Day 7: Mecha-Broodal

You know, for a game that I call 'my favorite of all time,' I never really had much of an opportunity to talk about Super Mario Odyssey since my Favorite Games list back in 2020. I guess the reason for that being the first and penultimate bosses of the game aren't really anything that special. But seeing as we're doing a Lent Marathon about Normal Bosses now, I'd say we're good to talk about 'peak fiction' again.

Throughout Super Mario Odyssey, your goal is to stop Bowser's plan from marrying Princess Peach. Along the way, you run into this quartet of well dressed bunny rabbits known as 'The Broodals,' evil wedding planners who make it their job to follow Bowser's orders on making the perfect wedding.

Naturally, you encounter these creeps all throughout your journey, and I'm sad to say that the battles against them are nothing too remarkable. They're kind of like mini-bosses, what you see is what you get.

Of course, that's when you fight them individually…but what happens when you fight them together? You get the Mecha Broodal!

Lyra: Can we really call this thing a mecha? I mean, most of the boss is made of wood.

Me: Mecha is defined as an armored robot. Who says the armor has to be made of metal? And besides, its legs are still made of metal.

Lyra: True. It's just that fiction has ruined the meaning of the word 'mecha' for me. Thanks a lot anime.

Me: Now, where was I? Oh, right, the Mecha Broodal!

After Bowser makes his escape to the Moon Kingdom with Peach, the Broodals appear in their mech to teach Mario a lesson once and for all.

Since the Broodals are controlling the mech from a high point, you need to figure out a way to bring the mech down so you can give them a beatdown. That's where Super Mario Odyssey's main mechanic comes in.

The Mecha Broodal will drop a series of bombs on you that'll roll across the ground, but after a while, they'll spit out a Pokio, and enemy with an extendable beak that Mario can possess with Cappy. Possess the Pokio and use your beak to knock the bombs back at the Mecha Broodal's legs. Once it's legs are broken, the Mecha Broodal will fall over and you have to go after one of the Broodals and knock them out before the boss gets back up. Do this three more times and you win.

One thing I like about this boss is how it adds another attack each time you defeat one of the Broodals. At the beginning of the fight, the boss is just stationary, only dropping bombs at you.

After defeating Spewart, the Mecha Brood briefly becomes mobile and will try and stomp on you.

After defeating Rango, the Mecha Brood will not only move faster, but its legs will also become invincible. Oh, and along with its bombs, it'll also begin to shoot down firecrackers that spin around and chase you around the arena, making the fight a bit harder when it comes time to shoot the bombs back at it. But on the plus side, you can push the firecrackers away with Cappy or the Pokio's beak if they get too close.

And after defeating Harriet, the number of firecrackers increases, and the Mecha Broodal will move just a little bit faster.

Another thing I find interesting about the fight is how the Mecha Broodal powers down in a different position each time so you can use the Pokio to reach them. It's not much, but it's a nice detail to change up the method on how you reach each of the Broodals, and it shows just how much you learned in regards to using Pokio.

And on that note, a third thing I like about this fight is how you don't have to go in a certain order when fighting the Broodals. The example the game wants you to do is Spewart, Rango, Harriet, and finally Topper. But if you want to show off some pro-gamer skills, you can go after the Broodals in any order you want.

For example, instead of taking out Spewart from his position, you can hop out of the Pokio when you reach him, walk past him, and ground pound wherever Harriet is positioned on the mech.

After defeating all four Broodals, the Mecha Broodal will fly into the sky and explode in a beautiful fireworks display, ending the battle.

This fight is fun, epic, it escalates as it goes on, and it serves as the perfect way to close out the Broodals' role in the story.

If Super Mario Odyssey gets a sequel, or if one of the upcoming Mario Kart 8 DLCs make the Broodals playable characters, well…that would be just neat.