Like so many others, I didn’t know much about the Wii U when it debuted in 2012. Due to its decidedly botched marketing campaign calling the Wii U a “total upgrade” of Nintendo’s previous console, the Wii, there was some confusion as to whether it was an accessory or standalone device. Combined with generally bad commercials and a dearth of quality first-party titles at launch, Nintendo created a recipe for the company’s worst-selling home console ever. Suffice it to say, even the Wii U’s greatest games went under my radar.
I didn’t get a Wii U until my 20th birthday, two years after its launch. My interest was singular: I wanted to play the latest installment in the Super Smash Bros. series with my roommates, and this would be the sole duty of the Wii U for the remainder of its time spent in our skinny, three-story townhouse. But this didn’t stop my parents from also buying me a copy of 2013’s Super Mario 3D World. It became a joke amongst my roommates and me to see how long it could stay in its plastic wrap, so for a while, it just sat on a shelf.
In the summer of 2016, hopefully my life’s nadir, I returned home to live with my parents. The Wii U, along with the unwrapped copy of Super Mario 3D World, made the trek back with me, and for the better part of the season lived in a box in my bedroom closet. I’m not sure what forces compelled me to finally dust off my old Wii U later that summer. Maybe I was seeking an escape from the lonely humdrum that was plaguing me. Maybe I was just curious to see if my console still worked. Regardless, with its unboxing came a desire to play something fresh. Something I not only hadn’t played before, but something I hadn’t considered playing ever. (This was my toxic macho-gamer phase. Mario was a “baby game” unless, of course, he was beating Kirby to a bloody pulp.) So, finally, my copy of Super Mario 3D World shed its skin.
And I played. And played. And played.
This isn’t a review of Super Mario 3D World as much as a love letter to a game that uplifted me when I was in the pits. (That won’t stop me, however, from slapping a score at the bottom of this article and putting “review” in the title.) Since it was announced last September that Super Mario 3D World would be getting a Switch re-release and packaged alongside an all-new Mario adventure, I’ve been anxious to write about a game that is so intimately woven into my personal history. I’ve gone the entire range of the emotional spectrum: I was elated to get a chance to play my favorite Wii U game on decidedly better hardware. I was pensive and annoyed at some of the bitter memories it conjured. Most importantly, I was apprehensive of my readers because I didn’t know how to write this one using my typical impersonal formula.
How do I criticize something that’s been so emphatically pivotal to me as a gamer? How do I hide my biases? What if it’s not nearly as great as I remember? (Spoiler alert: It is.) What if this new adventure, Bowser’s Fury, somehow diminishes the experience? (Spoiler again: It doesn’t.)
Then I remembered this is (technically) a review, and reviews are biased sons of bitches. Regardless of my history with the game, Super Mario 3D World remains as whimsical and delightful as ever.
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
Developer: Nintendo
Price: $60
Platform: Nintendo Switch
MonsterVine was supplied with a code for review
3D World isn’t Mario’s first adventure to marry the plumber’s conventional 2D side-scrollers and free-range 3D sandboxes. That would be its predecessor, Super Mario 3D Land, released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2011. However, 3D World has plenty of other firsts. It’s the first to feature power-ups like the self-replicating Double Cherry and the ailuranthropic Lucky Bell. It’s also the game in which Mario learns to skate, expanding his ever-growing list of fanciful verbs. Joining the cast are several pioneers: Fuzzlers, flopters, hop-chops, skipsqueaks, and rammerheads all got their start in Super Mario 3D World, and they’re all joined by many a familiar face. And while it’s not his first appearance, this is certainly where Captain Toad found his breakout role.
Super Mario 3D World is teeming with so much diversity and innovation that you won’t stop to think about the Big Bounce Byway’s ludicrous placement within a desert hub world. Game director Koichi Hayashida’s appreciation for kishōtenketsu narrative structure is on full display as design concepts are never underutilized nor overstated: Each level introduces a core idea and subtlety teaches players how to overcome as it develops, twists, and concludes in a grand finale. This formula continues to keep us engaged, even after we’ve explored its levels a dozen times, and has birthed some of the franchise’s greatest levels in Hands-On Hall, Searchlight Sneak, and Grumblump Inferno.
There are a few technical improvements that make 3D World strictly better this time around. Playable characters move at increased speed in both the levels and hub worlds so we can get to the action quicker, which you’ll appreciate once you’ve realized what a slog the first two worlds are. Better graphics tech makes it prettier, too, though 3D World wasn’t too unsightly in the first place. A few problems persist from its initial release I’d have liked to see fixed, like Mario’s apparent stickiness when donning the cat suit. (This is especially true in levels like Trick Trap Tower and Fuzzy Flood Mine where sticking to a wall often spells doom.) The Switch port’s ultimate sin, however, is the removal of the propeller platforms, which would elevate Mario when they blew into the Wii U’s built-in microphone. It’s the sort of gimmick I wouldn’t typically go for, but it was used sparingly and added extra charm to an already charming game. Due to the Switch’s lack of a microphone, the propeller platforms have been replaced by touchstones, lifts, and invisible clouds. Levels like Captain Toad’s Fiery Finale and Puffprod Peaks lose some flair without them.
