Open Thread is where Waypoint staff talk about games and other things we find interesting. This is where you'll see us chat about games, music, movies, TV, and even sports, and welcome you to participate in the discussion.I’m a big fan of YouTube critic Joseph Anderson. His long, considered, thoughtful takes on games like Prey, Breath of the Wild, and now, Super Mario Odyssey are the stuff of like, five very happy lunch breaks each. I don’t always agree with his opinions, in fact, I disagreed with most of his thoughts on Breath of the Wild’s shrines. But I always come away from his videos respecting the method and the arguments.I really enjoyed Super Mario Odyssey last year—enough to land it on my top ten list. But I need to play more, and I definitely did get the feeling that things were a bit different here, with an emphasis on adventure game-style parsing of the world over the more traditional platforming approach.While I was open to that, Anderson comes down hard on what he sees as filler content, and he breaks down the game’s whopping 880 moons. He makes a very compelling case for being judicious with content, and definitely draws a firm parallel with BOTW’s Korok seeds (of which there are 900, and you get a sort of troll achievement for getting them all, poking fun at completionist instincts).He makes a strong case, and covers counter-arguments well.I’m not even sure I agree, but, as ever, it’s fun to watch him work so thoroughly through his points. He played the game twice in making the video—along with the other 3D Mario games—so, he isn’t going for the jugular with a dull knife.Have thoughts? Swing by Waypoint’s forums to share them!
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