Mario walks around the Mushroom Kingdom to be taken to a world where everything is catified? Look, everything is cat based. This is a weird combination of Super Mario 3D World powerups in an open world collect-a-thon….
An Unlikely Team up
Your companion in this adventure is no other then Bowser Jr. wielding the Magic Paintbrush from Super Mario Sunshine. Bowser Jr. seeks your help to save Bowser from being bigger and more evil then normal (for some reason). Bowser Jr. can paint power-ups into existence and carry your power-ups for you.
When 3D World meets Odyssey
The best way I can explain this game is 3D world power-ups in an Odyssey kind of world. Traverse the open world to collect Cat Shines (hey another Super Mario Sunshine reference. See, Nintendo actually remembers Sunshine). Collecting Cat Shines behaves the same way as moons in Odyssey where you grab one and go to the next. Collect enough and you go into Giga Cat Mario and fight Fury Bowser.
The Power-ups
The power-ups in this game are the same as in 3D World which are Cat Suit, Tanooki Leaf, Mushroom, Boomerang Flower, Fire Flower, and Lucky Bell. They all behave the same as in 3D World with the added bonus of having a “bank” where you can hold up to 5 of each power up. At first, I thought this was over powered but later in the story having this bank saved me from dying PLENTY OF TIMES.
Kaiju Battles in Mario
How do you fight Fury Bowser? Simple! Become Giga Cat Mario and fight with epic music across the land. Each time a fight happens, the difficulty gets more and more intense. What makes this even better is the heavy metal music in the background and scenery. It makes these fights always enjoyable.
Final meow-ons
Bowser’s Fury felt more of a Proof of Concept for a future installment then a stand alone game. Maybe some time in the future Nintendo will take this idea and make it into a full fledged game. However, this does not take away from what this game is. I loved every second of it and will play this mode over and over again. Congratulations Bowser’s Fury for getting an 8/10.
