Super Mario Odyssey Co-Op Has Been Confirmed, But It’s Not What You Expect

Yesterday, we reported the news that Super Mario Odyssey could be introducing some sort of multiplayer element when it debuts on the Nintendo Switch later this year. Today, we got the confirmation that it is happening, but not quite the way that you might think.

During today's live broadcast from the Nintendo Treehouse at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the publisher featured some new gameplay from the forthcoming adventure. At about the one hour and 27 minute point in the video (which you can see above), we get to see its multiplayer in action.

But it's not like the previously released Super Mario 3D World, where players got to control equal characters on the map. Instead, it's a matter of one player being in control of Mario, and the other being in charge of his hat buddy, Cappy. That means the second player's movements will be limited, though it'll still be interesting to see how this dynamic works generally with players.

By taking control of the hat, players will be able to do damage to enemies while hanging around Mario, and can also move around on their own, should Mario be doing something else at the time, like holding onto something. This will be especially useful, since Mario can't really throw his hat in single player if he's holding onto something else.

Nintendo also confirmed that Cappy will also be able to collect items within the worlds, including musical notes during puzzles. That said, more important stuff will still be left to Mario, like the Power Moons – Cappy won't be able to get these on their own.

In addition, the second player will also have control of the camera, just like the first player would. Hopefully, we won't see too many power struggles in this regard – it'd be great to see where we're going after all.

Check out the footage above, and get ready to take control of a hat like never before! We are talking about Cappy here, and he's probably more useful than, say, the hats that Mario has used in the past.

Super Mario Odyssey will release on October 27th for Nintendo Switch.