12 Nintendo Switch Exclusives - Ranked From Worst To Best

5. Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario Odyssey
Nintendo

To some it will be sacrilege that Mario Odyssey is not higher or in the top spot, but I put it to you that this otherwise immaculate game - when taken as a whole - is not as consistently high in quality as the likes of Zelda or even other Mario games on the Switch. Levels like the Wooded, Cloud and Ruined Kingdoms really lack the sort of ingenuity we've come to expect from platform-debuting Marios, and though notable highlights Metro and Seaside Kingdom gave us plenty of secrets and things to uncover, it creates one hell of a jagged line of quality.

Let's not dwell on the negatives though, as this is the best Mario has ever moved, animated and controlled. The occasional throwbacks to old-school 2D Mario - where he leaps into parts of the levels - are genius, with the game's copying ability letting you play as everything from Goombas to random NPCs, unlocking more series' of platforms you likely missed first time through.

Where the game finally gets bogged down is in a relentless quest to find hundreds of collectibles, just to progress into the post-credits "real" final battle. Everything else is of such a high quality, it's a shame that level of thought wasn't put into Odyssey's overall structure.

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Gaming Editor
Gaming Editor

WhatCulture's Head of Gaming.