Game of the Year 2017: Rebekah’s picks

Rebekah’s Game of the Year #3 – Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild paired well with one another in 2017. While Breath of the Wild (which I’ll visit momentarily) took a familiar series several leaps forward, Odyssey refined what we already knew and loved about Mario and sharpened it into a raucous celebration of the plumber in red. It blended classic Mario with modern 3D stylings in flashy, exciting ways while inviting the player to engage with the world at every turn. Power Moons earned from simply turning a corner at the right time spurred me onward to pursue the more difficult ones found beyond platforming challenges, and the game’s “epilogue” of sorts put a Cappy on the adventure through a near-perfect summary of all I had done.

Super Mario Odyssey delights in itself and in the player, making you feel brilliant for doing anything at all and constantly welcoming the player to bask in the environments, music, quirky little characters, and built-in puzzles. I don’t return to the game because I have any illusions I’ll collect all its Power Moons, but I do keep visiting just to participate in the happiest video game out this year. Nintendo must’ve known we needed it.