10 Things You Didn't Know About Super Mario Odyssey

Nintendo began production on the long-anticipated follow-up to Super Mario Galaxy 2 soon after the relatively lukewarm reception of Super Mario 3D Land. In an effort to shake up the formula and ensure this yet-to-be-named follow-up would be as exciting as possible, the development team threw around a tonne of ideas to ensure they'd create a unique game.

One of the earliest -- and without a doubt the most pivotal -- was the idea that Mario should be able to throw his cap at enemies as a sort of projectile. But this wasn't because the development team had a stroke of genius and foresight into the popularity of the capture mechanic now associated with the game.

Much like development of first-party games for the Wii, the team wanted to figure out how they could utilise the Nintendo Switch's unique Joy-Con controls in the most innovative way. The team found that it was fun simply to flick a Joy-Con, with a resultant action occurring in-game. This translated to Mario throwing his hat: the capture mechanic was added later to make this ability more exciting and unique.

It's very likely that if the Switch had a traditional controller, the idea of Mario throwing his cap would have never been thought of, and Mario Odyssey would have been a very different game.