Super Mario Odyssey is one of the best-games of the year, and the sense of wonder and exploration that Nintendo packed into each of the levels is a big reason why it’s so enjoyable to play. Each area is absolutely packed with secrets, easter eggs and hidden paths.
But you can go even further.
The game’s jumping mechanics can be exploited in a number of ways if you want to get to places that seem to be off-limits in the course of the regular game. It’s the sort of thing that speedrunners live for and can lead to shortcuts through the levels, but players are discovering that Nintendo knew about many of these areas and placed piles of coins in many of them as a reward for your creativity.
Finding clever ways to break levels in #SuperMarioOdyssey is not only possible, but rewarded. One of the reasons this game rules. pic.twitter.com/fuaniv9AEn
— Polyhex (@PolyhexGames) October 28, 2017
You can watch a video of another hidden area at the top of this post.
This sort of thing shows the steady, confident hand Nintendo brings to its first-party games. It wouldn’t have been fair to hide moons up there — only the best players are going to be able to figure out how to string together these jumps — but leaving these sections empty would also be a wasted opportunity.
The piles of coins are a nice way for Nintendo to tell players that it sees them, and knew these techniques existed, without breaking the game’s difficulty.
