Is Bowser’s fury worth it? Super Mario 3D World Game

Bowser’s Fury, the game opens up very similarly to Super Mario 3D World even remixing the opening theme Mario enjoys a walk by Pete’s Castle. Before noticing some strange black goop leading up to a familiar m shape it opens into a portal sucking him in falling into a strange cat-like world called lake lap cat, where he is immediately greeted by the Godzilla-sized. Fury bowser among its many islands unusually Mario teams up with bowser jr to try and stop bowser’s rampage.

Bowser’s fury Super Mario

The opening is a fun call back to the game bowser’s fury is literally bundled with and it’s cute to see the backstory told through basil jr’s paintings. It’s pretty quick and gets the player into the action without dwelling on heavy tutorials or explanations it is Mario after all Nintendo has described bowser’s fury as a free-roaming adventure but I think this sells the mode a bit short Mario’s adventure around lake lab cat is far grander than any individual kingdom.

In super Mario odyssey and sells the idea of exploring an open interconnected world better than we’ve ever seen in a Mario game before. The closest we’ve had was back in super Mario sunshine, where you could see various landmarks and locations from different levels such as pina park or Delfino plaza. It gave the impression of the whole game taking place in one big connected world almost 20 years ago but Bowser’s fury finally brings that to fruition sure each island of lake lab cat feels more like a constructed level from 3d land or 3d world rather than the lived-in environments of sunshine and odyssey.

Super Mario 3D World

Though details like ancient hieroglyphics do add some history it’s still absolutely worth appreciating this large open environment bowser’s fury is really a fusion between Super Mario 3D World and Super Mario Sunshine. Of course, most of the power-ups and mechanics from 3d world are present here though some for merely a single location or cat shine. This includes a helpful inventory system to keep track of and easily equip powerups at any time it actually felt very refreshing to see some of these mechanics enemies and level hazards. In new ways different from what we already have in 3d world.

I already mentioned the Super Mario Sunshine feelings invoked from the large explorable world but I’ve yet to mention the direct callbacks like massaging. This paintbrush or m-shape the goop forms it’s not entirely subtle even riding Plessy across the open waters reminds me of using the turbo nozzle on flood or even the general focus on water. Both games have the gameplay premise that is relatively simple Mario must venture across the various islands collecting over 50 cat shines. Each one another step to defeating bowser it’s straightforward yet engaging.

I was reminded of the exploration in Super Mario Odyssey searching every nook and cranny for collectibles while I felt that odyssey had far too many moons to collect rasa’s fury on the other hand has a reasonable amount of cat shines. The levels are fun to navigate especially as cat Mario which makes platforming much easier in general Plessy also feels essential acting is the main transport between islands. Usually popping up just right when you need them and that’s a fantastic upgrade from their relatively rare appearance in 3d world. One major twist bowser’s fury introduces is well fury bowser himself who appears with alarming frequency causing the weather to change to a dark storm, along with significant changes.

Maintaining the environment as well new platforms new paths and several cat shines that can only be obtained during the fury phase of gameplay. The entire world becomes more dangerous and it gets harder to survive fury bowser’s onslaught when you’re not even close to obtaining another cat shine with the Giga bell locked away until you’ve found enough and that Giga bill is the key to fighting back allowing Mario to grow to supersize and go toe-to-toe with bowser.

A few times throughout the game fury bowser’s presence is a fantastic way to add pressure and periodically up the difficulty shaking up the gameplay to keep the player on their toes, needing to adapt on the fly. There were a few times I found myself waiting impatiently for fury bowser to reappear tapping the bowser me but to force him to as some objectives require his involvement. While bowser’s fury has its fair share of challenges and strong cases of level design it also has a few slow moments that may not sit well with the impatient types. The amiable certainly helps and I’m sure working back and forth between various available cat shines would also help.

