Bowser's Fury

Bowser's Fury
Promotional artwork depicting Bowser Jr. and Mario facing Fury Bowser
Developer(s)	Nintendo EPD[a]
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Composer(s)	Daisuke Matsuoka James Phillipsen
Series	Super Mario
Platform(s)	Nintendo Switch
Release	February 12, 2021
Genre(s)	Platform, action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Bowser's Fury^[b] is a 2021 platform game bundled in with the Nintendo Switch release of Super Mario 3D World. The player controls Mario through Lake Lapcat a 3D, cat-themed open world to complete challenges and collect "Cat Shines" to dispel a black sludge that's infecting the land and free Bowser (known as Fury Bowser) from its control. At irregular intervals, Bowser turns the world into apocalyptic night to rain fire on Mario and alter the environment. Its gameplay is based on 3D World, while also adopting elements introduced in Super Mario Odyssey.^[4]

The bundled release was reported to be the best-selling video game of February 2021 in the United States.^[5]

Gameplay[]

Bowser's Fury is an open world platform game in which the player, as Mario, completes challenges, collecting "Cat Shines" tokens to free Bowser and Lake Lapcat from the controlling black sludge. Its core gameplay is similar to that of the 2013 platform game Super Mario 3D World, which Bowser's Fury was released as a part of.

Eurogamer noted the influence of Super Mario Sunshine on Bowser's Fury, from its scrappy approach to new concepts to its use of Bowser Jr. and debt to "Shadow Mario" challenges.^[6] GameSpot described the concept of Bowser's Fury as having put elements of Super Mario 3D World into the structure of Super Mario Odyssey.^[7] The player character Mario jumps between platforms and obstacles in a 3D world. Each area of the world features a new gameplay twist. Mario collects bodysuit power ups that grant him special abilities, such as throwing fireballs, a boomerang, or a spinning raccoon tail.^[8] In each area of Bowser's Fury, Mario collects Cat Shines by completing challenges less than 10 minutes in length,^[9] such as traversing platforms or collecting shard fragments of a Shine.^[10] There are 100 Shines to collect in the game,^[6] and each self-contained area has five, displayed in a lighthouse. After collecting a Shine, the game reconfigures the area's environment to set up the next Shine's challenge. As the player progresses through the game, more areas open to the player. Mario rides the dinosaur Plessie to navigate between each island area of the archipelago^[8] and to reach Shine challenges throughout the lake's waters, outside of the island areas.^[10] Unlike other Mario games, all areas of Bowser's Fury are openly accessible without use of a hub world^[9]—traditional Mario levels connected without loading screens or boundaries.^[11] Also unlike Super Mario 3D World, the player has full, unfixed camera control in Bowser's Fury^[8] and is not restricted to a number of player "lives"—instead, when Mario dies, the player loses 50 coins from their counter, which gets reset every 100 coins due to granting Mario a power-up.^[7]

Every few minutes, Bowser's fury transforms the world into apocalyptic night, raining fire near the player. The Godzilla-esque fury event can interrupt the player's activity but also gives new gameplay opportunities, such as new platforms in the sky and the ability to bait Bowser's fiery breath to destroy otherwise indestructible obstacles. The player can end the storm by collecting a Shine, activating a lighthouse to pierce the darkness.^[8] Alternatively, the player can wait out the event or, with enough Shines, choose to directly confront Bowser in a kaiju battle set in a reduced scale Lake Lapcat.^[12] After the fury, Bowser returns to the sludge and slowly begins to rise, indicating the timing of the next fury event,^[8] as the fury event does not occur on a predictable interval.^[9] Mario is joined by Bowser Jr., whom the player can direct to interact with wall markings and, optionally, can be configured to assist the player in attacking enemies and collecting coins.^[8] Alternatively, a second player can control Bowser Jr., with the same limited ability set. Bowser Jr. also stores power-ups such that the player can swap between the item abilities as needed.^[7]

The basic game lasts about four hours for an average player, with an additional four hours of gameplay for players interested in completing all collectibles.^[10] Visually, the game displays at a reduced framerate when played in handheld mode, with drops in framerate during chaotic on-screen action.^[6]

Plot[]

While on a relaxing walk, Mario discovers a mysterious black sludge M (Shadow Mario's logo) in the Mushroom Kingdom. After being absorbed by the sludge, Mario finds himself in an archipelago of cat-themed islands called Lake Lapcat that have become overrun with black sludge. Upon his arrival, Mario encounters Fury Bowser, a dark version of Bowser that has grown to colossal size. Mario collects a Cat Shine, causing Bowser to retreat, and meets Bowser Jr. After pleading for help Mario and Jr. reluctantly team up in order to change Bowser back to normal.

The two travel across Lake Lapcat in order to obtain Cat Shines, while occasionally being attacked by Fury Bowser. After obtaining a certain number of Cat Shines, Mario gains access to the Giga Bell, a super-powered (and sentient) variation of the Super Bell which transforms Cat Mario into Giga Cat Mario a super Saiyan like version of his regular cat form with a colossal size allowing him to be able to attack Fury Bowser head-on.

After using the Giga Bell a certain number of times, (in addition to a chase sequence where Bowser (now clean of the sludge) traps 3 Giga Bells in a giant crystal ball which Mario with the help of Plessie (Mario's dinosaur-like ally from the Sprixie kingdom) manage to destroy knocking bowser down and absorbing the three Giga Bells to become Giga Cat Mario and Giga Cat Plessie) Mario defeats Bowser and he is returned to normal. Afterwards, Jr. breaks off his alliance with Mario, which Mario shrugs off as he celebrates with some kittens on Plessie's back.

A series of paintings by Bowser Jr. shown during the credits explain that he was the one who accidentally caused Bowser to become Fury Bowser when he painted his face with his magic paintbrush as a prank while patrolling the skies of Lake Lapcat.

Development[]

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Bowser's Fury was developed by Nintendo EPD.^[13][c] It was released on February 12, 2021 for the Nintendo Switch.^[6]

Reception[]

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury was the best selling game for February 2021 in the United States, even before counting Nintendo's digital sales, which are unreported.^[14]

Reviewers noted the game's "experimental" nature, both in its inventive approach to the series' first fully open world,^[6][12] foretelling future Mario games,^[11] and its lack of technical polish relative to the series' standards,^[6][7] exemplified by its noticeable drops in framerate^[6][11] and unperfected ideas.^[7] The game's foray into a fully open world challenged the Mario tradition of leisurely, "meticulously designed obstacle courses", wrote Polygon, and instead presented as an improvisational rumpus room filled with colorful distractions, messy and warm.^[12] On the technical end, the game's framerate drops made Kotaku's reviewer desire for more powerful hardware.^[11]

Some reviewers were vexed over frequent interruptions of the game's Fury event,^[8] especially towards the end of the game,^[7] but others felt an adrenaline rush at the event's added challenge and unpredictability.^[9][12] After a few hours, Ars Technica found the game repetitive and sparse, returning to the same areas for some challenges with only minor novelty.^[10] GameSpot too acknowledged a number of uninspired repeat challenges, exacerbated by the Fury event's intrusion while pursuing some of the harder Shine tokens.^[7] Polygon appreciated the fury countdown's visibility, likened to the Mario level timers of prior games.^[12]

Notes[]

References[]

Further reading[]

External links[]

• Official website