'Super Mario Odyssey' players are coming up with next-level tricks in their hunt for Moons
Super Mario Odyssey is a revelatory Nintendo game.
Like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it's bigger than any prior game in the series and reinvents core ideas in new and unexpected ways. There's so much that's immediately familiar, but wrapped around it all is a newfound focus on freedom and creative problem-solving.
Before we go any further, let's talk about Moons. If you ever played Super Mario 64, you remember Stars. The more you collected from each world, the more worlds you could access. Moons work the same way in Odyssey: they are your one, true goal.
There's an important difference to keep in mind, however. Where Mario 64 challenged you to find 120 Stars, Odyssey has more than 800 Moons spread across 17 sprawling exploration zones and assorted challenge rooms.
A great many moons are either easy to find or pop up along straightforward routes that every player follows. There's not a small number of others, however, that are visible in some way but not obviously reachable.
In some cases, there's a secret tube to shuttle you there, or an enemy you can capture that gives you the ability to get there yourself. The hardest Moons combine those less-obvious solutions with pro-tier platforming puzzles.
In other words, you're not going to get them unless you figure out the thing and learn how to master Odyssey's tricky dive jump combo. That's the last important piece I'll explain before we get to the good stuff.
Mario has the ability to throw Cappy, his main weapon, like a boomerang. However, if you hold down the Y button when you throw Cappy (as opposed to just pressing it), Mario's magical hat hovers in place for a moment. If you run, jump, or -- vitally -- dive into it from there, you get an extra jump.
So if you want to give yourself extra distance, you jump forward (long jumps and triple jumps are best if you want distance) and then, in mid-air, throw Cappy and keep Y held down. Then, while you're still in the air, press and hold the left trigger (ZL) and quickly release Y and tap it.
Do it right and Mario will fling his body toward the hovering Cappy. You can only leap off of Cappy one time in the space of a single jump, but you can throw Cappy and dive into it again after pulling off a double jump, covering even more distance.
It sounds complicated because it is complicated. Like I said: pro-tier platforming. But master it and you can make magic happen. Just look at the methods some players have hatched for collecting various Moons and completing Koopa races.
Needless to say, puzzle spoilers ahead.
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There are lots of these videos kicking around already. There are no doubt still plenty of secrets to uncover in Super Mario Odyssey, and it seems like mastering moves like the dive jump combo is the key to getting you there.
Don't be afraid to experiment! The worst that happens is you plummet into a death pit and lose a few coins.
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
