Super Mario Odyssey is a 3D action-adventure platformer for the Nintendo Switch, released on 27 October 2017. It is the eighth 3D entry in the Super Mario series and the first built for a hybrid console — and it was a flagship system-seller that drew near-universal acclaim.

The game marks a deliberate return to the open, exploration-driven “sandbox” style of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. Rather than linear stages, Mario travels between large, self-contained Kingdoms, each with its own theme, inhabitants, and a wealth of hidden objectives, collecting Power Moons to power up his airship, the Odyssey, and journey onward.

Its defining new idea is Cappy — a sentient hat who becomes Mario’s cap and grants the Capture ability, letting Mario throw Cappy onto enemies and objects to take them over and borrow their powers. From possessing a Bullet Bill to fly across a gap, to becoming a towering T-Rex, capture is the creative heart of the whole adventure.

The story opens in the skies above Peach’s Castle, with Mario and Bowser already mid-battle aboard Bowser’s airship — Peach held captive on board. Bowser knocks Mario’s cap off (it’s shredded in the propellers) and flings Mario from the ship, then speeds off to prepare a forced wedding to the Princess.

Mario crash-lands in the Cap Kingdom, where he meets Cappy, a Bonneter whose sister Tiara has also been kidnapped by Bowser — to serve as Peach’s wedding tiara. The two team up: Cappy becomes Mario’s new cap and they board the airship Odyssey to chase Bowser across the globe, foiling his wedding preparations kingdom by kingdom.

Bowser has recruited the Broodals, a family of rabbit wedding planners, to pilfer wedding goods from each kingdom — a cake, a dress, a ring, flowers, and more. Mario pursues them to the Moon for the climactic showdown, ultimately rescuing Peach (and Tiara). In the finale, both Mario and Bowser try to win Peach over — and she rejects them both, leaving together with neither.

Odyssey drops the central hub world of its predecessors in favour of a world map from which Mario selects kingdoms. Each kingdom is a sandbox packed with secrets, and the goal in each is to gather enough Power Moons to refuel the Odyssey and unlock the next destination.

Power Moons

• The core collectible — Power Moons are hidden absolutely everywhere, found by solving puzzles, defeating bosses, exploring, capturing the right enemy, or spotting subtle environmental clues
• More than you need — each kingdom always offers far more Moons than required to leave, so players choose their own path or aim for 100%
• Hundreds to find — between the main story and the vast post-game, there are well over 800 Power Moons across all kingdoms
• Coins & Crazy Cap — regular and purple regional coins are spent at Crazy Cap shops on costumes, souvenirs, and even more Moons

Movement & Co-op

Mario keeps his full 3D moveset — Triple Jump, Long Jump, Dive, Ground Pound, somersaults — now extended by a rich set of Cappy techniques like the Cap Throw, Cap Jump, and Cap Bounce that reward clever chaining. A two-player co-op mode lets a second player control Cappy independently while player one controls Mario.

The signature mechanic of Super Mario Odyssey is Capture (officially “capturing”). By throwing Cappy onto a suitable enemy or object, Mario can take control of it, borrowing its abilities and form — his cap and moustache appearing on the captured creature as a visual tell.

• About half the game’s enemies are capturable, each granting a different power — capture a Bullet Bill to fly across chasms, a Chain Chomp to smash walls, a Cheep Cheep to breathe underwater, or a Hammer Bro/Fire Bro for projectile attacks
• Iconic captures include a T-Rex, a Lakitu (to fish), a Spark Pylon (to zip along power lines), and even non-enemy objects like a manhole, a taxi, or a moon rock
• Cappy is also a tool outside capture — used as a platform, a projectile, to collect coins, pull levers, and reveal hidden items

Mario’s journey spans seventeen named locations, most of them “Kingdoms,” each with a distinct theme, local inhabitants, currency, and capturable creatures. Bowser raids many of them for wedding items. Here is the full itinerary, in roughly the order Mario visits them.

Cap Kingdom

Bonneton — home of the Bonneters

A foggy, top-hat-themed land shrouded in mist where Mario first meets Cappy. Home of the hat-like Bonneters, whose airships Bowser stole.

Cascade Kingdom

Fossil Falls

A prehistoric canyon of waterfalls and dinosaur bones where Mario first captures a T-Rex and repairs the Odyssey to begin his voyage.

Sand Kingdom

Tostarena

A vast desert with an inverted pyramid, home to the skeletal Tostarenans. Bowser steals a wedding ring here; Mario battles a Broodal and explores icy underground ruins.

