REVIEW: ‘Bowser’s Fury’ – Open-World Platformer A Possible Hint For Mario’s Future

The 3D platformer is a genre that has fallen out of favor with gamers and game developers over the last 15 years. There simply aren’t a lot of them being made anymore, certainly not as many as there were in the late ‘90s and early/mid 2000s. Nintendo, being the company that invented the 3D platformer as we know it, hasn’t abandoned the genre. In fact, they’re one of the few pushing it forwards, and their last experiment, Bowser’s Fury, could possibly be an appetizer for what’s to come for Mario in the third-dimension.

Nintendo’s last 3D platformer before Bowser’s Fury was Super Mario Odyssey, a massive and expansive 3D adventure that had Mario traveling all over and collecting hundreds of Power Moons. It wasn’t quite open-world, but Bowser’s Fury takes that next step, and plays like a test-run for whatever Nintendo plans on doing with Mario in 3D next. Given the open-world direction the Zelda series has taken, and that Metroid Prime 4 is rumored to be open-world as well, it makes sense Mario would be next. They were almost there with Super Mario Odyssey, and with the extra power of Switch 2, an open-world Mario game could be a showpiece game for Nintendo’s new console.

The open-world setting seems to work quite well in a 3D Mario platformer. The world in Bowser’s Fury is nice, somewhat similar to Super Mario Sunshine with the beach theme, but not as tropical. There’s never a break in the gameplay when traveling to a new area, and the music and setting change as you move from one region to another. As Mario attains Cat Shines, the geography of the land will change, opening up new challenges and objectives. When Mario gets enough Cat Shines, he can turn into Giga Cat Mario and take Bowser on.

Bowser’s Fury shares a lot of DNA with Super Mario 3D World in its challenges and gameplay, but in a fully 3D open world with a 360-degree camera that the player has complete control of. Mario is loaded with power-ups to carry around. There are several different types of power-ups for him to get, most of them old favorites from past games, and he can carry five of each power-up with him, so he’s never in much danger of being without one. If he collects 100 coins, he gets another power-up. They’re all over the place.

At first, Bowser’s angry presence helps keep you on your toes and keeps the gameplay fresh, and there are certain Cat-Shines that you can’t get without his help. However, exploring and searching for Cat Shines while having a giant turtle-dragon breathing fire at you starts to become tedious and exhausting after a bit. Bowser became more and more irritating as the game went on, mostly because his appearances were more frequent and he wouldn’t go away. It got to the point that I would just let him kill Mario at times so I could explore in peace, since Mario would just restart in whatever region he happened to be in, but with Bowser gone. In essence, the game rewards you if Bowser takes out Mario.

The premise of the game is that Bowser has become very angry and large for some reason, and Bowser Jr. asks for Mario’s help to retrieve Cat Shines to pacify his dad. That’s about it. No reason is given for why Bowser has turned into Godzilla or why Cat Shines do what they do. The story is an afterthought. Nintendo could’ve at least given us a reason for why Bowser is all large, black, and angry now, but they didn’t bother. Reasons I guess. Nintendo is notoriously lazy when it comes to story in their games. I know it’s just a Mario game, but they could’ve come up with something.

Bowser’s Fury runs at 720p/30 FPS in handheld mode and 1080p/60 FPS in docked mode. The framerate in docked mode isn’t anywhere close to being stable. It chugs if there’s anything significant happening on the screen. Unfortunate, but not surprising given the framerate issues with the open-world Zelda games on the Switch.

Overall, Bowser’s Fury is a short and fun experience, more like a small piece of DLC than a full game, which is why Nintendo sold it with the Switch version of Super Mario 3D World rather than by itself. If you’ve already played Super Mario 3D World on Wii U, Bowser’s Fury is probably not enough to justify a rebuy on its own. It’s not long enough, and outside of an open-world setting and giant Bowser terrorizing Mario, it doesn’t offer much that we haven’t seen in other Super Mario platformers. Even if you’re a slow gamer like me, you can probably 100% it in about ten hours or less.

If you haven’t played Super Mario 3D World, Bowser’s Fury is a nice bonus and extra content to get a taste for what a full 3D Mario platformer would be like in an open world. It’s an interesting preview of a possible future for Mario, Nintendo, and Switch 2. Given that it’s been seven years since Super Mario Odyssey, and that Switch 2 is likely to launch in 2025, we may not have long to wait. In the meantime, check out Bowser’s Fury if you can. It doesn’t last long, but it’s an engaging and fun experience to tide 3D platformer fans until Mario’s next big adventure.