Super Mario Odyssey vs. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

i guess mario because i like theme park games a lot more than sandbox games in general but they're both very good. botw feels more transitional like it's a lot easier to imagine the next zelda being even better whereas odyssey is a culmination of all 3d mario design to date

voting mario because you can jump on your hat where as in zelda you cannot, easily two of the best video games ever tho

ts: possessing a t-rex vs. riding a bear

i think i'm gonna go with botw even though being a t-rex is objectively more fun than riding a bear

feel like zelda is going to run away with this

is this a joke?

the real joke is splatoon 2 getting snubbed

i forget where i read this, but someone said "you control mario, you are link," and i really feel that difference when i play these two games.

I quit Mario Odyssey pretty early, tbh. I kind of thought it was annoying. But I loved Breath of the Wild and it's one of the few games I would consider playing again, or perhaps differently.

I was lucky enough to get a used Switch just before the pandemic started taking off last year. Breath of the Wild was the first new video game I'd played in over a decade, and the first Zelda game I'd played since OoT (which I never finished). I basically spent the entire 200+ hours of my first playthrough in a constant state of "holy shit this is so cool." I love exploring vast, open spaces, and I'd never experienced that in a video game before.

Even when I replay it now I feel like there are new routes to discover and new ways of exploring the in-game places I've already visited hundreds of time. The story cutscenes are corny, but functionally they're spot-on; Zelda's arc mirrors the player's growth, and even though the journey through the game is open-ended it still manages to build to an epic conclusion regardless of the path you take.

I grew up on A Link to the Past and I think a lot of my enjoyment was nostalgia — piecing together the mechanics to overcome obstacles and riddles made me feel like a kid trying to find my way to the top of Death Mountain again. There's also the context of my personal life: 2019 was a completely shit year for me for a ton of reasons, and 2020 was looking even grimmer. Breath of the Wild felt like a lifeline.

Odyssey is fun but I haven't been able to immerse myself in it too much. I've probably already put more hours into 3D World tbh. I think maybe the Joycon drift was fucking with my platforming and that made the game less engaging for me, but now that I have a pro controller I'll give it another shot.

If we polled NES SMB vs. LoZ I'd vote SMB without hesitation. Now there's a perfect game.

Similar here — Links Awakening on the Gameboy got me through an incredibly miserable teenage year which I mainly remember for all the time spent on buses or in the backroom of a terrible retail job and it was unbelievably immersive given its limitations. I've played many of the others since - notably Wind Waker and OoT - but none of them really grabbed me the same way.

The pandemic-BoTW combo did the trick though - was if anything even more all-consuming. Combo of nostalgia, escapist open world to roam while trapped at home, decently graded difficulty and sheer appeal did the job.

Mario by contrast is just a great game.

BotW was the first Zelda game I'd played since the very first one, at the time.

I basically stopped gaming sometime after finishing Monkey Island 2 and only started again for Ocarina of Time & Goldeneye, and then Breath of the Wild, and now I have two dozen Switch games I barely play, while I’m still dipping into BoTW, finding new things and loving every minute. So it’s no competition for me - Mario Odyssey is one of the greatest games ever, but BoTW is one of the greatest *things* ever, a lifetime companion.

That said, a critique might be that BoTW is a better holistic experience, and Odyssey has better individual set pieces, but I guess I value the former over the latter.

Incidentally Josh I also found Odyssey really annoying at first, and the first levels are probably the worst designed. It gets better!

Going Mario here.

i voted botw. both amazing games with tons of replay value, BOTW gets the edge bc you can go in there and do nothing in particular, just ride your horse around or whatever, and chill out. SMO is never completely chill.

