This review contains spoilers
I've played Bowser's Fury in co-op for about 3 hours now. To be honest, it just plays like a Super Mario Odyssey DLC themed around Super Mario 3D World.
You play on an open-world-like map with three areas that you unlock one by one. These map parts have sub areas with different tasks. They feature rather simple objectives, like collecting Cat Insignia parts, opening a cage with a key you need to find first, killing enemies, or completing time trials. Some tasks also need to be solved with the help of Fury Bowser, which you'll meet in timed random encounters throughout the game. For every task solved, you get a Cat Insignia, through which you progress in the game.
So far, the game felt a bit stretched. Also, Fury Bowser's random encounters are pretty annoying, either because you have to wait as you need him to solve a task, or because you have to wait until he finally disappears again. At least he also disappears immediately with the collection of an Insignia.
The two-player co-op is fine, but nothing what I'd call a real co-op experience. The second player can help the first a lot, collecting Cat Insignia parts, coins and items, but the camera will always follow Mario. In the end, it plays similar to 3D Mario co-op experiences we had in the past like Galaxy or Odyssey, so not at all like the Super Mario 3D World or Super Mario Bros. co-op, whereas each player can act freely by themselves.
Playing the game as a single player campaign, you can set how much you want Bowser Jr. to help you, or disable him helping you at all.
It's just typical 3D Mario gameplay a la Odyssey.
In terms of content, the whole thing has enough content as a small extension of an existing game, but in my opinion doesn't justify a surcharge of 35€ compared to the Wii U version of the game.
I'm rating Bowser's Fury alone at 3.5/5 stars.
You play on an open-world-like map with three areas that you unlock one by one. These map parts have sub areas with different tasks. They feature rather simple objectives, like collecting Cat Insignia parts, opening a cage with a key you need to find first, killing enemies, or completing time trials. Some tasks also need to be solved with the help of Fury Bowser, which you'll meet in timed random encounters throughout the game. For every task solved, you get a Cat Insignia, through which you progress in the game.
So far, the game felt a bit stretched. Also, Fury Bowser's random encounters are pretty annoying, either because you have to wait as you need him to solve a task, or because you have to wait until he finally disappears again. At least he also disappears immediately with the collection of an Insignia.
The two-player co-op is fine, but nothing what I'd call a real co-op experience. The second player can help the first a lot, collecting Cat Insignia parts, coins and items, but the camera will always follow Mario. In the end, it plays similar to 3D Mario co-op experiences we had in the past like Galaxy or Odyssey, so not at all like the Super Mario 3D World or Super Mario Bros. co-op, whereas each player can act freely by themselves.
Playing the game as a single player campaign, you can set how much you want Bowser Jr. to help you, or disable him helping you at all.
It's just typical 3D Mario gameplay a la Odyssey.
In terms of content, the whole thing has enough content as a small extension of an existing game, but in my opinion doesn't justify a surcharge of 35€ compared to the Wii U version of the game.
I'm rating Bowser's Fury alone at 3.5/5 stars.
This legitimately felt like a more refined version of what they were trying to do with Odyssey. Would've loved if this was actually its own thing instead of being bundled-in with something else and having a smaller scope because of that. If this is where 3D Mario is headed, then it's extremely exciting.
pretty fun
Es basicamente una expansion del estilo Odyssey para el 3D World. Todos los conceptos de los enemigos y tal estan muy bien capturados aunque se hace algo coñazo, pero no mucho. Mas de esto y con mas variedad estaría cojonudo
Having this tacked on to my favourite Mario game is doing no disservice whatsoever, but I can't help but want to like it more. The central mechanic being Bowser's cyclic attacks on a seamless open world feels like such an incredible framework and lends the game a feeling unlike any other Mario game up to this point. Still, I found myself sinking into repetition as each zone tended to share challenges (blue coins, Dark Luigi, locked cage etc.) and fail to be particularly challenging explorations of them.
It was probably the first time I've ever attacked Bowser, and a fucking health bar appeared over his head???? Wild.
I feel this game would be better served as an expansion to Odyssey instead of 3D World if only because the limited move list seems to only work Okay for an open-world game. They were absolutely perfect for 3D World's level design, but the compromise for Bowser's Fury was to add the ability to hoard powerups and switch them on the fly, where something more momentum-based would have probably worked a lot better. It both eliminates a lot of challenge and makes the experience feel a little slapdash, that I'm mainly succeeding because of my gear rather than my own dexterity.
Still, this is quite fun! Cool as hell to see Nintendo pull a little bit of a Majora's Mask again by remixing old assets into a weird new direction n stuff.
