Once again Bowser is defeated. This time in Mario Odyssey. It was very cool to play a Mario game again. The last time was years ago when I played Mario 3D World (which I’m currently also re-playing btw.) It’s incredible how much new and exciting things Nintendo manages to put into these games every time while also keeping in so much recognizable stuff. That’s especially noticeable when you go back and play the older entries in the series. My only gripes with Odyssey are that’s its a bit too easy and the camera still often hampers gameplay. There are simply too many moons (why not stars?) lying around. We (I played it with my son. Each of us taking turns and not in the Mario/Cappie modus) could have done with less of them so it would be more necessary to explore the whole level. Now I guess we haven’t collected half of the moons in a level and we’re not motivated to go back and get all of them. And that’s simply a waste.

Although we have beaten Bowser and we won’t go back to collect more moons. We aren’t yet done with the game. There’s a very nice surprise after the final battle and it provided me with the opportunity to show my son the inspiration for it. And while we experienced some inconvenience with the camera, that showed us that improvements in that area certainly have been made.

And then there’s Simon the Sorcerer II. I continued with that and did the following:

• Last time Simon was stuck facing two tied up demons blocking his way into the treasury. He thought about a logical solution, even a moon one, but couldn’t come up with anything that worked. His puppeteer then went to UHS and after that made him buy balloons, tie them to a rack and float to the treasury. He is inclined to go back to figure out which hints are dropped to get him to move in this direction.
• After that there came a fun sequence on a boat, which gave him strong Monkey Island vibes.
• Simon found an eyepatch, a postcard and a parrot. He traded the eyepatch for some glasses.
• Simon pushed a pirate overboard, which he justified because they want to kill him. And also because he’s a prick.
• After that he took the plank,, a hammer and a welding torch. He climbed to the crow’s nest and put the postcard in front of the telescope.
• Simon switched his pirate for the navigating and and used gum to stick it upright. This way he solved a puzzle he was only vaguely aware of.
• He cut down a hammock with a knife and got the tinderbox, which he used with the blowtorch to cut open the lock to the hold. That only worked the second time after he hammered the plank over the door.
• After that, Simon got shipwrecked and lost all his inventory. Even the crowbar, which got him worried he could ever return home. Luckily there was a shovel nearby. A poor replacement for a crowbar, but the next best thing to have in an adventure game.
• He build a sandcastle and being the prick that he is, made the beachcomber fall into the hole.
• Simon talked to a genie and realized he must sober him up to make him useful.
• The dealer has caffeine pills that might do the job, but they are three Bungas. He could win those with the competition. But how?
• After some wandering about, he managed to bypass the big dog by picking it up. Once again strong Monkey Island vibes. He drank decaf and there was a cool intermezzo.
• After that is was easy to get the torture machine going, but for what end was still unclear.
• To make the Monkey Island connection even more clear, Simon said that he could hold his breath for ten minutes. Being the prick that he is, I would have thought he would claim he could hold it for eleven minutes, but no.
• After more wandering around, Simon managed to win the competition by cheating which was fun. Sadly his puppeteer didn’t think of this solution himself, but just got lucky, as is the case with more puzzles in this game.
• With the coffee Simon managed to progress further, which I’ll talk about the next time.