Replayed this in anticipation of Wonder. Like 3D World, the first time I played Bowser’s Fury I was pretty cool on it. I found at the time that it felt like a weird, barebones, frustrating prototype.
Going back to Bowser’s Fury was a more positive experience. Mario platforming in an open world structure is a treat — those individual levels make me feel like I’m on a jungle gym at the playground or something. Nessie likewise reached her (his?) final Fun Form here. I also liked the Bowser stuff where the world turns into the last level of a Katamari game, though the idea feels a bit exhausted by the end of the 3-4 hour runtime.
The biggest weakness here is the lack of checkpoints…more than once I got frustrated because I fell off a level for a dumb reason or failed a challenge and had to backtrack to restart. A checkpoint flag would make a big difference. I also don’t think this exact structure would suit a $60 Mario game — I think it works far better as a smaller format. Maybe a Donkey Kong game or a slightly different franchise could do the jungle gym setup for a full runtime.
Either way, fun time!
Going back to Bowser’s Fury was a more positive experience. Mario platforming in an open world structure is a treat — those individual levels make me feel like I’m on a jungle gym at the playground or something. Nessie likewise reached her (his?) final Fun Form here. I also liked the Bowser stuff where the world turns into the last level of a Katamari game, though the idea feels a bit exhausted by the end of the 3-4 hour runtime.
The biggest weakness here is the lack of checkpoints…more than once I got frustrated because I fell off a level for a dumb reason or failed a challenge and had to backtrack to restart. A checkpoint flag would make a big difference. I also don’t think this exact structure would suit a $60 Mario game — I think it works far better as a smaller format. Maybe a Donkey Kong game or a slightly different franchise could do the jungle gym setup for a full runtime.
Either way, fun time!