Matthew Byrd

Jan 18, 2019

The wide wide world of Nintendo games comes to Super Mario Odyssey courtesy of these mods.

Some new Super Mario Odyssey mods bring classic Nintendo levels to the Switch hit. 

These levels come from a modder named ItzSka who has been posting videos of his work on YouTube. He’s added levels to the game from titles like Banjo-Kazooie, Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and more. So far, many of the levels added seem to retain the basic visual style and design principles of the ones they are based on.

That style choice results in some fascinating – if slightly disorienting – new areas. All of the areas have been upgraded in ways that incorporate Odyssey‘s core moon hunting gameplay (even if those moons have been changed to more area-appropriate items), but areas like Clanker’s Cavern retain their original looks impeccably well. Their mix of blurred textures and hi-res objects reads less like a stylistic choice and more like a by-product of the difficult process of incorporating these levels into the game. 

Still, there’s something undeniably charming and appealing about the whole idea of adding retro levels to the game. After all, Nintendo themselves did something similar with the surprise Mushroom Kingdom level from Mario 64 that can eventually be unlocked in Odyssey. While these modded levels don’t showcase quite the same level of craft as that official re-visit (nor would we expect them to), they do show that there’s a lot more that can be done with this concept. 

Have a look for yourself here…

If you fancy having a go at these nostalgic experiences, you can find the files and instructions for these modded levels here. Just be warned they’re not the easiest things to install (compared to PC mods) and Nintendo hasn’t exactly treated this kind of custom content fondly in the past. 

We’ll keep bringing you gaming news as it happens.