It was probably the first time I've ever attacked Bowser, and a fucking health bar appeared over his head???? Wild.
I feel this game would be better served as an expansion to Odyssey instead of 3D World if only because the limited move list seems to only work Okay for an open-world game. They were absolutely perfect for 3D World's level design, but the compromise for Bowser's Fury was to add the ability to hoard powerups and switch them on the fly, where something more momentum-based would have probably worked a lot better. It both eliminates a lot of challenge and makes the experience feel a little slapdash, that I'm mainly succeeding because of my gear rather than my own dexterity.
Still, this is quite fun! Cool as hell to see Nintendo pull a little bit of a Majora's Mask again by remixing old assets into a weird new direction n stuff.
Expectations should be tempered that while this does have some odysee mechanics, it does not port over those game's core features and it does play in the 3D world engine. Meaning that mario moves just like in Super Mario 3D world, which is less advantageous than other 3D mario titles.
5 hours to 100%, it's hard to complain about a free addition to a game I would have already bought, that provided me with a lot of fun. The cycle of bowers spawning to change the world state is interesting. The "open world" feel is something new for the franchise too. Overall, the whole experience is easy and mildly repetitive.
An absolute must play for a Mario fan, but not enough to rival or even fully compare to mainline Mario.
Check out our book club style gaming podcast, Garbage Game Club on Bowser's Fury- https://open.spotify.com/episode/6UacrJeFKSSnWtUDkLWKQy?si=JRNXbUuCQFSk_7hTutVFaQ
5 hours to 100%, it's hard to complain about a free addition to a game I would have already bought, that provided me with a lot of fun. The cycle of bowers spawning to change the world state is interesting. The "open world" feel is something new for the franchise too. Overall, the whole experience is easy and mildly repetitive.
An absolute must play for a Mario fan, but not enough to rival or even fully compare to mainline Mario.
Check out our book club style gaming podcast, Garbage Game Club on Bowser's Fury- https://open.spotify.com/episode/6UacrJeFKSSnWtUDkLWKQy?si=JRNXbUuCQFSk_7hTutVFaQ
full mario game in this style please
Great one. It seems Nintendo can't do wrong with Super Mario 3D games. This makes me so interested in a full blown seamless 3D Mario game. Maybe this was a prototype for it.
Cool thing to hoard power-ups too, worked really well.
Cool thing to hoard power-ups too, worked really well.
future of mario
I mean it's Mario. It's short, but it's Mario.
Amazing music. areas, and overworld travel, Bowser's Fury is an Odyssey like take on Mario 3D World, and better for it. Everything blends together to create an amazing atmosphere and world as a whole, as you travel from island to island under the threat of a scary looming bowser.
Bowser's Fury was something that totally caught me of guard, as someone who was waiting since the launch of Odyssey for a DLC, this was what i wanted for so long.
It's Funny because it's a mashup of the open World of Odyssey, with 3d world thematic, and both of those things are expanded here.
The world is completely open, but is still very much a "map" structure, you can play freeely between the levels, but each one has distintc music, level design, enemys and so on, and once you finish one you're booted towards the next one, that's so clever.
Bowser's fury show us the future of Mario (i hope) a open game that doesn't boot you off after every star, that also gudies you torwards the next level, but let's you choose in which order you want to do, the music here is astounding, every litle pice has it's own care it's amazing, the power ups are well used, the platforming is great!
My minor complaints would be that it is indeed too short, give us the next 3d mario you cowards! But seriously, if it were bigger it would have more diversity in shinys that kinda repeat throughout the game, and the bowser mechanic is neat but overused, also no triple jump, why?
A gorgeous experience, recommend for everyone to give it a shoot sometime.
It's Funny because it's a mashup of the open World of Odyssey, with 3d world thematic, and both of those things are expanded here.
The world is completely open, but is still very much a "map" structure, you can play freeely between the levels, but each one has distintc music, level design, enemys and so on, and once you finish one you're booted towards the next one, that's so clever.
Bowser's fury show us the future of Mario (i hope) a open game that doesn't boot you off after every star, that also gudies you torwards the next level, but let's you choose in which order you want to do, the music here is astounding, every litle pice has it's own care it's amazing, the power ups are well used, the platforming is great!
My minor complaints would be that it is indeed too short, give us the next 3d mario you cowards! But seriously, if it were bigger it would have more diversity in shinys that kinda repeat throughout the game, and the bowser mechanic is neat but overused, also no triple jump, why?
