Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury- The Game That Got a Second Chance
Super Mario 3D World originally released on the Wii U in 2013. This is a game that many Nintendo Switch owners have wanted ported onto the console.
Back when Nintendo announced there would be a new 3D Mario game, many fans were hoping it would be Super Mario Galaxy 3, after the success of the first two.
This obviously did not happen. It ended up being a sequel to the 3DS game, Super Mario 3D Land. A game that was specifically made for the 3DS and not the Wii U.
Fans were very confused because they didn’t understand how this game would be able to run on the Wii U, plus from the initial trailer, it looked like another bland Mario game.
Considering this was the game that was supposed to help sell the Wii U, it wasn’t giving anyone any reason to pick it up after the first trailer.
After the release of Super Mario Galaxy 2 in 2008, there was a long stretch of boring 2D Mario games that played exactly like the previous ones, and 3D Mario games with barely any creativity. This led to something called “Mario Fatigue”.
Mario Fatigue was caused by too many Mario games being released simultaneously and with no real purpose or there was a gimmick in the games. Examples of a gimmick are the F.L.U.U.D pack in Super Mario Sunshine, and the whole galaxy to explore in Mario Galaxy 1 and 2.
In the Mario 3D World trailer, it was running and jumping with a couple of new enemies, and it showed that Bowser wasn’t the enemy. The new enemies weren’t even interesting, and the fact that Bowser isn’t the villain isn’t a new concept.
This led to a lot of backlashes with people saying, “It’s just another Mario game” and, “No creativity”. Even though I wasn’t there for the whole 3D World backlash era, I completely understand where everyone was coming from.
After playing the same type of Mario games for so long, you want to try something new. Nintendo teases you by saying that there’s a big new Mario game coming, and it ends up being super underwhelming.
Now fast forward to around mid-September, early October. Fans were worried the horrible trailer from June was the only news about the game coming before release.
That was not the case.
On October 1st, 2013, Nintendo dropped the second trailer for Super Mario 3D World, and holy crap, the game looked super fun. It showed Mario going through clear pipes near lava, new levels that were super creative, and new items and levels that are staples in Mario games to this day.
This trailer changed everyone’s opinions about the game. Gone were the comments of lack of creativity. Gone were the comments that said it’s just another Mario game. This game looked fun.
But there was a slight problem.
Spoiler alert, the game ended up being super popular. Mario fans loved it. Nintendo fans loved it. But the only people who got to enjoy it were the 13 million people who bought a Wii U. To put that into perspective, the Nintendo Switch sold 13.12 million units in its first year, compared to the Wii U which sold 13.52 million units in its LIFETIME.
My point is that a great game like Super Mario 3D World was stuck on a console that nobody wanted to buy, so it was only playable to the select people who bought a Wii U.
If it wasn’t clear already, the Wii U ended up being a complete flop and was pretty much off shelves by late 2016 early 2017. This forced Nintendo to release the Nintendo Switch a little bit earlier than they wanted too. Nintendo of America CEO at the time Reggie Fils Aime said that the Nintendo Switch was a ”make or break” console for them.
The stakes were very high on the Nintendo Switch to do well. But it exceeded those expectations by a long shot.
Since the Wii U didn’t do as good as Nintendo wanted. They started porting games from the Wii U onto the Switch. Pretty much every big game on the Wii U was on the Switch by 2020. Besides Super Mario 3D World….
Nintendo fans were confused how a game that sold extremely well and was super popular on the Wii U, wasn’t ported onto the Switch yet. It led fans to think that it was never coming, and that Super Mario 3D World was going to be known as the Wii U game that never saw the light.
But in September of 2020, Nintendo released a Mario 35th Anniversary Direct. This is where Mario 3D World was going to be announced. If it wasn’t then it probably wouldn’t come to the Switch.
Low and behold, the first game announced was Super Mario 3D World! I was so excited, the Mario game I grew up playing was finally coming to my current console.
The trailer ends with Mario, Luigi, Toad and Peach going down a flagpole, then it shows Super Mario 3D world…. plus.
Plus, what?
The trailer proceeds to show glimpses of the unknown land.
It seemed like there were levels. But in an open world? This was a first for Mario games. The trailer ends with Cat Mario sitting in front of some bell-shaped thing. The title of this expansion is called “Bowser’s Fury”.
I was excited that we were getting more than a straight port of the game. I was also curious about what Bowser’s Fury could be. It could be a whole new story, or it could just be a few levels.
Months go by, no word on anything Mario 3D World. No short trailer.
All we had was a release date, February 12th, 2021. Nintendo usually puts out trailers at least 2 months before release so you could get an idea of what you were getting into. But Nintendo seemed to be waiting longer for this trailer.
The day is January 13th, 2021. In the morning Nintendo announced that the final trailer before release would be coming later that day.
I was super excited. Many Nintendo fans, including me, waited far too long for this trailer to come out. I just had to know what Bowser’s Fury was.
The Bowser’s Fury segment of the trailer was informative. It was raining in the first trailer, but in this trailer, the world looked a lot livelier.
I noticed there were cats everywhere. Everywhere. Every single enemy was a cat. The whole point of this expansion is to beat Bowser as a giant cat.
The items you have to collect in this game are called Cat Shines. Many people connected them to the Shines from Super Mario Sunshine because they look so similar.
The shines were easy to get. I know a person that 100 percent completed Bowser’s Fury in around 6 hours.
For it to be something new, it was never meant to be hard. I took my time because I enjoyed exploring an open world Mario game like this one.
Being able to solve puzzles in an open world then being able to go right to another level is astonishing. I hope that Nintendo keeps putting open world levels in Mario games.
So, I picked up Mario 3D World the day it came out. I played it nonstop for about a week. I loved it. It was everything I could have asked for and more.
Even though it didn’t feel the same as it did when I was younger, I was still able to capture some of the same feelings I did when I played it on the Wii U.
Overall, this game is a must have for anyone who owns a Nintendo Switch or a Wii U. Even if you owned it previously, I still think you should get it again.
That’s how good this game is.
