Super Mario Odyssey, one of the biggest smash hits for the Nintendo Switch, received a free update Wednesday evening. Some interesting new costumes and photo options are included, but the star of the update is an all-new game mode: Balloon World, presented by Luigi.
That’s right, Luigi has finally made an appearance in Odyssey after almost four months. He doesn’t do much himself, but the game mode he presents is pretty awesome.
After defeating the main game, Luigi can be found in almost every kingdom, hovering just above the ground with balloons on his back. Speak to him (with internet access), and he will explain Balloon World, a mode that provides some sorely needed padding to Odyssey‘s postgame content.
Balloon World is split into two games: Hide It and Find It. As the names suggest, Mario hides a balloon around the kingdom in Hide It and attempts to find another player’s hidden balloon in Find It. In both games, the player is on a time limit, so quick movement and navigation are key. Here is an example of what Find it Looks like.
Loving the new mode #SuperMarioOdyssey #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/QdlLn8ij3R
— Felagund (@Felagund_Smash) February 23, 2018
Players can quickly rack up coins as reward for successfully finding balloons or when other players fail to find their hidden balloons. At one rotating kingdom at a time, a special offer will enhance how many coins can be earned at once. If people on your friends list have hidden balloons in the kingdom, they will appear first in the Find It list.
There is an arrow in Find It mode that points to the general direction of the hidden balloon to avoid players feeling totally lost, but it vanishes the more you move. This creates an interesting tradeoff between time efficiency and asking for help. In this way, the mode is accessible to both highly skilled players and casuals.
One of my favorite parts of the new mode is the multi-faceted ranking system, which tracks several different stats that each influence how fast you rise in rank and earn more coins. This really feels like it was built for players who want to challenge themselves, an aspect that is sorely lacking in the bulk of the game.
In our recent article “Bad Elements of Great Video Games,” we addressed the problem in Odyssey‘s mainline content: the abundant amount of worthless filler moons. Most of Mario’s options in the postgame are simply finding moons, moons, and more moons, and only a scarce few offer a real challenge or interesting mechanic to obtain.
The best parts of the postgame are minigames like Koopa’s Freerunning, a test of speedrunning prowess over a short section of each kingdom. These games shift the focus away from collectibles and allow experienced players to truly hone their skillset.
Balloon World is essentially a more fleshed out and diverse version of Koopa’s Freerunning. Instead of a handful of speed courses put together by the developers, Balloon World offers an infinite number of such courses created by the players themselves. Any nook and cranny that a player can possibly reach in thirty seconds can become the finish line to test another player’s skill.
Firsg hiding place #SuperMarioOdyssey #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/q4Jcv480Va
— Felagund (@Felagund_Smash) February 23, 2018
Instead of becoming more meaningless filler content, Balloon World takes the best elements of Odyssey (Mario’s movement and the engaging environments) and puts them front and center, allowing players to fill in the specifics themselves. I played with friends for a couple hours before writing this piece, hiding balloons from them and tracking theirs down almost as if we were playing a game of HORSE. I couldn’t put it down.
There are a few things that could be better. One of the ways to rank up is by finding several balloons consecutively without failing, but you’re allowed to retrieve balloons from your friends list over and over. It’s too easy to pad stats by simply grinding the same balloon.
Secondly, the amount of coin rewards seems to lean heavily toward Find It. Hide It is perhaps the more fun of the two games, but much less rewarding. Hopefully this will soon be balanced out.