Much of what you know from playing Mario games in the past you're going to have to set aside when playing "Odyssey."
Early on while playing the game, I found myself trying to figure out how to use Mario's primary skill — being able to jump in lots of different ways — to solve various puzzles. As it turns out, that's almost never the way to go.
Instead, follow this rule: When in doubt, throw your hat.
It's astounding how quick I was to forget that I should just use Cappy. Not only can you use the throwable ghost hat to capture things, but you can also use it as an extra platform or to collect hard-to-reach coins — and a whole lot more.
You can throw Cappy to bust open boxes or to push back enemies. You can throw it to leap over a chasm, using Cappy as a springboard suspended in mid-air. The super-capable ghost hat is a key tool that fits into Mario's usual collection with surprising ease.
In one of the game's first few kingdoms, or areas, I used Cappy to take over Bullet Bills — bad guys in the shape of bullets — and navigate all sorts of places I couldn't go with just Mario's usual moves.
It can sometimes be a bit hard to see what's going on when you're controlling non-Mario characters, because the viewing angles can get kind of wacky. But that's a small price to pay for the ability to fly around as a long-standing enemy of Mario.
And you can take control of other bad guys, not just Bullet Bills. This flying Goomba, for example, was more than happy to be captured in one of the game's many side areas.