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Super Mario Odyssey - 5 mobile alternatives

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Super Mario Odyssey - 5 mobile alternatives
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| Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario Odyssey for Switch hits shops and doormats today. Trust me, you're in for a treat.

Unless you don't have a Switch, of course, in which case you will be sad and you will cry.

I'm not going to lie to you - there's nothing that even approaches Odyssey's 3D platforming majesty on iOS or Android. Don't feel too bad. There's nothing like it on PS4 or Xbox One either.

But there are some great mobile platformers out there that capture a certain amount of Super Mario Odyssey's magic in various ways. Check these mobile alternatives out while you weep into your cereal.

Super Mario Run

Let's get the most obvious one out of the way. Yes, we now actually have a Mario platformer to play on our mobile phones - and it's not through a dodgy emulator or anything!

Super Mario Run is a the opposite end of the Mario game scale to Super Mario Odyssey in depth and scale, but it's still Mario. There are still question mark boxes and tactile jumping and coins and secrets and Bowser.

Gunbrick

Super Mario Odyssey is downright weird - and that's mostly a good thing. It does plenty of crazy and unexpected things with the well-worm platformer format.

When I think about a mobile game that shows similar disregard for platforming etiquette while remaining cute and approachable I think of Nitrome's Gunbrick. The rigid, awkward way your character moves and jumps is not what you'd expect, and it takes on flavours of maze-escape puzzlers and shooters as a result.

ReRunners

Some of the most difficult, pure challenges in Super Mario Odyssey come from their foot races. These see you racing a bunch of koopa troopers across the game's wonderfully inventive levels.

ReRunners is a 2D platformer built entirely around this kind of premise. It's quick, lovely to look at, and really rather brilliant. Oh, and unlike Super Mario Odyssey's equivalent sections, it's multiplayer.

Vulture Island

Super Mario Odyssey's seems pretty easy-going on its surface, but it's packed full of perplexing mysteries and secrets if you're willing to look a little closer.

Vulture Island takes a lot of influence from classic 2D Mario games, but its link to Super Mario Odyssey lies more in its open, non-linear structure. It almost feels like an adventure game at times.

Tentacles: Enter The Mind

It's A bit of a left-field choice, this one, but Tentacles: Enter The Mind is a fitting Super Mario Odyssey alternative pick for a couple of reasons.

For one thing it's a bright, chunky, coin-collecting 3D platformer (the only one on this list) with a decidedly off-kilter tone. Sound familiar? Plus, the protagonist moves in a highly unorthodox manner, which rather reminds us of some of the weird and wonderful creatures Mario can possess in Odyssey.

Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.