The BG Game of the Month for October is Super Mario Odyssey

Yes, we know it’s December (by one day), but we kinda forgot to post our game of the month for October. Of course, it’s Super Mario Odyssey.

A grand Odyssey

No, we didn’t post the Game of the Month for October. Yes, we’re just getting to it now. And yes… it’s pretty much my fault. In fairness though, you probably have already guessed what it was.

Super Mario Odyssey charged onto the gaming landscape at the very end of the month, right around Halloween. And man, was it a juggernaut. Nintendo’s latest cleaned up critically, and scored huge at retail, selling boatloads of copies. We covered a bit of it’s dominance, and also posted a review by our resident Nintendo Editor, Michael.

Odyssey is a pretty terrific game. I mean, honestly, it’s got a bunch of tremendous ideas and has that trademarked Nintendo magic in spades. It’s also has some excellent graphics and really shows what the Switch can do.

From our review:

Super Mario Odyssey is to the Switch as Super Mario 64 is to the N64: required playing. Forget about your worries and work, and come play a while.
Our score: 100%

No, that’s not a typo, Odyssey scored a perfect 100%. And that’s doubly impressive, given what a month of stiff competition October was.

Of war and orcs

Our two runners up for October were both starkly contrasted against Super Mario Odyssey. While Odyssey reveled in color and well… fun, both Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and Middle-earth: Shadow of War were grim and gritty. Not that that’s a bad thing.

Wolfenstein II picked up right where the last one left off, sending BJ up against the Nazi war machine. It’s a dark vision of a possible outcome, if Germany had come out on top in WWII, and one tinged with sci-fi and fantasy elements. Pair that with somer great FPS gunplay and slick visuals, and you’ve got a shooter that any fan of the genre should check out.

But speaking of “fantasy”, that happens to be Middle-earth: Shadow of War’s specialty.

The sequel to Shadow of Mordor, Shadow of War took everything that made the first game so good, and amped it to the extreme. A better Nemesis System, improved combat, and tons of cool additions made it possibly the greatest Lord of the Rings experience out there.

So which one took second and which took third? Neither and both. Middle-earth and Wolfenstein tied for our runners up for October. You kind of can’t go wrong with either one, so that’s about right.

So have you played any of the above gems from October? If you have, what’d you think of them? Let us know in the comments.