GTA 4 Meets Super Mario Odyssey

Nintendo recently revealed a great many details about their upcoming console, the Switch, which was initially revealed in late 2016. During the press conference, they showed off a number of launch titles, as well as other games that will come to the console later on. Naturally, GTA fans have already started making adaptations of the new games using mods.

Since no new Nintendo system can be announced without a new Super Mario game, the Switch is also getting yet another installment in the various adventures of the stout Italian plumber. This time around, Mario will travel to a bunch of different worlds in order to save Princess Peach from the evil Bowser. Revolutionary, right?

Well, actually, Super Mario Odyssey is actually pretty novel in terms of Mario games, as it will take the character, for the first time, to the 'real' world — our world. Or, well, sort of, since it will be a fictional version of the real world, making it not quite real. Basically, Mario will visit New Donk City, which is a fictional version of New York City, with real, life-sized humans proportioned more realistically than Mario and co.

This odd direction has been received in a pretty mixed way by most fans, and while it's true that this move might not be the best one for a Mario game, it did spawn the following video, which makes it all worth it. CrowBCat, a well known YouTuber, transformed GTA IV into Super Mario Odyssey with a handful of mods, and the result is marvelous.

The video, while far from being a scene-for-scene remake, does mimic many of the scenes from the actual trailer of the game shown off at the event. Since Liberty City is based on New York as well, the similarities are many. Of course, there are only so many game mechanics you can recreate with mods, but we'll be damned if Super GTA IV Odyssey doesn't look like a hell of a fun time.

Alongside a Mario skin for Niko, a parkour mod and some graphical enhancements went into this video as well. Sure, Mario's flying-sailing-lighthouse-thing is replaced by your run of the mill helicopter (which he steals) and I don't recall Nintendo's mascot ever visiting a strip club, but hey, it's still better than not having any kind of Mario on PC, right?

As for any hopes of seeing the reverse, a GTA title on the Nintendo Switch, we wouldn't keep our hopes up. While Take-Two Interactive's CEO has expressed an open attitude towards the Switch, it and Nintendo haven't worked together in the past. It's true that the Switch is seemingly trying to boost its third-party prospects with the likes of Skyrim and 2K's NBA 2K17, it's unlikely that we'll see a Rockstar title on the platform anytime soon.

The Nintendo Switch is a hybrid home and portable console releasing worldwide on the 3rd of March. The main feature of the console is that it's a tablet that can be slotted into a dock that displays the game on a larger screen seamlessly. The controllers on the side of the tablet can be removed and slotted into a separate grip, or used individually.

Several rumors about the lineup of the Nintendo Switch have circulated before the press release, with some even predicting Switch release of Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar Games's upcoming major release in spite of no indications that this will happen, or any good reason for it either.

If any Rockstar title will appear on the Switch, GTA 5 is the most likely. It would give the already popular game yet another sales boost, and being a three-year-old title, it would be easier to port to the Switch's weaker hardware. That said, such an edition of the game would likely be dumbed-down a tad.

Considering the Switch has 32 GB of internal storage, and currently no forms of external storage exist for it, the graphical fidelity of GTA 5 would need to be dialed way down, and a ton of work would need to be put into optimization to make it fit, especially next to other games as well. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is reported to take up half of the console's storage, for example.

Would you be interested in playing a GTA game on the Nintendo Switch?