Bowser’s fury game

If you play it as I did you may find yourself waiting a bit at times stubborn to move on next let’s talk about the biggest part of the gameplay literally. Giga cat Mario vs fury bowser is the kaiju battle of everyone’s dreams well may be truth be told these battles are a bit short. As you progress through the game fury bowser gets more moves in his arsenal making the fight a bit more challenging but admittedly I expected a bit more while it definitely feels cinematic and epic. The novelty of these giant battles may wear off. If you find yourself completing them too quickly I thoroughly enjoyed these battles but definitely wanted to see more from them.

At the very least you have plenty of options as Giga cat Mario you could take fury bowser on and target his weak points with any of your cat Mario moves or just pick up one of his large spikes to throw at him and instantly make him vulnerable to attack it may be easy to lose sight of bowser. During these battles even with the free camera thankfully though the game doesn’t tell you this the l button re-centers the camera on the bowser making it easy to keep your gigantic opponent in the frame.

Bowser’s fury is a fairly short game taking me about two and a half hours to reach the credits and another two hours to get a hundred percent completion in of course the length will vary depending on the player. The thing is I’m perfectly content with that it’s a short bite-sized adventure that felt like it was worth it. The time put into it while I’m sure another island or two would have been fun to add to the map I actually feel this length is a comfortable size for a game. Like this by the time I completed the story I wanted more and was excited to jump back in once I reached 100 and completed the game again.

I leaned back in my chair and felt satisfied no itching drive to immediately start the game over to get more out of it but also no feeling of it dragging on for too long. Despite this, I am absolutely looking forward to helping my fiancee run to the game at co-op speaking of let’s talk a bit about basil jr and the co-op bowser jr can assist as an ai partner pointing out helpful information to the player taking out nearby enemies or going where the player directs them alternatively.

He can be controlled by a second player locally while it’s fun and reminiscent of the co-star luma from super Mario galaxy 2 or cappy in a co-op of super Mario odyssey I think I actually may prefer bowser jr as an ai ally it can be fun to play together with a friend but I feel that bass junior moves a bit too fast and can very quickly end up. Doing most if not all of the work as an ai I really enjoy the added assistance he can offer even if it’s pointing out single coins hidden underground it feels pretty natural to move the controller around to point.

Is Bowser’s fury worth it?

Basil jr’s cursor allowing one to easily direct him where he needs to go and how to best assist visually bowser’s fury looks great not quite on the same level as super Mario odyssey but definitely even better than super Mario 3d world and that game looks great itself back on the Wii u. There are a few graphical oddities such as the reflections and the rain looking a little flat but it overall looks great especially the lightning whenever fury bowser appears. Though the game mostly runs at a smooth 60 fps.

The game rarely would slow down a bit most notably when loading in new areas while fury bowser was rampaging this never really took away from my experience with the game but it was noticeable once or twice while not part of the visuals I also want to make a quick comment about the music. It’s absolutely just as great as their wonderful soundtrack to 3d world but I wish I had more original songs as a few are unfortunately just reused not a terribly big deal but something that stood out to me.

I’ll be honest Super Mario 3D World is one of my favorite Mario games so it should come as no surprise that I was excited for this switch version when it was announced when I saw it would be paired with an additional new game. However, I became intrigued excited to revisit 3d world but very curious to see what new would come with it. Now that I’ve put the time in to fully complete it I can confidently say that I liked bowser’s fury a lot it surprised me by being a comfortably short adventure that feels like the perfect evolution to the super Mario 3d world format.

How long will bowsers fury be?

It was a breath of fresh air that I didn’t know I needed from the Mario series and I truly hope that it won’t be the last we see of this kind of gameplay if bowser’s fury was simply a standalone experience it might not offer enough for a full 60 price point paired with super Mario 3d world. However, I feel that it is absolutely worth picking these games up if you’re a fan of 3d mario adventures whether it’s super Mario sunshine or super Mario odyssey. If you enjoy Mario’s adventures in 3d spaces collecting some variation of stars I highly recommend checking bowser’s fury out you may end up liking it.