3: Super Mario Odyssey
The Switch is a fantastic console in so many ways, and after the failure of the Wii U, Nintendo came back stronger than ever. One of their masterstroke moves was to ensure that the Switch had a steady stream of heavy hitters which they hadn’t managed to consistently put out on the Wii U.
One of their smartest moves and biggest achievements was the double whammy of Zelda Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey within a year. Both games were strong contenders for the greatest game of the year and greatest game ever, which echoes what Nintendo managed with Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 back in the N64 era.
Just as Nintendo made Zelda much more open world, so they did the same with Mario, and created so many memorable levels which were all visually fun and gave the best variety since Mario 64. We had space levels, desert levels, a cool blocky retro graphics level, and perhaps most famously New Donk City which took a lot of cues from Mario’s origins in Donkey Kong. It also brought back Mario’s original girlfriend Pauline who is the mayor of the town and sings a song in the game which will be stuck in your head for weeks.
This game’s biggest innovation comes from a brilliant extension of the idea that different caps in Mario 64 would grant Mario different abilities. In this game Mario can possess (even though they don’t call it that) other being by throwing his hat at them and then gets to have a huge range of gameplay experiences as a result. One minute you can be running around as Mario bouncing off the heads of Goombas, and then the next you can be playing as a Goomba. A favourite though is that you can control a full sized T-Rex dinosaur which hilariously then sports Mario’s hat and moustache.