A gorgeous experience, recommend for everyone to give it a shoot sometime.
Ninty needs to capitalize on this concept for a full-on mainline game.
Just imagine a Galaxy influenced game with a similar concept
Just imagine a Galaxy influenced game with a similar concept
I was surprised to learn that this is a substantial, and essential, 3D Mario platformer. I think it also gives a glimpse at a way forward for the series. It is a truly open-world platformer the likes of which I've never played before. I was also surprised that it is, in a lot of ways, a spiritual successor to 'Super Mario Sunshine.'
I'm not sure the Fury Bowser mechanic works all the way through the game. In the post-game (after 50 shines), when shines become fewer and farther between, he got to be an annoyance. One way to get a very short break from him is to let yourself get killed, which doesn't seem like an intended solution. If you decide to fight him to make him go away, you have to play all the way through the multiple phases of battle and rewatch the end credits before continuing your game and, even still, it's only a matter of minutes before he shows up again.
I'm not sure the Fury Bowser mechanic works all the way through the game. In the post-game (after 50 shines), when shines become fewer and farther between, he got to be an annoyance. One way to get a very short break from him is to let yourself get killed, which doesn't seem like an intended solution. If you decide to fight him to make him go away, you have to play all the way through the multiple phases of battle and rewatch the end credits before continuing your game and, even still, it's only a matter of minutes before he shows up again.
You know how people have mancrushes? I feel like this is my mancrush except it's Bowser
more odyssey content pls
Ok real talk, the fury-only blocks are especially annoying in the post-game, since I had no other shines to go after. I thankfully remembered that my Bowser amiibo summons Fury Bowser half way through collecting the final shines, but if I didn't have one I'd have been pulling my hair out just waiting for Bowser to activate (which seemed to be especially long during the post-game).
Ok real talk, the fury-only blocks are especially annoying in the post-game, since I had no other shines to go after. I thankfully remembered that my Bowser amiibo summons Fury Bowser half way through collecting the final shines, but if I didn't have one I'd have been pulling my hair out just waiting for Bowser to activate (which seemed to be especially long during the post-game).
Interesting little attempt to create a complete seamless open world Mario game that falls in the same trappings as Odyssey of having absolutely basic ass platforming and practically zero actually interesting challenges and problems to solve. The world structure is impressive tho and soundtrack absolutely claps so it's better than Odyssey on behalf of that alone.
It's fun, but I wish it was a bit longer, though the length does help prevent Bowser attacks from getting annoying. I suppose that's why it was bundled with 3D World. I would definitely pay $20 for this standalone. The graphics took a hit from the open world, specifically the really bad aliasing, which is a shame, but to keep the 60fps (only in docked mode, for some reason?) I can accept it.
I love the idea of taking assets from a game and doing something more with it, and Bowser's Fury is a wonderful little experience. I wouldn't call it open world as not everything is available from the start, but the island exploration is very interesting and there's some well hidden collectables. Playing while dodging Fury Bowser's attacks is crazy and I like how it even opens new paths and possibilities, the gameplay cycle is much appealing to me, the possibility of storing your power ups and exchanging freely between them feels very good and enhances the experience. I was amazed at how much personality everything has, the animations, the music, it just feels good. Having said that, I never had problems with the camera in Mario games, even Sunshine didn't bother me, but this game having a run button and also having to adjust the camera with the right stick is just... weird. Lastly, it is a very short game and I don't think the price is worth just for Bowser's Fury, specially if you already played 3D World.
If you had fun with Odyssey, do yourself a favor and play this game. This is a super fun spin on the mechanics introduced in 3D World. Giving access to any power-up at any moment allows for a lot more freedom and creativity for both the player and the designers (although I would have liked to see some challenges explore this versatility even further, and this system renders the collection of power-ups a little obsolete). While it's a little rough around the edges, I really like the idea of Bowser showing up periodically and affecting the whole map. Lastly, I would not recommend 100% completion of this. There are a number of especially frustrating and tedious shines, and the completion reward is a joke. Luckily you only need half the shines to finish the main game, so you won't have to deal with those shines normally.
Playing this in short bursts during downtime at work was a really sweet little treat. Logging in at lunchtime and seeing all my fellow home-working pals pop up around the same time with "ONLINE: SUPER MARIO 3D WORLD + BOWSER'S FURY" notifications was a heartwarming bit of parasocial friendship - it's nice to think of a bunch worn-down Microsoft Teams Miners were getting an injection of joy in the form of Mario flapping his stupid happy little legs in the Tanooki Suit to the jaunty tunes of Pounce Bounce Isle.
