The Mt. Rushmore of 3D Mario Action Games can finally be constructed

At first I was super skeptical if Odyssey would measure up to it's high expectations, as the game came off as if Nintendo was doing too much. What I mean by this is when I saw Mario conjure the dino in the trailer, I immediately thought, yeah this is kind of cool but why isn't it yoshi? Did Nintendo just do this to compete with the xbox and playstation to show off it could make realistic and graphically appealing sprites? (mind you the Wii U had flopped a couple years back). How would this fair with actual gameplay, and would the game contain features that would make it feel like we were still playing Mario? Not only were my fears and superstitions about the game completely off, but two things turned out to be true. 1.) that yoshi is actually in the game and becomes playable at some point, albeit through conjuring with the hat but still playable nonetheless and 2.) that this game would contain so many incredible and unique elements, I would be forced to carve a Mt. Rushmore out of stone and put this god damn title right next to the 3 Gods of action Marios; Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy. For one, we have a bunch of incredibly immersive worlds with a disgusting amount of objectives aka moons and a disgusting amount of variety on how to obtain them all. From going into warp pipes, doing little minigames, collecting coins, driving remote control cars, dancing on stages, turning into thunderbolts, transforming into goombas and bullet bills, traveling to obscure places around the map, and completing levels with in the levels, the variety and creativity the devs put into the gameplay is truly superb. There's even sections where Mario and the landscape turn back to pixelated 2D from the original Mario Brothers; one of these occurring on the side of a floating pyramid.....it's actually crazy. There is no central hub world in Odyssey like there was in the previous godly titles, but considering how much time you spend in each, they begin to feel central. Despite the new structure, Nintendo still made sure to steal a bit from each of the preceding goated 3D Mario's as well. For example, some of the moons you can only buy at a store using 100-1000 coins. This is similar to the system that is only in Sunshine, where you use blue coins to purchase additional shine sprites in the Rico Harbor hut. Moons are also found in similar ways to shine sprites, as like in Sunshine's hub world, cleaning the bell or shinegate can cause the player to receive a new shine for instance. Elements from galaxy can also be seen as it pertains to the spin attack. Instead of using fists and Luma to break shit, Mario uses cappy who does the same exact move only with more range. Additionally, the free movement of Mario particularly in the air with his cap is similar in the way the spin move in Galaxy gives Mario just enough height and buffering to reach a platform. But when it comes to Mario's ground movement, it's just like Mario 64, as it feels extremely similar in weight and speed. This makes sense considering he's not in space/slow, and he is for sure not as fast and sensitive as he was in Sunshine with the gamecube controller. He's just a normal dude, on I think, earth, like he was in Mario 64....which I also think was in fact earth? So basically the devs just walked up slowly and incorporated everything great about the gameplay of the last 3D Marios, and put it into one game. But the devs even went as far as making the entirety of Peach's Castle from Mario 64, a literal world. The best thing about this is there are even more objectives within this world, and it will only unlock AFTER the completion of the entire game. But even after this, there is still more content. Once you get 250 moons, you unlock dark side of the moon, which is essentially a bunch of boss battles you have to beat with limited heath. "But wait there's more!" - Billy Mays 2009. With 500 moons, you can then unlock darker side of the moon, which is an even harder enemy gauntlet. So, for what it's worth, you're getting a shit ton of content and there's just a shit ton to do. Not only this, but there's also a Mario 64 playable skin where Mario legitimately changes into the Mario 64 pixelated Mario, as well as the shine sprite shirt and sunglasses outfit, which is the same one Mario can obtain from a pinta after completion of Super Mario Sunshine. As a die hard Mario fan, these small yet meaningful elements of paying homage to prior Mario games, is why I love this game. And I will also say, the quest to get new outfits and skins in general becomes a meaningful incentive to play for as well. My only criticism is the way multiplayer is built. It's not terrible - one person is cappy while the other is Mario - but I guess I would have just liked a mode where two seperate players could be in these same hub worlds collecting the moons together. I think it may have felt less lonely and increased the fun. Maybe we see this in Odyssey 2.