This review contains spoilers
I've played Bowser's Fury in co-op for about 3 hours now. To be honest, it just plays like a Super Mario Odyssey DLC themed around Super Mario 3D World.
You play on an open-world-like map with three areas that you unlock one by one. These map parts have sub areas with different tasks. They feature rather simple objectives, like collecting Cat Insignia parts, opening a cage with a key you need to find first, killing enemies, or completing time trials. Some tasks also need to be solved with the help of Fury Bowser, which you'll meet in timed random encounters throughout the game. For every task solved, you get a Cat Insignia, through which you progress in the game.
So far, the game felt a bit stretched. Also, Fury Bowser's random encounters are pretty annoying, either because you have to wait as you need him to solve a task, or because you have to wait until he finally disappears again. At least he also disappears immediately with the collection of an Insignia.
The two-player co-op is fine, but nothing what I'd call a real co-op experience. The second player can help the first a lot, collecting Cat Insignia parts, coins and items, but the camera will always follow Mario. In the end, it plays similar to 3D Mario co-op experiences we had in the past like Galaxy or Odyssey, so not at all like the Super Mario 3D World or Super Mario Bros. co-op, whereas each player can act freely by themselves.
Playing the game as a single player campaign, you can set how much you want Bowser Jr. to help you, or disable him helping you at all.
It's just typical 3D Mario gameplay a la Odyssey.
In terms of content, the whole thing has enough content as a small extension of an existing game, but in my opinion doesn't justify a surcharge of 35€ compared to the Wii U version of the game.
I'm rating Bowser's Fury alone at 3.5/5 stars.
You play on an open-world-like map with three areas that you unlock one by one. These map parts have sub areas with different tasks. They feature rather simple objectives, like collecting Cat Insignia parts, opening a cage with a key you need to find first, killing enemies, or completing time trials. Some tasks also need to be solved with the help of Fury Bowser, which you'll meet in timed random encounters throughout the game. For every task solved, you get a Cat Insignia, through which you progress in the game.
So far, the game felt a bit stretched. Also, Fury Bowser's random encounters are pretty annoying, either because you have to wait as you need him to solve a task, or because you have to wait until he finally disappears again. At least he also disappears immediately with the collection of an Insignia.
The two-player co-op is fine, but nothing what I'd call a real co-op experience. The second player can help the first a lot, collecting Cat Insignia parts, coins and items, but the camera will always follow Mario. In the end, it plays similar to 3D Mario co-op experiences we had in the past like Galaxy or Odyssey, so not at all like the Super Mario 3D World or Super Mario Bros. co-op, whereas each player can act freely by themselves.
Playing the game as a single player campaign, you can set how much you want Bowser Jr. to help you, or disable him helping you at all.
It's just typical 3D Mario gameplay a la Odyssey.
In terms of content, the whole thing has enough content as a small extension of an existing game, but in my opinion doesn't justify a surcharge of 35€ compared to the Wii U version of the game.
I'm rating Bowser's Fury alone at 3.5/5 stars.