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.