandium Gems within the core gameplay loop, alongside introducing an alternative set of collectibles, makes for a truly engaging gameplay experience that lasts far longer than Odyssey’s. These Gems create meaning, restoring my desire to collect them all. And Donkey Kong Bananza is a better experience for that.
