Tips and Tricks for beating Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey (Image credit: Nintendo)

If you're a Nintendo fan, then you probably already have your hands on the latest Super Mario game. Whether you've just started playing the game or you're making your second tour through the Kingdoms already, we have some tips and tricks to make this game even more fun.

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Controls

I know this one seems obvious, but it is still rather important. Once you meet Cappy, the game will be pretty adamant on you using the shake feature to control the hat. It doesn't matter if you're using Joy-Cons or a Pro Controller, motion actions make your trip through this game a lot more complete. This feature is great, making you feel as though you're actually in the game. Get used to moving a little when playing this game, and it will be a lot more fun.

When you're fighting your first minor boss, Cappy will tell you to jump on them. After a few tries and some research, this move turned out to be quite simple, which was a bit frustrating. Once you have the boss knocked out, Cappy will tell you when to jump on them. Once you see this text, press A or B to jump above the boss and Y or X smash on top of them. You should only need to do this three times to defeat them, and it's very nostalgic to the way you defeated enemies in the old Mario games.

The Action Guide is incredibly helpful, in order to figure certain moves like Mario's back flip. In order to be able to use these more advanced moves, you can access the Action Guide on the pause menu. This will show you all moves you can use when battling bad guys. Scrolling through this and practicing the moves before going into battle is definitely going to better your chances at a smoother, faster fight. Also, using Mario's back flip or stomp jump can help you reach higher ledges, and using Cappy can help you jump over larger gaps.

Moon Power

Once you get your ship, the Odyssey, you will have to find moons as your power source to go to other kingdoms. You travel throughout each kingdom in order to find the moons unique to that area. Each kingdom has different kinds of moons, and you will need a certain amount of moons in order to leave that kingdom. However, there are a ton more hidden moons throughout every area than just the given amount. Finding these hidden moons is the most fun I've had, in my opinion, in the game.

Some areas that have the hidden moons have a golden hat over the door. Once you go in these areas, you will have to control characters that you have already controlled in that kingdom in order to beat the puzzles in these hidden rooms. After solving these puzzles and grabbing the hidden moons, a green tube will appear for you to exit the rooms, back into the world. Keep your eyes peeled though, rarely will the obvious moon you see at the end of the puzzle be the only moon in this area.

Shops

The shops in this game are very important to the gameplay. Picking up gold coins is now made more important than ever, seeing as every time you die, you lose coins. There are also coins unique to each Kingdom, which are often a little more hidden. Gold coins will help you buy items such as health and clothing, but Kingdom coins are initially for something a little more important. Purchasing the limited clothing in the different Kingdoms can unlock different areas and abilities you otherwise wouldn't be able to do. This often means more Power Moons, so keep an eye out.

You can also use coins to get hints from Hint Toad as to where Power Moons might be in each world. He shows up in the Sand Kingdom after a battle with one of the sub bosses. This is rather important because some moons are very hard to track down. Also, each city has specific coins you can pick up to purchase items, which is a great way to keep your regular coins as high as you can.

Cappy

As you already know, you can use Cappy to control other animals. At the very beginning, you learn just how easy this is. Wondering how you can tell what you can and can't control? The game lets you know by placing a small, white arrow above what you can control with Cappy.

In two-player mode, Cappy is a little different. Player Two controls Cappy completely independently from Mario most of this time, even when you have taken over another creature with Cappy. There are parts of the game where controlling Cappy separately from controlling another character is a huge advantage, but as a trade-off you lose the auto-targeting throw Mario has in single player. Choose wisely!

Spoilers — Those strange metal boxes?

As you make your way throughout the Kingdoms, you might notice these random metal boxes. If you've seen them around these worlds, then you've also noticed that there's nothing you can do with them. You aren't missing out on anything here, these boxes aren't important until you have completed the story.

Once you finish the game, you will be able to access the boxes in every kingdom. You'll have to go around the Kingdoms and break open every box, sending more moons throughout the kingdom. You can open the boxes by using Ground Pound, and you will be able to see all of the moons on the map. You're going to really need those extra Power Moons, so make sure you go back to each Kingdom and open them up!

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Kennedy Maring