-So, I'm about to tell you something a little strange.
-Meow!
♪♪
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
is almost exactly the same as the original.
But it does come with new content
in an expansion sectioned off from the main game.
That's the "+ Bowser's Fury" portion of the package.
And you should absolutely buy
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury.
You just shouldn't buy it
for any of the Bowser's Fury content.
Wait.
I'm telling you to buy a game
for potentially the same experience you had on the Wii U?
Yep. Absolutely. Let me explain.
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
is actually two different games crammed into one package.
The first screen that loads up emphasizes this right away,
as it splits the screen in half and gives you a choice --
play the Super Mario 3D World game
or play the Bowser's Fury game.
Nintendo's advertising heavily emphasized
the Bowser's Fury content, which makes a sort of sense.
After all, the new stuff is supposed to be the incentive
for returning players to repurchase the game, right?
But the reality is this --
While kaiju-god-slaying Bowser versus super-saiyan-cat Mario
was cat-littering the Internet,
Nintendo should've probably pumped up the other half
of Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury,
'cause there are two key changes they made
to Super Mario 3D World that greatly enhance it overall.
♪♪
The Super Mario 3D World portion of the package
takes the classic Mario game formula and applies it to 3D,
meaning in this game, you use 3D Mario game controls,
like long jumps and butt stomps,
to navigate through courses towards the end goal,
the iconic flagpole.
Throughout the courses are hidden collectibles,
like stamps and green stars, that unlock special courses
and mini games on an overview world map.
Towards the end of each section is a castle level
with a big boss and a Sprixie to rescue.
Those are the little fairy things that Bowser captures
at the beginning of the game.
You do this all while collecting power-ups,
like the new cat suit, to change Mario's abilities.
-Meow!
-While you can only rotate the camera a little for each level
and you don't have every 3D Mario game move,
the game play works to a brilliant effect.
Each level takes Nintendo's sharp,
show-don't-tell game-design philosophy to the max.
The beginning of levels showcase a game idea
and let players test it in a safe environment
where they can't die.
The midportion of the level adds complications
to that game-play idea.
And the final portion is a test gauntlet
featuring all complications introduced in the level.
Super Mario 3D World creates an exciting game-play loop
and applies it to Nintendo's typically polished aesthetics.
Each new level's tests and concepts will surprise you
at every turn.
[Star chiming, Toad whooping]
But the key ingredient to it all -- multiplayer.
You'd never expect it, but adding one to three more players
to the screen complicates things quickly.
Players are supposed to cooperatively work together
to reach the flagpole.
But power-ups and coins are limited.
The player ahead of the others
will move the camera's focus ahead,
leaving lagging teammates behind,
who can hit a button to bubble up and catch up.
Each player's individual points are tallied
at the end of levels,
and the player with the most points gets a nifty crown
to wear in the next stage to showcase their Mario dominance.
And funniest of all,
the run button also grabs other players.
-Aah!
-Add to the fact that each playable character --
Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Blue Toad --
all have different stats and abilities, and it all adds up
to a hilarious balance of cooperation and competition.
This is also where two critical changes to the Switch version
come into play.
These changes radically change the experience
and, in my opinion, make the entire purchase worth it.
To start, the game play is faster in every aspect
compared to its Wii U counterpart.
Characters move noticeably faster,
as do enemies and obstacles.
It just adds to the hilarious chaos multiplayer offers,
as players have to hone their reflexes even more to survive.
Secondly and more importantly,
you can now play the game online with friends.
How this wasn't mentioned in any of the advertising is baffling
considering how much that radically opens up
the multiplayer experience to everyone,
especially during these pandemic times.
When I played online
in a demo Nintendo hosted for journalists and influencers,
I noticed a tiny bit of input delay,
but the game play never stuttered or lagged,
meaning once I got used to the delay,
I was able to compete with others effectively.
It was also really easy to join the online session.
While only the host player
is able to save any progress made in online play,
this downside is outweighed by what I found to be
one of the better online experiences
Nintendo has had to offer.
Multiplayer is definitely the right way to play the game,
as it allows for so many opportunities
for unique and creative experiences.
Just try playing with your own custom rule sets,
like a game where one person's job
is to constantly sabotage the others,
or a game where one person has to carry Luigi at all times
and you restart a level if Luigi dies once.
♪♪
The Wii U was not the success Nintendo was hoping it'd be.
So it's satisfying to see
one of the best multiplayer entries of the system
find a second life on the much more popular Switch,
even if not a peep of the actual content of the game has changed.