3D World is also made better by the simple fact that isn’t just 3D World. (Did you think I forgot?) It’s Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury — heavy emphasis on the plus. Bowser’s Fury is an all-new Mario adventure, so it doesn’t have the honor of being hoisted up by my nostalgia. This doesn’t prevent it from being just as delightful as its cohabitant.
Bowser’s Fury utilizes 3D World’s toolbox within the confines of the Super Mario Odyssey engine, once again exploring 3D Mario in a fresh and innovative way. More Akin to the likes of Super Mario 64 and Odyssey, it’s less a merger of differing fundamentals and more an experiment testing new tools and ideas within a bona fide 3D environment. It’s also rightfully deserving of its own review, although as a limited experience, Nintendo would have been hard-pressed to sell it with the standard $60 price tag. Kudos to Nintendo, at least, for not merely re-releasing yet another Wii U title at full price.
Bowser’s Fury takes place in the unfamiliar world of Lake Lapcat. Nearly everything here is feline fancy: Those flopters, hop-chops, and skipsqueaks I mentioned earlier? All cats. Trees, seagulls, and piranha plants? Also cats. It’s the sort of Nintendo charm that always grabs our attention and keeps us hooked if only to see how far they’ll take it. This isn’t Bowser’s Fury’s main pull, but I won’t fault anyone who picks this game up only to see all the ways Nintendo has transformed something into a cat.
Lake Lapcat is also the first territory in the Mario universe to be fully open-world. There isn’t a hub world where players can jump into a painting or fly off in a hat-shaped rocket to a distinct level. Every area in Lake Lapcat is connected by its borders, and getting to the next place is as easy as walking or swimming. Each area, or biome, still acts like its own level. Slipskate Slope, for example, is an icy region where players will use only a subset of 3D World’s tools. It’s attached to the rest of the world, but the way players explore and connect with it is separate from other experiences they’ll have elsewhere.
The story goes that Bowser Jr. teleports Mario to this strange land of cats after his father, Bowser, is transformed into Fury Bowser, a dark and gargantuan version of his former self. Periodically, Fury Bowser comes out of his shell to rain hellfire and meteors upon Lake Lapcat. To stop him, Mario must collect cat shines (think Odyssey’s moons), which will temporarily send Fury Bowser to rest at the center of the map. Once Mario collects enough cat shines, he can use the Giga Bell, a new power-up, to become a giant Super Saiyan cat. Here, the Mario franchise enters uncharted waters as Mario and Bowser engage in epic kaiju combat. This process of collecting cat shines to battle Fury Bowser is the game’s core loop.
Luckily, Bowser’s Fury is preserved by its limited runtime. If it were a game of Odyssey-like proportion, it’d surely overstay its welcome. The loop is perfect as a six- to eight-hour experience, and the cat shine goals throughout are diverse enough to prevent Bowser’s Fury from ever being too tedious. As Mario collects cat shines, Lake Lapcat will transform to accommodate the next set of tasks: Collecting the “Bully the Cat Bullies” shine, for example, will replace Fort Flaptraps cat bullies with cat stingbies, which are later replaced with cat magikoopas after collecting another cat shine. Lake Lapcat is very much a living, breathing world, and it’s satisfying to see how Mario’s progress transforms the terrain throughout his adventure.
I hope Bowser’s Fury is a sneak peek into Mario’s upcoming adventures. There are a lot of unique mechanisms and ideas that I’m looking forward to seeing in future titles. Among them is the power-up cache that lets Mario store his abilities. Being able to access the cat suit on a whim removed the frustration of needing to already have it when finding particular cat shines. It was also nice to throw out a fire flower if ambushed.
When he emerges, Bowser reshapes the environment, granting platforms to otherwise inaccessible areas. Bowser is also needed to destroy certain objects, called Fury Blocks, which requires goading him to the place. Using Bowser, or other enemies, as a puzzle-solving device is something I desperately want in future
games, but here it was often too circumstantial. Bowser has a knack for showing up when you least expect him and being tardy when you need him most. It’s also frustrating that the timer that whisks him away after 90 seconds or so disappears once you’ve collected enough cat shines. To get rid of him after this point, players must find a cat shine, fight him, or die — the latter of which, unfortunately, is often the most convenient. Choosing to fight him in the post-game after collecting 50 cat shines will roll the credits and force you back into the main menu.
Bowser’s Fury comes with other caveats too. Like in 3D World, the cat suit comes with an annoying stickiness. Several cat shines can also be boiled down to the same principles: What’s the point in finding more calico cats once you’ve demonstrated a dozen times already that you get the point?
Overall, it’s a marvelous game. And to be able to play it concurrently with a game that, to me, has been such an influence in my life was awesome. Super Mario 3D World is very much the game I remember it was: Wholesome, engaging, and an absolute delight that can make me smile on my worst days. Bowser’s Fury is every bit as delightful, albeit a bit more ominous than one might expect from a Mario game. There’s more in store for the precedent Bowser’s Fury sets, and I can’t wait to see exactly what that is.
The Final Word
Super Mario 3D World makes a triumphant return alongside a delightful new adventure in Bowser’s Fury.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