Yeah, I'm gonna take my horse to the Fang and Bone

I vote both, Nintendo firing on all cylinders in these games and likely forestalling for many years their long-predicted slide into irrelevancy

Both great games. I voted for Zelda because BotW soundtrack >>> SMO soundtrack.

possibly New Donk City and Pauline's fault entirely

BoTW is one of the greatest *things* ever, a lifetime companion.

i just said this to my dog, and she answered, "even greater than Doggy Breath of the Domestic? haw hawwww"

xp the new donk city festival song is stuck in my head constantly lol

i think everyone agrees that the best odyssey song is the wooded kingdom theme

The Donk musical stage is SMO's peak for me. I mean, I'm sure the song is annoying, but I can't remember it. (In my head it's "Doop" by Doop.)

i grinned like an idiot throughout new donk city, especially that crowded subway station where you bounce on people’s heads

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If they return to the classic dungeon format, offer 8-12 dungeons instead of 120 shrines and 4 bosses, then BOTW 2 might end up being the best game ever

yes

otm and seems likely considering the teaser for it took place underground

its cool its taking place on the same map but different i bet the villagers will all be talking about the events

BOTW but in a dungeon with a hookshot

I would like to posit in a thread where people are justifiably praising New Donk City that BOTW's Hyrule Castle may be the greatest game scenario yet devised

elaborate!

do you mean the fact that the final boss and boss level is just *there* the whole time for you to attempt when you feel you're ready?

after getting the master sword and the divine beasts i laboriously climbed and glided my way to the front door of the castle, unknowingly completely bypassing the entire interior and buildup to the calamity ganon fight. it was awesome and memorable. was totally surprised when i walked in and it popped off.

but the new donk city festival is a staggeringly constructed work of art/set piece. different types of experiences, equally concentrated video game pleasure

climbing and gliding were my favorite parts of that game, you did it right.

the fact that you can just go kill the main boss in a half an hour is really cool, you play rest of the game because you want to

I tried going straight from the Great Plateau to Ganon on a recent playthrough and got my butt whooped

Oh, I just meant that the size and detail of Hyrule Castle-- which was especially "concentrated with content" compared to the rest of a rather breezy and spacious game-- felt like such a true "final level" and also a satisfying culmination of decades of versions of the place. The closest analog I can think of design-wise is the palace in Ico

New Donk City was fine, it felt like GTA in a snowglobe with Gap commercial big band accompaniment

the level itself is middle-of-the-pack for odyssey (wooded and luncheon are kings of kingdoms) but the Gap Band is on fire imo

the botw hyrule castle theme is also one of the great pieces of zelda music, i believe, and that's a rarified list

if Odyssey were soundtracked by the Gap Band it would have won my vote

i like new donk more than luncheon but agree that wooded kingdom is the best in that game

in large part because its the one that feels most like a 64 level

I really enjoyed Bowser's Kingdom in Odyssey

It is interesting to me that I have only vague recollections of Snow Kingdom and Lost Kingdom, i.e., especially compared to pretty-much everywhere in BOTW. I remember every labyrinth and beach from BOTW, the only unmemorable part of that game was that weird beachside town where it felt kinda un-adventurous.

I'm a big Galaxy 1/2 stan and idk Odyssey's levels were just so un-inventive... they felt like throwbacks to 64 but without the magic of 64

idk I definitely had a moment where I tripped over a moon on the.. moon, and said ffs these moons are basically Yugoslavian dinars

BOTW is the better complete package, but Odyssey has better individual moments. Especially when you possess Bowser in the finale and it plays that sick power-pop song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN6MwwnDmTI

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RIP Mario

mario has died

this thread is starting to feel unwelcoming and in fact even unsafe for mario and mario fans, mods

Fear not! On the third day, Mario will rise again in glory

wait, I'm a day off. ffs

you publicly predicted a resurrection but were 1 day off. everybody is focusing on how you were 1 day off. nobody congratulates you for calling the resurrection!

Oh wow yeah I forgot about the final boss fight in Odyssey, that was amazing. Prob my favourite Bowser since Yoshi's Island

the bowser escape song gives me "kids in america" vibes, not the kim wilde version but the muffs' version that was in clueless

cant wait to do things by thinking whats even possible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6qna-ZCbxA

oops worng zelda thread

Unused Mario model found in the files of Mario Superstar Baseball. The model assigns a skin texture to Mario's mustache, hair, eyebrows and shoes. pic.twitter.com/yPavMUP5gd

— Supper Mario Broth (@MarioBrothBlog) April 30, 2023

nice, lookin good