Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Never trust a hat with eyes: ‘Odyssey’ glitch lets Cappy kill Mario

Mario throws his hat.
Nintendo
There is something unsettling about the idea of a living hat, yet it proved to be one of the best additions to

Super Mario Odyssey

 
when it released in October. As a new friend of Mario’s, Cappy turned out to be equal parts adorable and helpful. Was this all a ploy to lower Mario’s defenses? As it turns out, a newly discovered glitch allows Cappy to make the titular character disappear.

According to a gameplay clip from Twitter user DefinitivNichtSacha (via Eurogamer), Cappy’s ability to kill off Mario appears to be accidental. In order to perform the glitch, Super Mario Odyssey needs to be running in two-player mode. After Mario uses Cappy to capture a Piranha Plant, which can only be done by feeding it a rock first, Cappy can then attack the plant, killing it and Mario in one fell swoop.

Recommended Videos

As players will discover, this sort of locks the game. Mario doesn’t exactly die but he does cease to exist. Cappy can still fly around and return to where Mario exists in spirit, but Mario can no longer progress. In order to continue, players can simply fast travel to a nearby flagpost to see their beloved hero reincarnated.

Nintendo has not mentioned the issue and it doesn’t appear to break the game, but it will likely be patched out in future updates. Anyone interested in recreating the glitch should try it before it’s too late.

Super Mario Odyssey launched on October 27 with almost universal praise, going on to sell more than 2 million units in three days. In our review, we praised its well-polished gameplay with tons of nods to past games. One modder enjoyed the new hat mechanics so much that they retroactively added them to Super Mario 64. While it is clear that the game was not intended for Cappy, his powers make it easy to take out certain enemies and reach difficult areas like the top of Peach’s castle.

Garrett Hulfish
Garrett is the kind of guy who tells you about all the tech you haven't heard of yet. He also knows too much about other…
Super Mario Party Jamboree is the series’ biggest game yet
super mario party jamboree announcement

Super Mario Party Jamboree – Announcement Trailer – Nintendo Switch

There's nothing quite like a Mario Party game, and Nintendo has announced another entry that's coming out this fall. Super Mario Party Jamboree is the series' biggest game yet, and it's due out on October 17 for the Nintendo Switch.

Read more
A brand new Mario & Luigi game is coming and it looks gorgeous
Mario and Luigi high fiving each other with stars surrounding them.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership – Announcement Trailer – Nintendo Switch

Mario and Luigi are coming back to the Nintendo Switch, but this time in their own spinoff called Mario & Luigi: Brothership, which is releasing on November 7 for the Switch console, just in time for the holiday season.

Read more
Nintendo’s next game is all about mastering NES classics
The physical version of Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition.

Nintendo has announced Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, a new game coming out this July that tests players' speedrunning skills in NES classics like Super Mario Bros. and Metroid.

A successor of sorts to the NES Remix games on Wii U and 3DS, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition draws its name from a gaming competition Nintendo held in 1990 and then briefly again in the 2010s. Its reveal trailer features previous Nintendo World Championship contestants musing about the event, only to learn that it's returning in video game form.

Read more