THIS IS ONLY A REVIEW OF BOWSER'S FURY
(I have no history with 3D World and only played this version for a bit before diving into Bowser's Fury)
Bowser's Fury is a short expansion that ports the mechanics of Super Mario 3D World into a more traditional ... Mario ... 3D ... World, with the unique twist that after a set period of time "Fury Bowser" appears on the map and alters the landscape while attacking Mario.
Once Fury Bowser appears there are only three ways to force him out of the map: Survive long enough for him to go away on his own, collect a Cat Shine (this game's main collectible) or use a Giga Bell power-up that appears when you collect enough Cat Shines to engage and defeat Fury Bowser in a boss fight.
When Fury Bowser is on the screen he both creates new platforms that grant unique access to some areas and his attacks can destroy "Fury Blocks" placed throughout the world that hide Cat Shines. This can force you to decide whether you want to try to continue the current quest you're on despite Bowser's attacks, or take advantage of his presence to get one of the collectibles only available during his appearance.
This mechanic is a spectacle at first, but ultimately wore thin for me as the Shines available to you in Bowser's Fury Mode are not nearly as interesting to collect as those in the standard levels. Both the levels and the boss AI are designed well enough that trying to get a normal Shine while Bowser is present is usually more thrilling than annoying, but occasionally you'll be put in a place where Bowser makes a Shine too difficult to attain and you don't immediately have an eye on another.
The real triumph of Bowser's Fury is how seamlessly the individual challenges flow into the areas that house them and the larger open world.
The open world is filled with a series of smaller areas each individually sectioned off by gates that feature their own challenges where you collect Cat Shines that allow you to unlock more parts of the map to explore.
It took me a while to get out of the first area which is probably the least interesting to navigate but later levels prevent interesting traversal challenges that evolve as you collect more Shines and force you to interact with them in new ways.
As a Mario 64 baby who did not play 3D World prior I think some of my unfamiliarity with the movement sets and powerup from the main game soiled my early impression of Bowser's Fury.
The powerups provided in the 3D World said are mainly sneaky difficulty sliders, while powerups in most 3D Marios enable exploration. I wound up using a lot of these powerups in a way that lessened the challenge of some of the earlier stages, thinking they were necessary, and didn't realize until a late-game challenge left me with mostly just normal mushroom powerups that a lot of these situations were designed to be navigated by simply running and jumping.
Outside of the gameplay the visuals are stunning (although the framerate did wind up dipping pretty badly for me at some points) and while I'm not necessarily a connoisseur of Mario music this soundtrack would certainly rank among my favorites.
I'm also personally a sucker for the "everything is cats" motif and they did a great job making the cats you can find and play with throughout the world mimic the behaviors of their real-world counterparts.
(I have no history with 3D World and only played this version for a bit before diving into Bowser's Fury)
Bowser's Fury is a short expansion that ports the mechanics of Super Mario 3D World into a more traditional ... Mario ... 3D ... World, with the unique twist that after a set period of time "Fury Bowser" appears on the map and alters the landscape while attacking Mario.
Once Fury Bowser appears there are only three ways to force him out of the map: Survive long enough for him to go away on his own, collect a Cat Shine (this game's main collectible) or use a Giga Bell power-up that appears when you collect enough Cat Shines to engage and defeat Fury Bowser in a boss fight.
When Fury Bowser is on the screen he both creates new platforms that grant unique access to some areas and his attacks can destroy "Fury Blocks" placed throughout the world that hide Cat Shines. This can force you to decide whether you want to try to continue the current quest you're on despite Bowser's attacks, or take advantage of his presence to get one of the collectibles only available during his appearance.
This mechanic is a spectacle at first, but ultimately wore thin for me as the Shines available to you in Bowser's Fury Mode are not nearly as interesting to collect as those in the standard levels. Both the levels and the boss AI are designed well enough that trying to get a normal Shine while Bowser is present is usually more thrilling than annoying, but occasionally you'll be put in a place where Bowser makes a Shine too difficult to attain and you don't immediately have an eye on another.
The real triumph of Bowser's Fury is how seamlessly the individual challenges flow into the areas that house them and the larger open world.
The open world is filled with a series of smaller areas each individually sectioned off by gates that feature their own challenges where you collect Cat Shines that allow you to unlock more parts of the map to explore.
It took me a while to get out of the first area which is probably the least interesting to navigate but later levels prevent interesting traversal challenges that evolve as you collect more Shines and force you to interact with them in new ways.
As a Mario 64 baby who did not play 3D World prior I think some of my unfamiliarity with the movement sets and powerup from the main game soiled my early impression of Bowser's Fury.
The powerups provided in the 3D World said are mainly sneaky difficulty sliders, while powerups in most 3D Marios enable exploration. I wound up using a lot of these powerups in a way that lessened the challenge of some of the earlier stages, thinking they were necessary, and didn't realize until a late-game challenge left me with mostly just normal mushroom powerups that a lot of these situations were designed to be navigated by simply running and jumping.
Outside of the gameplay the visuals are stunning (although the framerate did wind up dipping pretty badly for me at some points) and while I'm not necessarily a connoisseur of Mario music this soundtrack would certainly rank among my favorites.
I'm also personally a sucker for the "everything is cats" motif and they did a great job making the cats you can find and play with throughout the world mimic the behaviors of their real-world counterparts.