Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
This review is exclusively for Bowser's Fury. I may have written a separate review under the base game listing by the time you're reading this, or it may be coming soon.
Bowser's Fury is a standalone large DLC effectively, that can only be played by purchasing the combo pack Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury. Unlike the base game, this is a purely single-player adventure (there's a 2nd player assist mode not unlike the Galaxy titles), and you will play as Mario. Bowser has been transformed into Giga Bowser and there's a nasty black ooze everywhere. Bowser Jr misses dad and enlists Mario's help to turn him back.
To accomplish this, Mario must collect Cat Shines, which are the macguffin of the week in the same vein as Shines, Stars, Moons, take your pick of what Mario is collecting. This is an open-world adventure where Mario can roam to various islands, each island has 5 shines, though there's a pretty severe lack of variety in how these work. Each island has a lighthouse you'll have to platform you way to and then get the shine there, each one has 5 "cat shards" scattered that if you collect them all will give you a cat shine, each has one "Blast the Fury Blocks" -- more on that in a second. Generally the other challenges were things like a Blue Coin collection where you hit a switch and must quickly grab all the coins, often in multiple waves, or a "hurry" challenge where you had 20-30 seconds to platform somewhere and collect the shine.
Returning from the base game is the ridiculously OP Cat Suit, and the slightly less ridiculous but still very good Tanooki Leaf (grants a flutter descent). And boomerang and fire flower power ups that will do in a pinch. Many of the platforming challenges are trivialized by one or both of these, and the game allows you to stockpile up to 5 of every power up and call for them on-demand. Plessie, the awkward water dragon that controls like a wet noodle, will serve as your transportation between islands, and also "help" you collect many bonus shines not part of the main islands.
It's worth mentioning that all the regular enemies from the base game and some of the bosses (Boom-Boom and Pom-Pom) are back and everyone has been cat-ified. Younger players and those who love cats may be extra excited by this but the novelty wears off.
There's a somewhat hybrid style between say, Galaxy where you are intentionally collecting a single star at a time and Odyssey where all the moons are out there. Each island's 3 main shines (except the 5 shards and the fury blocks) must be deliberately triggered and collected separately, in order. But collecting a shine doesn't end the level (there are no levels) or teleport you anywhere.
Complicating Mario's peaceful exploration and hazardous platforming is that Giga Bowser will randomly appear at times, and you have to deal with him. At first, you can force him to retreat by collecting any shine. After so many shines, one of the giga bells located in hubs between sets of islands may awaken during a Giga Bowser visit, and collecting the giga bells will transform Mario into Giga Cat Mario (the cat lovers will be delighted). Now Giga Bowser can pick on someone his own size, and you have a little boss battle. This mechanic mostly works, but it can be VERY irritating if you're in the middle of a complicated platforming sequence, and Giga Bowser shows up and starts breathing massive fire sweeping across the entire screen. There were several times during my play that I had to abandon the shine I was working on because there was not going to be enough cover to hide from the fireballs/breath. But those attacks can work for you; there are "Fury Blocks" on each island that can only be broken by such attacks, and each hides a shine, so this may be your way to deal with the problem.
At one point, the game will tell you that regular cat shines can no longer repel bowser; he's become too strong. You'll need to collect a couple more to awaken the giga bell again and enter the final boss fight vs Giga Bowser, where he steals the giga bells and you have to chase him all around the ocean on Plessie. Who controls like a wet noodle. You'll need to crash into the ball of bells he's wearing like a cat bell 4 times (I played the fight 3 times to be sure -- 4 just goes against every Mario pattern!). It's a cute but annoying gimmick to mix up the final boss fight.
After you finish this fight, which is triggered by a specific number less than 100% of all shines, you can go back into your save and try to find the rest. There are 100 in all, and none of them are infuriatingly difficult like Mystery House Marathon or Champion's Road.
I really wish Nintendo would have released this separately as a standalone $20 game, but if you can find the game on sale, it's probably worth $40 if you're going to (re)play 3D world base as well. If you're not interested in that, I'd say try to find a friend with it or rent it from somewhere like GameFly; you can f