I think despite the fact we've all come to take the Nintendo Switch for granted, Nintendo themselves are still actively thinking about the docked/handheld interplay of the console - Bowser's Fury has a gameplay loop that works very similar to Breath of the Wild, where you can leave Mario sitting anywhere in the world when you hit the power button and still have a reasonable chance of standing right next to a new adventure or challenge when the screen next comes back on - or at least see (and quickly get to) the next bit of fun on the literal horizon. No loading in and out of a redundant SMB3 menu or watching of 'lets a go!' animations for the thirtieth time - everything in the game zips right by.
Much has been made of the 'continuous world' idea here, and I think Nintendo did a skilful job of making 3D World Mario's toolkit into something briskly mobile without really changing anything about that game's mechanics - it all just seems to be down to very generous and thoughtful placement of that game's power-set. There may be a little too much time spent wearing the propellor box, but those ad-hoc sequences where you come leaping off Plessie at 80mph, transform into a cat to scale the wall you're about to crash into and then shift to a tanooki to take a quick shortcut feel very very very good.
The only complaints I can really make about this are things that are decidedly anti-Mario in ethos - it's aliased to shit and the frames chug like hell during the (very impressive) Furious Bowser sequences (though weirdly these issues are far less pronounced in handheld mode - again suggesting that Nintendo still give a real shit about how handheld players enjoy games on their console), but I feel weirdly... guilty? about pointing out dry technical flaws in a game where Super Mario is running about having the time of his life. I just wanna join him in the fun instead of counting the grains of polygon around his cap.
I think despite the fact we've all come to take the Nintendo Switch for granted, Nintendo themselves are still actively thinking about the docked/handheld interplay of the console - Bowser's Fury has a gameplay loop that works very similar to Breath of the Wild, where you can leave Mario sitting anywhere in the world when you hit the power button and still have a reasonable chance of standing right next to a new adventure or challenge when the screen next comes back on - or at least see (and quickly get to) the next bit of fun on the literal horizon. No loading in and out of a redundant SMB3 menu or watching of 'lets a go!' animations for the thirtieth time - everything in the game zips right by.
Much has been made of the 'continuous world' idea here, and I think Nintendo did a skilful job of making 3D World Mario's toolkit into something briskly mobile without really changing anything about that game's mechanics - it all just seems to be down to very generous and thoughtful placement of that game's power-set. There may be a little too much time spent wearing the propellor box, but those ad-hoc sequences where you come leaping off Plessie at 80mph, transform into a cat to scale the wall you're about to crash into and then shift to a tanooki to take a quick shortcut feel very very very good.
The only complaints I can really make about this are things that are decidedly anti-Mario in ethos - it's aliased to shit and the frames chug like hell during the (very impressive) Furious Bowser sequences (though weirdly these issues are far less pronounced in handheld mode - again suggesting that Nintendo still give a real shit about how handheld players enjoy games on their console), but I feel weirdly... guilty? about pointing out dry technical flaws in a game where Super Mario is running about having the time of his life. I just wanna join him in the fun instead of counting the grains of polygon around his cap.
Super Saiyan 3 Cat Mario Vs Bowserzilla
This really felt like Mario unburdened by many of the franchise chains - so in that sense, it's even more similar to Breath of the Wild than the lighthouse-tower comparisons would have you think.
No boot-outs. No level select. No game overs. Just pick up the game and play. As a test concept, it's brilliant. It does have limitations - even with the introduction of snow and fire islands, it's all got that endless ocean/tropical vibe going on. We don't even have a satisfying underground theme or series of challenges.
Plessie is a welcome companion, but it does kind of beg the question of what this would be like with other world-traversal options, including Yoshi and warp pipes. Dare we imagine traveling this open world with a wing cap? Would've been magical.
Still a great opportunity to open the door to more organic "the world is yours" Mario in the future. I really liked my short time with Bower's Fury, which I assume is also the sequel to Mario Sunshine and part of an ongoing commentary on climate change.
No boot-outs. No level select. No game overs. Just pick up the game and play. As a test concept, it's brilliant. It does have limitations - even with the introduction of snow and fire islands, it's all got that endless ocean/tropical vibe going on. We don't even have a satisfying underground theme or series of challenges.
Plessie is a welcome companion, but it does kind of beg the question of what this would be like with other world-traversal options, including Yoshi and warp pipes. Dare we imagine traveling this open world with a wing cap? Would've been magical.
