Nintendo has finally been re-releasing a number of classic Mario games on the Switch, including most recently the undersung masterpiece that is 2013’s Super Mario 3D World. Most of these games were just bare-bones ports, which made, for instance, the Super Mario 3D All-Stars (a collection of Super Mario 64, Mario Sunshine, and Mario Galaxy) less enticing than they might otherwise be. Super Mario 3D World, however, was not included in the All-Stars collection (nor was Mario Galaxy 2 for inexplicable reasons). Instead, it was released on its own. And, interestingly, it included Bowser’s Fury, a short, stand-alone Mario adventure that pulls elements from Odyssey, Sunshine, and 3D World but ultimately creates its own thing.
The question I have is: What does Bowser’s Fury tell us about the future of Mario?
What is Bowser’s Fury?
Mario is walking along a path in the Mushroom Kingdom. He sees some black sludge on the ground. Mario is a noted idiot, so he immediately starts running down the path it creates until it swallows him hole, spitting him out on an island with giant dinosaur footprints. There, he learns something awful: Bowser, his mortal enemy, has been corrupted by the sludge and turned into a giant dinosaur. When he awakens, he rains fire and metal from the sky. His son, Bowser Jr., asks for Mario’s help to save his dad from whatever malevolent force has taken hold of him.
So, Mario and Bowser Jr. have to seek out ‘Cat Shines’ to power lighthouses that can pierce the sludge. Collect enough and you can even awaken the ‘Giga Bells’ that allow Mario to transform into a giant catman and tower above the islands to fight Bowser one-on-one. Collect all of them and… well, you get the same thing, really. Unfortunately, the game’s reward for 100% completion is pretty much just a very slightly longer final boss fight. But still, the journey is satisfying, even if the destination isn’t.
And it is the journey that had me wondering if this was a test balloon for a new kind of Mario game.
What does this have to do with the future of Mario games?
The level design in Bowser’s Fury feels unique for a Mario game, influenced more by something like Wind Waker. You explore a big overworld map comprised of distinct islands. Initially, you have to jump and swim to reach nearby islands. As you progress, you unlock faster modes of transport that allow you to sail between islands quickly and engage in minigames on the water. Rather than the traditional Mario level development, where you choose a level and then play through it, here is is all in one seamless world.
Each island is a themed platforming challenge that is recontextualized over time. Risky Whisker Island, one of my favorites, starts off pretty simple: Every step you take, the ground behind you collapses. So you have to navigate a mid-air jumping maze without being able to look back or take a break (outside of a handful of small stable platforms). Simple. But the second shine requires you to chase a monster across those same platforms, fighting something and managing falling platforms. And the third shine may ask you to take a different route through the sky platforms and only give you 20 seconds to reach a faraway goal. The best islands in Bowser’s Fury take a relatively static set of platforming challenges and recontextualize them repeatedly to force you to master a simple skill
But what intrigues me is the way that combines with the game’s open world aspect to create a Mario game that feels unique. It lets you bounce from challenge to challenge as you will. Don’t want to deal with Risky Whisker right now? There are three other islands to explore nearby that test different kinds of skills. Stumped by one of the hidden Shines? Ride somewhere different and see what you can find.
Breath of the Wild was a game-changer. Using the Legend of Zelda series to recreate the open world RPG was a brilliant reinvention of both. Mario has seen that kind of creative power before, most notably in Super Mario 64, the series’ first 3D entry. It’s impossibly to overstate how enormous a change that ended up being for the series, and for platformers as a genre. But that was in 1996. There have been great Mario games since then, but the series hasn’t reinvented itself like that in the 25 years since then. Bowser’s Fury suggests a company that learned from the success of Breath of the Wild and wanted to find a way to bring that kind of open world to Mario’s more cartoony platforming.
Is Bowser’s Fury a full game?
Yes — but a short one. I’d say it probably took me less than 10 hours to 100% complete this one. And honestly, a lot of that time was spent on a handful of the most challenging platforming sequences and hidden power-ups. You could probably knock the core ‘story’ out in less than 6 hours. It’s a decent length, particularly since it comes paired with another, longer game. But given Nintendo’s reluctance to charge anything less than full retail price for its core titles, I can see a world where people are frustrated at the idea of paying $60 for a short experience and a game they may already own.
And this is part of why I’m not sure the concept can sustain a full game. How do you keep the individual pieces of the world distinctive and interesting across a longer game. Breath of the Wild had a staggering amount of stuff you could do, which fits an adventure RPG. You could cook. You could train horses. There was a photography side quest. I mean, there were characters who had dialogue. Most Mario platforming games don’t have a lot of that beyond some basic exposition. The franchise has branched out with the types of power-ups, and those open up new styles of play. But they’re limited, because Mario’s verbs are (intentionally) also limited. You run. You jump. That’s mostly it.
So they would have to double down on the islands. Right now, each island is small, essentially a single challenge you can approach in a few different ways. A bigger game in this style would have to get more complex with those designs. But at what point, then, are you just recreating ‘levels’ with slightly less convenience?
You’ve said nothing.
Look, I know. I’m not a professional game designer. I’m certain that there are brilliant people out there who could make this work. Changing Metroid into a first-person shooter shouldn’t have worked, but they did it. If they wanted to make a full, open world Mario game, I bet they could nail it. And Bowser’s Fury asks an intriguing question: What would that look like?
It answers with a fun, inventive experiment. But as a proof of concept for something larger, it did leave me uncertain. Is Bowser’s Fury 6 hours long because it was meant to be Mario Odyssey DLC that outgrew its scope? Or it is 6 hours long because that’s as big as they could make it before it stopped working? For every Risky Whisker or Mount Magmeow, there is a too-slim Clawswipe Colosseum or Roiling Roller. It’s a little worrisome that a game this small still feels like it has some fat on its bones.
The bottom line.
Bowser’s Fury is good. But in the days since its release, I’ve seen a lot of speculation about what it means for future Mario titles, and, well… is it that good? Or are fans just hungry for a return to a more inventive Mario franchise? Mario Odyssey was good, but in the end, it just felt like a tightening of a well-established formula. There has been a rennaissance of stellar 2D platformers since Super Meat Boy exploded onto the scene. 3D platformers feel a little like an afterthought. But I don’t know if this is the answer to that.
And yet: It’s a good game. And you know what? So is Super Mario 3D World. And I’ve seen the sales figures on the Wii U; a lot of you missed this one in 2013. I like it when Nintendo lets its core franchises get experimental. It often leads to excellent innovations and resurgences of struggling genres. Bowser’s Fury may be short, but how often do you get to fight a dragon kaiju as a giant catman, Big Man Japan style?
Too rarely. Even if Bowser’s Fury is a creative dead end for the franchise, it has given us that. And that, my friends, is beautiful.
