Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury Review: Great platforming fun on Nintendo Switch

Super Mario has been riding high in recent years.

Hit after hit on the Nintendo consoles has helped to sell millions of machines across the world.

So this latest title, a revamped version of the 2013 Wii U game, will no doubt sell by the bucketload.

But, while it is great fun, it doesn’t quite reach the heady heights of more recent highly polished new titles like Odyssey.

We’re in the 35th anniversary year of Mario and this is the second Switch repackage of a Mario game in just a few months.

Last year’s Super Mario 3D All Stars got strong reviews because it had a longevity to it, three old games that each provided a different challenge.

Here with Super Mario 3D World, while you do get the short bolt-on Bowser’s Fury, if you’re a hardened gamer you’ll work your way through the title at a fair rate of knots and it doesn’t obviously have that longevity of the 3-in-1 package.

And for £40-£50 depending on where you buy it, that’s quite a lot of cash for what is effectively a repackaged old game.

It’s best suited to the Mario fanatics who somehow missed playing through one of the best Wii U games ever at the time. This really is a must-have for that collection.

The graphics, as you’d expect in a Nintendo flagship, are cutesy, colourful and jam-packed full of fun.

It plays pretty well and there are lots of hidey holes to seek out and discover hidden areas in the levels. The joysticks can get a little fiddly at times though with the 3D angled viewpoint but the niggles aren’t a deal breaker and generally it’s a solid button bashing puzzler.

The levels themselves are neatly designed and give that original 80s 2D Mario feel to a 3D modern Mario visual.

Enemies are annoyingly placed in perfectly problematic spots on your journey and it leads to plenty of annoying deaths as you slowly trial-and-error your way through the more complex areas.

The power-ups are varied and fun too. Donning the Cat Suit or the Boomerang Bro Suit helps to give verticality to the game, which in turn delivers new undiscovered locations within each level.

And it’s not all solo play either, with a four-player ‘jump in, jump out’ option, making this a great way of enjoying Mario at home in lockdown with loved ones who want a quick go.

The boss fights are often pretty straightforward and arguably a bit too easy generally. But they make for a visual spectacle and help to break up the platforming gameplay.

And Bowser’s Fury is an odd but interesting side-addition where your Mario moves are curtailed and the big baddie pops up randomly every few minutes to shoot fire at you. It shines bright but is over quickly.

VERDICT 4/5