Game Theory: Mario Odyssey's Big LIE.. Power Moons have NO POWER!

The episode opens with a challenge: can you finish watching without touching a coin? The answer is no.

• The channel has explored Super Mario from multiple angles including science, biology, psychology, and economics • Previous analyses covered heroes, villains, side characters, and the blurry moral lines between them

After years of analysis, one major question remains: why is Mario collecting Power Moons and what exactly do they do?

The analysis centers on Super Mario Odyssey as the most recent game featuring Power Moons as the primary collectible driving Mario's adventures.

• In older games, Power Stars and similar items opened doors • In Super Mario Sunshine, they made the sun shine brighter • Their purpose was unclear and seemed arbitrary

In Super Mario Galaxy, Grand Stars charge Rosalina's space station. In Super Mario Odyssey, Power Moons serve as fuel to enable the Odyssey airship to travel from kingdom to kingdom.

If Power Moons truly fuel an airship, how much energy does each individual Moon contain?

Given the effort Mario goes through to collect these items, they must be incredibly powerful, or so it seems.

• Mario only needs 5 Moons to travel from Cascade Kingdom to Sand Kingdom • But needs 20 Moons to reach the Snow Kingdom • The number of Moons required appears arbitrary and inconsistent

Once a kingdom is visited, Mario can return as often as he wants without needing additional Moons, violating basic conservation of energy.

This is like a car requiring increasing amounts of gas for each new city visited, but then requiring no fuel to return to previously visited cities.

This behavior suggests Mario has somehow engineered a perpetual motion machine, which defies the laws of physics.

Power Moons appear as fuel in two locations: the Odyssey spaceship and the power plant in New Donk City's Metro Kingdom.

In a mid-game mission, Mario must repair the power plant. Full Power Moons enter the reactor and empty ones are dispensed on the other side, consuming one Moon per second.

There are over 124 Moons available in the reactor area just sitting there while Mario is trying to rescue Princess Peach. A speedrunner could grab them and beat the game in about 2 minutes.

Mayor Pauline states the power plant is necessary for the kingdom's festival, though it's unclear if it powers just the festival lights or the entire playable section of the city.

• Main elevated area: 36,700 square meters • Eastern platform: 1,090 square meters • Southern platform: 2,025 square meters • Total explorable area: approximately 39,800 square meters or 10 acres

• New Donk City is clearly inspired by New York City • City Hall is modeled after the Empire State Building • Both cities feature similar mixes of skyscrapers, high-rise developments, industrial buildings, and parks • Both have similar population density: around 10,000 residents per square kilometer

The theorist counted all residents in New Donk City to verify population density matches real-world New York, demonstrating extensive effort to ensure accurate scaling.

New York City consumes one quadrillion British Thermal Units or 1.055 Exajoules per year, equivalent to 33.36 Gigawatts. This is 27 times the power required for time travel in Back to the Future.

New York City's power density is 42.56 Watts per square meter. Applied to New Donk City's 39,800 square meters, this yields 1.7 Megawatts of annual power consumption.

Watts measure energy consumption over time. A 200-watt refrigerator uses 200 joules of energy per second. This makes understanding electric bills confusing for most people.

One calorie of food contains over 4,000 joules, providing perspective on energy scales. A refrigerator's power consumption is negligible compared to the energy in food inside it.

Since New Donk consumes one Moon per second and uses 1.7 Megawatts, each Power Moon contains 1.7 Megajoules of energy, equivalent to a medium McDonald's French fries.

• 1.7 Megajoules is the energy from eating a medium McDonald's French fries • To power a human body on a 2,000 calorie per day diet, you'd need to consume 5 Power Moons daily • Power Moons have less energy than a couple of candy bars

Despite predictions at the video's start, Power Moons don't have the energy of a nuclear bomb. They have just enough power to give you a nuclear tummy ache.

It's no wonder Nintendo crammed Power Moons everywhere in the game. They are far less powerful than players would expect from a special collectible.

The theorist acknowledges the power level seems too low and wants to verify the math using a different technique by analyzing the composition of Power Moons.

In version 1.2 of Mario Odyssey, Nintendo added a neon filter to the game. This filter reveals interesting details about the composition of objects.

• When the neon filter is applied to the sun, it appears blue rather than yellow or orange • The sun's actual wavelength (486.1 nanometers) matches the spectral signature of hydrogen • This suggests Nintendo intentionally programmed the filter with real-world scientific accuracy

Scientists use spectrometers to determine composition of light emitters by separating light into individual wavelengths. Each chemical element emits light at unique frequencies when excited, creating a unique spectral signature.

Using the neon filter, Power Moons display colored sparks that correspond to their kingdom. These colors remain consistent regardless of which kingdom they're found in.

• Red sparks: 700 nanometers • Yellow sparks: 585 nanometers • Green sparks: 500 nanometers • Blue sparks: 485 nanometers

These four wavelengths align almost perfectly with the four largest emission signatures of the element helium. This reveals Power Moons are composed of helium.

• Helium is a noble gas that doesn't form significant bonds • Helium-3 isotope is very rare on Earth but believed abundant on the Moon • Helium-3 has been theorized as a possible source of nuclear fusion

Cappy hints that Power Moons and Power Stars are made of the same materials. Power Stars in Galaxy form a sun in the center of the observatory.

To harness the true power of Helium-3 within Power Moons and Stars, they must undergo a nuclear fusion reaction.

In the Metro Kingdom, Power Moons appear weak because the reactor can't achieve fusion conditions. Humans don't understand fusion the way Princess Rosalina does.

There is far more power hidden inside Power Moons than originally calculated. The theoretical energy from controlled fusion would be vastly greater than 1.7 Megajoules.

Until humans unlock the power of fusion, Power Moons remain glorified keys and fuel sources, not the nuclear powerhouses they could become.

The analysis proves that Power Moons, despite their importance in the game, have surprisingly weak energy output equivalent to common food items.

This episode represents a complete theory that made it through full production. Not all Game Theory ideas become full episodes due to length or feasibility constraints.

• MatPat is joining TikTok as @MATPATGT • The platform will feature Game Theory Quickies, riddles, brain teasers, and experimental content • TikTok allows for fun, creative content that wouldn't fit on other platforms

Two new TikTok followers will win never-before-seen Game Theory merch prototypes that will be one-of-a-kind test copies of Theory Wear coming later in the year.