10 Underrated PVP Modes In Video Games

As with the Legend of Zelda series, the mainline Super Mario titles are primarily single-player. Odyssey offered an optional co-op experience in which one player took the role of Mario’s new friend Cappy, but this made the core game very different.

The levels are, in places, built around the player’s deft manipulation of Cappy, charging Mario with bouncing off his friend to make clever jumps and cross ground. Co-op negated this somewhat, but was still a blast. Long after the game’s initial release, it was updated with a curious new mode that added a competitive element: Luigi’s Balloon World.

This new mode demanded good knowledge of the game’s wide open worlds. It tasked one player with hiding a rather inconspicuous balloon somewhere (in a sneaky little cave or behind a building, for instance), and the other had a limited time to find it.

Through online play, it was possible to hunt the balloons of players all around the world. A simple idea, but the lure of trying to find just one more was tricky to resist. Your performance is even ranked, fleshing out Mario's historic collect-a-thon gameplay in a notably fresh way.