Thanks to the recent success of Super Mario Odyssey, 3D World + Bowser's Fury, and the many other games that came before them, Mario is most likely going to be sticking around for a very long time. Fans will be celebrating the franchise's next anniversary with new games before long, and the chance of one future title being Super Mario Odyssey 2 is high. Though, if Nintendo decides to pursue a new 3D venture rather than returning to what Mario's first Switch title set up, then the next game is going to have some high expectations to meet in terms of its characters and gimmicks.
In Super Mario Odyssey, players were introduced to Cappy, a top-hat-like ghost from Bonneton. Cappy himself is described as being "energetic, but a bit timid," and gives plenty of charm to his first appearance by being afraid of Mario at first, before fixing the plumber's iconic hat. Cappy travels with Mario to help assist with saving Princess Peach as well as the hat ghost's sister Tiara, as the two have a common enemy in Bowser. With Cappy's support, Odyssey's worlds are almost expanded tenfold in size from the sheer exploration the Capture mechanic gives to the game.
Super Mario Odyssey's Capture Mechanic
While Super Mario Odyssey gives players almost limitless freedom and control, the game's maps are relatively small in scale compared to open-world games such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This doesn't hinder the title in any way, however, as the Capture mechanic makes up for what the game lacks in map size. By taking over frogs, Uproots, and many more, players have limitless ways to explore maps at their fingertips, with game design that rewards thinking outside of the box.
Capturing enemies gives players simple button prompts to make exploring easy to learn and rewarding to master in ways that make finding new enemies to throw Cappy at almost an adventure in itself. In regards to Super Mario Galaxy, which saw players using a Luma to achieve Mario's spin attack, Cappy feels like the perfect evolution and expansion upon that concept for 3D Mario titles. While Cappy is more of a character than Mario's Luma friend was, the ghost's character is handled in a non-invasive way that many players appreciated.
Mario & Cappy's Personalities
Nintendo for many years has believed that a good way to "link" players to the characters they control is to leave what they're like mostly up to interpretation, and one way the company does this with characters such as Mario is to leave them as semi-silent protagonists. This can be seen in games like Paper Mario, where the plumber never speaks outright, leaving it up to the player to fill in the blanks. How Cappy's character was handled ended up being a nice mix between endearing, not annoying, and full of charm.
Cappy may be his own character, but he mostly only speaks up with advice for the player that only appears once outside of certain situations, when players jump off ledges, and during select story beats. For a majority of the game, the most Cappy does is show his eyes during idle animations and yell in delight alongside Mario during gameplay. This avoids Cappy talking so much that players get tired of him, while also making sure his personality shines through in a way that works well with Mario being a charismatic and yet somewhat silent protagonist.
In regards to whatever comes next for Mario games, finding a new companion or friend for future titles that fill the space Cappy created almost perfectly alongside Mario will be no easy task to accomplish. Cappy being embedded in Odyssey's core gameplay made it easy for any fan to find the hat ghost memorable, thanks to throwing him everywhere and finding the perfect balance writing-wise for a new sidekick-like character may prove troublesome, as Cappy will be very hard to replace for several reasons.
However, this is only if Nintendo decides to do something new with Mario, rather than simply revisit Odyssey or make Cappy a recurring character in the series. Cappy returning to Odyssey 2 is almost a must, and there's plenty of potential to be had regarding other Odyssey characters. If Nintendo were to ever revisit Super Princess Peach, Cappy's sister Tiara could join on the adventure alongside her royal friend. There's a strong case for Cappy to remain as Mario's hat for plenty of future titles, but fans who want to see the ghost join on other adventures will need to wait and see if that's the case.
Super Mario Odyssey is available now on Nintendo Switch.