As luck would have it, a hat-shaped ghost-like figure called Cappy is floating nearby and offers to help Mario pursue Bowser and rescue both Peach and Cappy’s sister Tiara. A brief introductory cutscene explains: Bowser – already optimistically dressed for his wedding – incapacitates Mario for long enough to make off with Peach, but not without stomping on his signature red cap. For Super Mario Odyssey, the first proper Mario adventure on the Nintendo Switch, it’s a new sentient hat. But after more than 30 years of at least one new Mario adventure per Nintendo console, it helps to have a feature that differentiates the latest from the last. In life, a few things are inevitable: death, taxes and the continual kidnapping of Princess Peach.