Lake Kingdom

Lake Lamode

An underwater fashion capital home to the Lochladies, where Bowser pilfers a wedding dress. Mario captures Cheep Cheeps to swim its depths.

Wooded Kingdom

Steam Gardens

A forested robot-tended greenhouse cared for by Steam Gardeners, where Bowser steals wedding flowers and a giant mechanical threat looms.

Cloud Kingdom

Nimbus Arena

A small sky-bound stop above the clouds, serving as a brief story interlude and a second Broodal encounter.

Lost Kingdom

Forgotten Isle

A dense, swampy jungle island of strange flora and Tropical Wigglers, off the main path and rich with secrets.

Metro Kingdom

New Donk City

The fan-favourite highlight — a bustling, realistic metropolis modelled on New York City, run by Mayor Pauline. Mario captures taxis, manholes and power lines, and the kingdom climaxes with a 2D-meets-3D festival set to “Jump Up, Super Star!”

Snow Kingdom

Shiveria

A frozen tundra above an underground village of the Shiverians, featuring the high-speed Bound Bowl Grand Prix race.

Seaside Kingdom

Bubblaine

A sparkling seaside resort of glass and fizzy water, home to the Bubblainians and the giant boss Mollusque-Lanceur, guarding the Sparkle Water.

Luncheon Kingdom

Mount Volbono

A food-themed land of lava-stew volcanoes inhabited by the fork-like Volbonans, where Mario captures a Hammer Bro and a Lava Bubble.

Ruined Kingdom

Crumbleden

A small, desolate ruin serving as the arena for the epic battle against the Ruined Dragon, a hulking dragon boss.

Bowser’s Kingdom

Bowser’s Castle

A Japanese-inspired castle in the clouds, defended by Hammer Bros and the Broodals’ leader Madame Broode. Bowser collects the final wedding goods here.

Moon Kingdom

Honeylune Ridge

The setting of the wedding finale — a stark lunar surface and underground chapel where Mario confronts Bowser, then captures Bowser himself for the escape.

Dark Side

Rabbit Ridge

A challenging post-game kingdom unlocked after collecting Moons across all kingdoms — home to a Broodal rematch and tough platforming.

Darker Side

Culmina Crater

The ultimate end-game challenge, requiring 500 Power Moons to enter — a brutal gauntlet of every capture and skill the game has taught, ending with the final Multi Moon.

Odyssey introduces a memorable supporting cast alongside the familiar Mushroom Kingdom faces.

Mario

The hero, on a global voyage to stop Bowser’s wedding. Keeps his full 3D moveset, now extended by Cappy.

Cappy

A Bonneter who becomes Mario’s cap, enabling the Capture ability. Joins to rescue his kidnapped sister, Tiara.

Tiara

Cappy’s sister, kidnapped to become Peach’s wedding tiara. The companion-equivalent on Peach’s side.

Pauline

The original Donkey Kong damsel, reinvented as the singing Mayor of New Donk City and voice of “Jump Up, Super Star!”

Bowser

The antagonist, dressed in a sharp white wedding suit, scouring the globe for goods for his forced marriage to Peach.

The Band

Pauline’s New Donk City band, assembled across the Metro Kingdom for the climactic festival performance.

Each kingdom also has its own charming local species — the Bonneters (Cap), Tostarenans (Sand), Lochladies (Lake), Steam Gardeners (Wooded), Shiverians (Snow), Bubblainians (Seaside), and Volbonans (Luncheon) — plus returning helpers like Captain Toad and Toadette hidden throughout.

Odyssey features thirteen bosses, most rewarding a Multi Moon (worth three Power Moons) when beaten. Nearly every fight is built around clever use of Cappy and capture.

The Broodals & Madame Broode

The recurring antagonists are the Broodals — a quartet of rabbit wedding planners (Topper, Hariet, Spewart, and Rango) who pilfer wedding goods on Bowser’s behalf and travel by airship. Each is fought twice, the rematch tougher. Their boss is Madame Broode, who fights using a giant Chain Chomp named Chain Chompikins. The Broodals visually echo the Koopalings and narratively fill the Bowser Jr. role from the Galaxy games.

Other Major Bosses

• Madame Broode — Cascade Kingdom, with her Chain Chomp
• Knucklotec — a giant ice-fist guardian in the Sand Kingdom
• Mollusque-Lanceur — a flamboyant octopus boss in the Seaside Kingdom
• Cookatiel — a stew-stirring bird boss in the Luncheon Kingdom
• The Ruined Dragon — a colossal dragon in the Ruined Kingdom
• RoboBrood — a giant mech piloted by the Broodals
• Bowser — the multi-stage finale on the Moon, after which Mario captures Bowser himself to escape a collapsing cave

About half of Odyssey’s ~47 enemies are capturable, and their placement is carefully designed to teach and reward the capture mechanic. Defeated enemies usually respawn in a pulsing cloud so the capture stays available.

