Super Mario Odyssey comes out in two weeks. Some players are so eager to race through the game that they’ve started recording ‘speedruns’ at demo kiosks in department stores.
Demo speedruns are mostly a chance to experiment with the game’s movement mechanics. Mario has some pretty great jumps in Odyssey and the ability to possess different objects opens ups interesting ways to explore space. Possessing a Bullet Bill launches Mario across gaps while small hops can maintain Mario’s speed after rolling. Another run of the demo rushes to find as many collectables as possible. It’s silly but shows just how important routing paths through levels will be, especially for larger categories.
None of this is as serious as the initial routing of Breath of the Wild, where some runners had early copies of the game, but it’s still a fun look at how the game might look when Mario paces himself a bit more like Sonic the Hedgehog.