Bowser's Fury/YMMV

Alternative Character Interpretation: When Bowser's anger leads to him being corrupted by Bowser Jr's paint, what exactly was it that made him mad? Was it purely anger from Jr doodling on him in his sleep, or was it merely a match thrown onto a powder keg of 35 years worth of pent up anger from all his defeats at Mario's hands? After all, it's Mario who Fury Bowser exclusively targets: Jr's only in danger as a byproduct of hanging right by Mario's side, and he isn't hunted down or targeted the way the plumber is.
Best Boss Ever: While some visually consider him a downgrade from Fury Bowser, Giant Bowser makes up for it by being a legitimately difficult fight, with the 100% version of the fight being the closest thing a Mario game will ever get to going full-on Bullet Hell. While it's tough to dodge the ridiculous amount of attacks Bowser throws your way, dodging around them while chasing him all over the map on Plessie is a lot of fun, and every hit you land on him feels satisfying.
Broken Base: While a well-received game that opened up a lot more people up to the idea of 3D World getting remastered, Bowser's Fury didn't exactly squeak by controversy-free either. Is it a fun and fulfilling game in its own right, or is it too derivative of 3D World? And is this game the perfect blueprint for Mario games going forward, or not?
Crowning Moment of Heartwarming:
- One of the post-game Cat Shines can be found by having Junior paint a picture showing him and Mario finding a Cat Shine together. The mission's name, by the way? Junior's Graffiti Gratitude. Aw, looks like he really does like adventuring with Mario...
- Several missions are dedicated to helping a distressed mama cat find her kittens. The site of her reuniting with her babies is guaranteed to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Ensemble Darkhorse: Thought Plessie was popular before? Thanks to controlling better and proving instrumental to defeating the final boss, his popularity has skyrocketed.
- Ditto for the cute kittens who will snuggle up to Cat Mario.
Evil Is Cool: Fury Bowser looks like something you'd see on a heavy metal album cover, and his powers are downright apocalyptic. He's easily the coolest form Bowser has ever taken, guaranteed.
Game Breaker: AI-controlled Bowser Jr. is a beast. He can point out invisible boxes containing goodies you'd otherwise miss, and he's a vicious enemy-killing machine who can do all the hard work of attacking the Fury Shadows for you.
- The Lucky Cat Suit is just as game-breaking as it was in 3D World, and will even protect you from Fury Bowser's flames in statue mode while its coin-generating ground pound gives you tons of extra powerups. As a result, it's a lot rarer than the other power ups but you can still get one very early on if you know where to look.
It's Short, So It Sucks: Those critical of the game are not impressed by the fact that it can be completed 100% in a day.
Just Here for Godzilla: It's safe to say that this is the main driving force that drummed up popularity for the Super Mario 3D World rerelease. In an age where Nintendo fans are growing more critical over the company's tendency to release overpriced ports of older games, the addition of an entirely new game bundled with an old one makes the hefty price tag worth it.
Nightmare Fuel: Fury Bowser. If you thought it was impossible for Bowser to be scary, you'll be singing a different tune once you find yourself being menaced by this Godzilla-sized monstrosity. When he awakens, Lake Lapcat gets swept up in a massive rainstorm and the friendly kittens will turn into hostile shadow monsters. And while this happens, Fury Bowser will not leave you alone: he'll pelt you with the 15-foot tall spikes from his shell and huge fireballs, while also trying to roast you with a huge column of fire breath that is nearly impossible to dodge unless there's cover nearby. And he's way more acrobatic than anything his size has any right to be: if you get on Plessie and swim away he'll leap after you all over Lake Lapcat, and often drops right in front of you seemingly from thin air as a surprisingly effective Jump Scare. And while gathering Cat Shines or simply hiding will make him go away, his anger keeps building up until you have to grab a shine to repel him. And once you get 47 of them? They no longer work, meaning you'll have to grab the last three shines while being chased by this hellish juggernaut of a turtle.
Tear Jerker: A mild one, but the crying momma cat who's looking for her missing kittens does a good job at tugging at the heartstrings of animal lovers.
That One Boss:
- The first boss fight against Fury Bowser after unlocking the Ruins Giga Bell is a huge step up from the preceding fight thanks to one deadly new attack: he'll use his shell as a wheel and try to run Mario over, leaving trails of ink behind that will mess with your speed. He's fast as hell, and spends a lot of time offscreen which makes keeping track of him a real bitch to do, even with the cursor giving you a rough approximation of where he is. And if you try to hide from him on top of the various structures on Lake Lapcat's islands, he'll leap up towards you. In later fights, he'll always shoot a bunch of spikes that you can throw at him to instantly knock him out of wheel mode, but you get no such luxury here, and there's a very real risk of being comboed to death in seconds if you're having a real bad day.
- The 100% version of the final battle is also really tough: not the Fury Bowser portion, but the Giant Bowser part. If you thought the storm of projectiles he fired at you was bad enough in the original fight, that's nothing compared to the Bullet Hell that awaits you in this battle.
That One Level: Mount Magmeow and Rolling Roller Island are already tougher than just about any other island in the game thanks to having lava, the game's sole insta-kill hazard, and being chock full of tough platforming moments and annoyingly placed hazards. But when Fury Bowser awakens you've got jack squat for cover, so if you're unlucky enough to need these islands' Cat Shines once Fury Bowser becomes impossible to banish, you better hope you have a Lucky Cat Suit on hand or else you'll be burning through powerups as he keeps nailing you with impossible to dodge fire beams.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: While it's understandable why Nintendo would want the story to focus on Mario bonding with Bowser Jr, the absence of the playable characters from 3D World still hurts. Just imagine Peach teaming up with the kid who thought she was his mama and helping him calm down his dad!
- Also, the only returning bosses from 3D World are Boom Boom, Pom Pom, and Prince Bully. While they're merely cat-flavored palette swaps, fights with the likes of King Ka-Thunk, Motley Bossblob, and the Hisstocrats would have helped add some variety to the various island missions.
Win Back the Crowd: The 3D World remaster had the unfortunate timing to be announced alongside the controversial Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection, which caught a lot of flack for being three old Mario games lazily slapped together in a $60 compilation with no bells or whistles to justify the price tag. But when Nintendo went more in depth about Bowser's Fury and made it clear that it was a unique campaign as opposed to a challenge map or extra level, fan's went from underwhelmed to hyped. Funnily enough, the general reception is pretty similar to how 3D World was received in the days before its original release.

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