This, unfortunately,
leads us to what I believe to be the downside of this package.
♪♪
If you think the additional content Bowser's Fury provides
is what makes Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury valuable,
I encourage you to reset your expectations.
Bowser's Fury feels more like a testing ground
for the next 3D World entry
than a fully developed game by itself.
I went into the experience wanting to like Bowser's Fury.
The setup seemed pretty good.
Bowser's been corrupted by this black ink
that looks straight out of Super Mario Sunshine.
And, coincidentally, Bowser Jr. is also there,
hoping Mario can help change his father back.
The two tackle a brand-new open world
where the course-world structure of the other game is gone
and replaced with a world map
where the camera is set free on a 360-degree axis.
Bowser's Fury lets two players control Mario and Bowser Jr.
as they set about collecting Cat Shines,
this game's equivalent of Power Stars.
Collecting these Cat Shines powers up lighthouses
that further clean up the inky mess
and reveal more of the world map.
Eventually, you'll hit a Cat Shine threshold,
where you can activate the Giga Bell,
which allows Mario to go into super-saiyan giant-cat form
to battle the massively sized Bowser.
You need to fight Bowser multiple times,
until he's completely and finally restored,
meaning this game is about continually searching the world
for more Cat Shines
to get further opportunities to fight the giant Bowser.
The last wrinkle to the game play is a new mechanic
that draws inspiration from Breath of the Wild's
Blood Moon segments.
Every so often, Bowser's shell,
which is at the center of the world map,
will rise higher and higher,
until it summons the night and the big Goliath himself.
During these segments,
Bowser appears to cause mayhem on the map,
dropping stone pillars and breathing fireballs.
After a short while,
or if you collect a Cat Shine during the segment,
Bowser will disappear and normal game play will resume.
It's a chaotic interlude
to break up the otherwise samey-feeling game play.
Mario controls exactly as he does in Super Mario 3D World,
while Bowser Jr. has those controls
plus a paintbrush swipe attack
and the ability to reveal hidden objects
using point-and-click motion controls.
You can also have the computer control Bowser Jr.
and set the amount of help it actually gives you.
The power-ups from Super Mario 3D World also appear here.
You can find them on the map and by collecting 100 coins,
and you can store up to five additional power-ups
of each variety.
The cool thing is
you can interchangeably switch between them at will,
though you'll almost never be switching off of cat form,
because it offers the most versatility.
And here's where the experience begins to fall apart.
To start, the overall map feels like an oversized approximation
of one of Super Mario Odyssey's kingdoms.
Because of this, you'll want every movement option
that Odyssey offered in its game play and more.
But Bowser's Fury is using
Super Mario 3D World's controls engine,
which feels dated for this game's open-world ambition.
You can't do things every other 3D World Mario game offers,
like the triple jump,
and you don't have things Odyssey offered
that gave you incredible movement flexibility,
like infinite rolling or Cappy hopping.
The fact that this game is an "open world"
is sort of a facade too.
It doesn't offer the same interconnectivity
or explorative wonder that, say, Odyssey's kingdoms offer,
where the discoveries really are exciting and unexpected.
Instead, this map feels more like
five separate Super Mario 3D World levels
stitched together in mountain-like zones,
with large expanses of water in between.
I would go through each mountain zone,
similarly to how I'd progress through a normal level
on Super Mario 3D World -- one path through
with very short branches off the main path
offering a challenge for an extra collectible.
Finally, facing off against the giant Bowser
quickly loses its luster,
especially when you see it for what it truly is --
The game really tries to play up Bowser's menace.
I mean, there's even a part in his theme song
that sounds like Sephiroth's theme song
from Final Fantasy VII.
♪♪
But the battles with Bowser just looks grandiose
simply because it's bigger.
The actual fight takes the same Mario boss formula
that's been here this entire franchise --
recognize the pattern, wait for the opening,
jump on three times.
In short, the experience falters
because it doesn't offer any truly new ideas.
And it just doesn't compare to the brilliance
of Mario's last game of this variety, Super Mario Odyssey.
♪♪
In conclusion, if you want one of the best
and most versatile multiplayer experiences to date
for the Nintendo Switch, online and offline,
go with Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury.
But if you're hoping in particular
for the Bowser's Fury part to surprise you
with new game-play concepts, look elsewhere.
Bowser's increase in size and inky gloss
may distract you at first,
but it's simply covering up more of the same.
♪♪