When I first saw the original announcement trailer for The Plucky Squire roughly a hundred years ago, I got pretty excited. Okay fine, it was closer to two and a half years ago but it feels like so many more. That video got me stoked because I was elated that someone loved the 2D/3D platforming tricks in Super Mario Odyssey so much that they decided to make an entire game out of them.
Nintendo’s 2017 Switch platforming opus Odyssey is not only a great sprawling 3D platforming adventure, it also has numerous charming moments where Mario jumps seamlessly into a two dimensional realm integrated flawlessly into the game world for a little classic 80’s style gameplay. That first Plucky trailer looked like it would expand that concept into a whole game, but set inside a bedroom and a fictional kid’s storybook rather than the big weird world of the Mushroom Kingdom.
Now that the game is finally out — it’s actually much more than just an homage to the coolness that is Super Mario Odyssey. In fact, it’s as much a stitched-together compendium of Nintendo’s entire history, with nods to Zelda, Punch-Out, and other classics thrown on top of the Odyssey-esque gameplay hook. All of it is rendered with some of the best graphics I’ve seen in a smaller budget game in a long…
