Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury Review

Man, what a challenging time it was for me to be a Nintendo fan back during the Wii era. I’ve expressed my feelings on motion controls many times on past podcast episodes, and a special shout out to those calling the shots for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD baby! Thanks for adding a traditional control scheme. Anyway. Though there were plenty of great experiences on the Wii that I thoroughly enjoyed, the console was always an afterthought for me as I was finding myself craving more and more the traditional playstyle and control schemes we grew up with since the beginning.

So when the Wii U released six years later, I was ready for something different, but unfortunately for many consumers, they didn’t really see the difference from the Wii to the Wii U… and as often stated, the naming and marketing certainly didn’t do it any favors. But man oh man were there some great games to release on the Wii U that next to nobody got to experience because they didn’t own the system. That’s why so many games have been ported over to the Nintendo Switch from the Wii U after the Switch caught fire and set records left and right. With the most recent in Super Mario 3D World, I honestly believe that just leaves Xenoblade Chronicles X as the last standing true exclusive to the Wii U platform… and that likely will come to an end because why wouldn’t they port that over to?

With Super Mario 3D World, Nintendo decided they didn’t want to just produce a copy/paste product for, in my opinion, one of the best Mario games to come out of the New Super Mario Bros/multiplayer era of the franchise, as it returned the plumber to a 3D environment and just felt so great. So that’s where Bowser’s Fury comes into play, and we’ll be diving into that a little bit later on. When you start the game, you’ll be presented with a screen that offers the choice between the original game, or the new Bowser’s Fury mode. It’s not one cohesive adventure, and it’ll make sense as to why soon. So we’ll start off by re-visiting Super Mario 3D World, and then we’ll discuss Bowser’s Fury.

Released back in 2013, Super Mario 3D World returned gamers to the 3D landscape we hadn’t really seen in a few years after Super Mario Galaxy 2. I was eager to jump back in and see if my memories served me correctly, and I was not disappointed in the least. 3D World remains one of my favorite Mario games to release, especially talking about a post-Super Mario Galaxy world. And don’t get me wrong, Odyssey was freaking awesome, but it wasn’t Mario 64 or Galaxy. Two games that I actually just replayed last year thanks to the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection also available on the Nintendo Switch. Having mentioned that, it’s fun to kind of see how the franchise has evolved from originally being a sidescrolling platformer to a 3D juggernaut, and then back to a 2D plane once the Wii and DS had started to dominate sales charts. In 2020, I replayed a majority of the Super Mario games, starting with the original All-Stars when it was released on Nintendo Switch Online, and going up to Galaxy. I have not replayed Galaxy 2 yet, but I will as soon as Nintendo remembers they made the game and puts it on the Switch as well.

The platforming found in 3D World is exceptional, and the level designs are some of the best to come out of the New Super Mario Bros approach to constructing together a Mario game. With six differently themed worlds before you get to the Castle World and Bowser World (plus more!), there’s a lot of content to enjoy once again for those of us who have already played through this wonderful game. And for those of you that didn’t own a Wii U and never got to experience Super Mario 3D World? Now’s the time. Because it’s better than ever thanks to a little thing called Bowser’s Fury.

Initially, I assumed Bowser’s Fury would be a solid 2 or 3-hour experience since it was being tacked on to a port of a Wii U game. Man was I wrong. As soon as you have control over Mario and you begin walking around the area where the game drops you off, memories should come rushing back to you over Super Mario Odyssey, because holy crap does this feel like it should have been featured as DLC for that game and not put here. Bowser’s Fury ended up taking me a little over 6 hours to finish, and that still doesn’t include collecting all of the shines they made available in this mode. So you can reasonably expect to see anywhere from 5-8 hours just with Bowser’s Fury depending on your playstyle.

The narrative of this mode sees Mario teaming up with Bowser Jr. to help his dad Bowser come to his senses. Something has him extremely pissed off and is causing him to borrow moves from the Pokemon franchise and become a Dynamax version of himself. But Mario has some tricks up his sleeve as well. Whenever Bowser hulks up, the skies turn dark, the rain starts pouring, and the music starts kicking all kinds of ass. It’s at this time when you’re technically engaging in a “boss battle” in traditional terms with Bowser. Whenever you collect a shine, it’ll power on a lighthouse and that sends Bowser back into the sea for a bit because he comes back with a vengeance over and over again.

Eventually, you’ll collect enough shines to power up this giant cat bell statue in the area where you’re currently at. When Bowser appears, you’ll want to collect this powerup and Mario then becomes Super Saiyan, but at least now you can start chipping away at Bowser and defeating him. You’ll have to successfully get rid of his health meter several times throughout the course of Bowser’s Fury before ultimately culminating in a sweet boss encounter that I don’t want to spoil anything of.

The world of Bowser’s Fury is the Cat Kingdom (again, why wasn’t this tied to Odyssey instead?), and Bowser Jr. (playing the role of Cappy!) follows you around and will hold powerups for you. Mario can store up to 5 of each kind of powerup, which really does make the game a whole lot easier. If that isn’t enough, you can even have Bowser Jr. assist with things like coin collecting and even enemy bopping via a setting in the menu. The map is broken up into several different self-contained islands, each one with a handful of different shines to collect. In all, there are 100 shines to find just in Bowser’s Fury, which is a ridiculous amount of content poured into this mode. I’m not sure that I’d go as far as to say that I think I’d spend $60 just for Bowser’s Fury… but I certainly would have spent $30 had this been part of an Expansion Pass for Odyssey. I can’t help but wonder with how great this mode ended up being, what might have been had that happened.

One nice thing about this release is that it offers up some truly enjoyable co-op gameplay fun. Whether playing through Super Mario 3D World, where players can pick and choose their characters from Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Peach, or in Bowser’s Fury, where one player controls Mario and the other Bowser Jr. There’s a lot of content bundled into this one package for anyone looking to game with a significant other, friend, or family member.

Graphically speaking, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury looks and runs remarkably well on the Nintendo Switch. 3D World was already a beautiful game, but Bowser’s Fury rivals what we saw with Odyssey. I played mostly in handheld mode but did spend some time in docked mode as well to test both versions, and they each worked wonderfully. I didn’t notice any slowdowns or frame rate rips when playing in handheld mode, and everything felt super smooth as Mario usually does.

The soundtrack truly shines. From the original releases we had back in 2013 to the all-new compositions that Daisuke Matsuoka and James Phillipsen did for the Bowser’s Fury portion, there are so many enjoyable tracks. “Lake Lapcat” has this very nostalgic Mario sound, with whistling in the background, steel drums, almost reminiscent of Yoshi’s Island on the Super Nintendo. “Fort Flaptrap” takes some familiar-sounding melodies and fuses them in ways that just sound super cool and fun. And the different pieces of music that play throughout the encounters with Bowser when he is massive are a pleasure to the ears.

After seeing the criticism, some of it even being our own, on how lazily put together the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection was last fall, I’m stoked that Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury ended up delivering me as much fun as it did. I went ahead and pre-ordered the day before release to be able to pre-download and start immediately at midnight, and I think I sat there and made it to world six by 5am, collecting a good chunk of the stars and stamps along the way. I was hooked for a solid 3 days straight, finishing it before the weekend ended, but that’s okay because I spent 20 hours total and loved every minute of it. Whether you played through the original release or not, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is worth the price of admission and deserves a spot in your Switch library, offering up a nice trip back to a great Wii U release that most didn’t get to enjoy, and a stellar side addition that could have been so much more had it released alongside Odyssey as some DLC or an Expansion Pass.

FINAL JUDGEMENT || 9.0 OUT OF 10

Check out our Review Policy here.