Still a great opportunity to open the door to more organic "the world is yours" Mario in the future. I really liked my short time with Bower's Fury, which I assume is also the sequel to Mario Sunshine and part of an ongoing commentary on climate change.
Pretty great but I hope Nintendo stick to the Odyssey formulae. I'm pretty biased since Odyssey is my favourite game of all time but the structure is a lot more interesting and Bower's Fury mostly just felt like a bunch of individual mini levels taped together and found myself replaying parts of each section in order to get more cat shines. Still fantastic though.
A neat short game that very much feels like Nintendo experimenting with open world Mario level design.
if this is the future of 3D mario, then the future is looking bright
Make it longer and add more variety to the objectives and you’ve got a masterpiece. This structure but with the movement engine of Odyssey would be a dream.
Short review: A great new wrinkle to the experimental 3D Mario Formula. Manages to turn his classic costumes and linear levels into something close to a Zelda game. Bowser's Fury may outstay its welcome however.
Longer thoughts: https://youtu.be/vHJkA6rAR3Y
Longer thoughts: https://youtu.be/vHJkA6rAR3Y
This review contains spoilers
Everyone and their mother has made the comment about how this is an Odyssey world mixed with 3D World, but as an Odyssey level it feels kinda messy. There's no real theme here (except "cats" I guess), it's just a bunch of islands, each with their own gimmick. It reminds me more of Galaxy in that sense. So I guess it's kinda like Odyssey's style of collection in Galaxy-esque stages, using 3D World's mechanics.
The whole growing giant mechanic is kinda fun...the first time or two. But after that the initial power trip wears off and the slowness of movement in that form wears on.
I wasn't a fan of how many shrines were hidden behind blocks that only fury-Bowser could break. I'd often find them when the world was calm, and then had to rush back to them as soon as the rain started. I get that it was probably the intention, and if there were only a couple it'd be fine, but it felt like a good chunk of my time playing was dropping whatever task I was working on so I could make use of Bowser to break some blocks. Like it stopped being "Hey that's a pretty fun way to make the player remember island layouts" and started being "oh god another set of bricks I need to remember to bring Bowser to".
It was neat to have Bowser Jr. as a partner. I played solo but I still got a little use out of him by using the point-and-click thing. I found him mostly to be useful for taking down the shadow Luigi's, who would stay in one place when he got far away enough.
Having these ? blocks on walls that Jr. could paint on was a good idea in theory, but power ups and so abundant in this mode that I rarely ever felt rewarded for finding them.
And for characters with an upgrade in role we have Plessie, who is not only your main transportation here, but even plays a crucial part in the final boss fight. Hopefully we'll see more of her in the future. Too bad she's too big and generally not human-shaped enough to fit into spinoff games.
Overall it is a fun time. It just doesn't do anything that "wows" me, so I guess that's another Mario game I can compare it to - 3D Land.
But like since it's just a bonus game in a re-released title, it makes sense that it's not exactly trying to break ground. Maybe the next Mario game will take the formula and do something huge (no pun intended) with it.
The whole growing giant mechanic is kinda fun...the first time or two. But after that the initial power trip wears off and the slowness of movement in that form wears on.
I wasn't a fan of how many shrines were hidden behind blocks that only fury-Bowser could break. I'd often find them when the world was calm, and then had to rush back to them as soon as the rain started. I get that it was probably the intention, and if there were only a couple it'd be fine, but it felt like a good chunk of my time playing was dropping whatever task I was working on so I could make use of Bowser to break some blocks. Like it stopped being "Hey that's a pretty fun way to make the player remember island layouts" and started being "oh god another set of bricks I need to remember to bring Bowser to".
It was neat to have Bowser Jr. as a partner. I played solo but I still got a little use out of him by using the point-and-click thing. I found him mostly to be useful for taking down the shadow Luigi's, who would stay in one place when he got far away enough.
Having these ? blocks on walls that Jr. could paint on was a good idea in theory, but power ups and so abundant in this mode that I rarely ever felt rewarded for finding them.
And for characters with an upgrade in role we have Plessie, who is not only your main transportation here, but even plays a crucial part in the final boss fight. Hopefully we'll see more of her in the future. Too bad she's too big and generally not human-shaped enough to fit into spinoff games.
Overall it is a fun time. It just doesn't do anything that "wows" me, so I guess that's another Mario game I can compare it to - 3D Land.
But like since it's just a bonus game in a re-released title, it makes sense that it's not exactly trying to break ground. Maybe the next Mario game will take the formula and do something huge (no pun intended) with it.
A longer Odyssey Level