10 Reasons Super Mario Odyssey Isn't Game Of The Year

1. It's Heavily Reliant On Nostalgia

The last few years of media consumption in general have made it abundantly clear that nostalgia is an incredibly powerful tool: the likes of Star Wars and Jurassic Park have been resurrected with reboot-sequel movies to huge success, Stranger Things trips over itself to tip its hat to 80s culture, and video game remasters have never been more popular.

As such it's easy to understand why Odyssey leans into this, not only being inherently indebted to the brilliant Super Mario 64, but including numerous 8-bit-style stages which lovingly recall the franchise's earlier days.

The levels are great fun to play, but it also feels like a GOTY winner should really be moving things forward rather than using the past as a heartstring-tugging crutch.

In a year where Zelda managed to reinvent itself without pulling the nostalgia card anywhere as much and Horizon Zero Dawn blew everyone away, does such a reliance on the past really make it truly GOTY-caliber?

Is Super Mario Odyssey your own personal GOTY, or is it not even close? Shout it out in the comments!