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.