Notable Captures & Helpers

• Combat-style captures — Hammer Bro, Fire Bro, Bullet Bill, Banzai Bill, Sherm (tank), Pokio
• Traversal captures — Cheep Cheep (swim), Glydon (glide), Spark Pylon (zip lines), Jaxi (ride a lion statue)
• Puzzle captures — Moe-Eye (reveal hidden platforms with sunglasses), Uproot, Tropical Wiggler, Goomba (stack into a tower)
• Spectacle captures — the Tyrannosaurus (T-Rex), Chain Chomp, Dorrie, and even objects like taxis, manholes, zippers and rockets

At Crazy Cap shops, Mario can buy dozens of costumes (a hat-and-suit pair) using coins and regional purple coins. Some are needed to access certain Power Moons (a door may demand a specific outfit), and many reference Mario history — the classic overalls, the builder outfit, the 8-bit Mario suit, a tuxedo for the wedding, and amiibo-unlockable looks. Tapping Super Mario series amiibo unlocks costumes early and reveals hint-Moon locations.

Balloon World is an online hide-and-seek minigame added in a free update on 21 February 2018. Find Luigi in a kingdom to start: in “Hide It” mode you stash a balloon in a tricky spot within a time limit, and in “Find It” mode you race to pop balloons hidden by players around the world. The trickier the placement, the more coins at stake — a clever community-driven use of the kingdoms’ geometry that extended the game’s life considerably.

Super Mario Odyssey was developed by Nintendo EPD, the team behind the 3D Mario line, and directed by Kenta Motokura with Yoshiaki Koizumi producing.

• First teased in the Nintendo Switch announcement trailer (October 2016) and formally revealed at the Switch Presentation on 13 January 2017, where its New Donk City reveal was the most-viewed trailer of the event.
• A return to sandbox Mario — a deliberate move back to the open exploration of Mario 64/Sunshine after the more linear Galaxy and 3D Land/World games.
• The capture mechanic grew out of the team’s desire to do something genuinely new with Mario’s cap, becoming the design pillar around which kingdoms were built.
• Launched alongside a special red Joy-Con Switch bundle and a starter pack.

Official Nintendo trailers for Super Mario Odyssey.

Super Mario Odyssey was met with near-universal critical acclaim and is frequently ranked among the greatest games of its generation — and the best 3D platformers ever made.

Acclaim

• Metacritic 97 — one of the highest-rated games on the Switch and in the entire Mario series
• Inventive capture mechanic — praised as a brilliant, endlessly creative idea that reinvents how a Mario world is explored
• Dense, joyful design — the sheer density and variety of Power Moons and secrets drew particular praise
• New Donk City & “Jump Up, Super Star!” — the musical festival sequence became an instant series highlight
• Awards — won numerous Game of the Year and Best Family Game honours, and sold over 27 million copies, making it one of the best-selling Switch games

Minor Criticisms

The few critiques were mild: some found the boss fights relatively easy, the motion-control-reliant advanced cap moves occasionally fiddly in handheld mode, and the post-game Moon hunt (with some Moons bought rather than earned) a touch padded. None dented its standing as a landmark title.

• Eighth 3D Super Mario game and the first built for a hybrid console.
• “Jump Up, Super Star!” — performed by Pauline — was the first full vocal theme song in a mainline Mario game, and a centrepiece of the marketing.
• Pauline’s reinvention — the original 1981 Donkey Kong damsel returns as the glamorous, singing Mayor of New Donk City.
• The Capture mechanic lets Mario control around two dozen different enemies and objects, including a T-Rex.
• Over 800 Power Moons exist between the main game and post-game across all kingdoms.
• The Darker Side requires 500 Power Moons to even enter — the game’s ultimate challenge.
• Peach rejects both Mario and Bowser in the finale — a rare comedic subversion of the rescue trope.
• New Donk City is the most realistic human city ever shown in a Mario platformer, with Mario appearing tiny beside its citizens.
• Metacritic 97, and over 27 million copies sold.
• Balloon World, a free online hide-and-seek mode, was added in February 2018.
• amiibo support — the Odyssey Mario, Peach, and Bowser wedding amiibo unlock costumes and hint Moons.
• The 8-bit wall-running sections pay homage to the original Donkey Kong and 2D Mario.

Box art and logo for Super Mario Odyssey.

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Screenshots and artwork appear throughout the sections above. Additional footage is in the Videos section.