Super Mario 3D World is fine. It is a completely adequate game, that I believe is a bit overhyped if anything. The gameplay is largely fun, with mostly good levels (there are a bunch of gigatoxic levels in World 4). It bothers me a bit that several of the world's themes are basically given up on after the first level in that world is completed, but that's fine I guess. The cat powerup is okay, tanuki being there is great, I like boomerang, and fire flower is a classic. It's a good time, falling just shy of a great one, at least in the singleplayer campaign, and I'd probably rate this a 3.5* if it were packaged alone.

However, Bowser's Fury exists. And honestly, Bowser's Fury kind of rules. It may be somewhat packaged as "hey, here's bonus content so that this isn't just a port", but honestly, there's a ton of content here. 100 cat shines falls just short of the star count in Super Mario 64, and most of them are spread across sub-zones in a larger hub world. The best part is that the hub zones evolve as you collect cat shines, so the world is very dynamic. I don't really love the fury blocks and having to time out Bowser, but honestly this part of the game rules and very much merits that extra half star bump. I hope more 3D mario games go in its type of direction in the future - I unironically like type of world this more than Odyssey's.

Reviewed on May 31, 2023


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