Josh Bycer wrote this in 2018 as a follow-up to a negative review of Super Mario Odyssey, singling out New Donk City as the one kingdom that actually works. His complaint about the rest of the game is structural: too many worlds are long expanses of running, flat enough that the player’s approach is linear by default. Bowser’s Castle is the extreme case — floating sections that must be cleared in order, with nowhere for Cappy’s expanded move set to matter.
What New Donk City does differently:
- The skyline gives more verticality of both momentum and structure than any other kingdom.
- Ground-to-rooftop transitions are fast — cars as trampolines, spark possession, Cappy plus jumps.
- It is smaller but denser, closer in structure to the areas in Prey than to a Mario world; enough walls and structures to support long wall-jump chains and rooftop-to-rooftop routes.
- It carries the most unique power-moon challenges in the game — RC car, jump rope, hunting musicians, scooter parking, the boss, the New Donk Celebration, the cutaway rooms, spelling “Mario” with letters, the sewer, the storm sequence.
The comparison that makes the argument land is the Luncheon Kingdom. It climbs higher, and it is still linear — four unique moon types against New Donk City’s ten. Height is not density.
The generalisable rule: a level has to be built around the movement loop the game teaches, and route choice is what turns an advanced move set from decoration into a decision. Bycer’s other takeaway is about scope — he argues New Donk City got the most attention and could have carried the game as a hub on the order of Sunshine’s Delfino Island.