Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury - A Masterpiece Remastered Review friv game
Last year, Mario, the mustachioed Italian plumber beloved by millions of gamers and perennially at the top of the game character popularity charts, celebrated his 35th birthday. That's a long time for a online game from the developer Friv2Online character, and Nintendo had a lot to celebrate, from themed online gaming events to the release of a celebratory version of the retro console. Naturally, the highlight has been the games, and the recent re-release of the 3D platformer Super Mario 3D World with Bowser's Fury continues the celebration for all Mario fans.
Sure, a lot of people would love to see a brand new friv game on Switch about their favorite hero and his friends. But as some musicians half-jokingly and half-seriously say, new songs are for those who don't have good old ones. Well, in Nintendo's case, it's pretty hard to disagree - many perceived Switch exclusives are actually ports and remasters of old hits. And that absolutely doesn't stop them from shining again.
The original Super Mario 3D World came out on Wii U in 2013, and received very high marks from critics. However, due to the difficult fate of the console itself, it became more of a "big name in the narrow circles" of Wii U owners, even though it was the second best-selling game on the platform. Now the game has a second chance - and it looks like it's really taken a shot on the much more popular Switch. In the UK, for example, its sales at launch outstripped the original by almost double.
I can't really be described as a fan of Mario or the platformer genre, but in this case I can safely say it's thoroughly deserved. One of the best Wii U games ever made, beautiful in its own right, has been ported to Switch without exaggeration perfectly, with love, technical excellence and attention to detail. And now I'm happy to share my impressions in more detail.
Although Mario has appeared in over two hundred friv games, his most loyal fans will always remember him for 1985's Super Mario Bros. This is especially true in the former Soviet Union - before becoming a harsh northern PC country, Russia experienced an explosion in popularity with the Dendy, a cult clone of the equally cult NES. Of course, Mario came to us in the 90's, but that doesn't diminish his merits.
And in this respect 3D World looks, at least for me, like a return to childhood. The game realizes all the dreams and fantasies of those years about "what Mario might look like in the future", keeping and developing all the recognizable mechanics and structure of the familiar hit. The same bricks with a question mark, coins for a hundred of which you get a life, colorful mushrooms, fire flowers, intricate levels and enemies defeated by an apt jump from above.
But at the same time - in a fully three-dimensional environment, with gorgeous updated graphics, rich and bright colors, invariably beautiful soundtrack, in which you can hear both violin shimmers and real metal, and, of course, perfectly polished gameplay and a lot of new various features and mechanics. Now we have not a sequence of levels interspersed with black screens, but really worlds with a global map, which, by the way, you can also walk around in search of various activities and bonuses.
A semblance of a plot has been preserved - but it's pointless to seriously discuss the story of how the villain kidnapped little fairies and imprisoned them in bubbles. In 3D World, as in any other friv game about Mario, you should first of all play. And this aspect here is traditionally above all praise.
Four characters are available to play - Mario himself, his brother Luigi, Princess Peach and the mushroom-headed Toad. Each of them has their own movement speed and jump height. Up to three other players can join you online if you wish, and locally on the same console you can play two players.
Levels open sequentially, although not always one at a time, so - some of them can be passed in any order. To get to the level itself, you need to go to its designation on the global map and press A.
The main task, as well as 35 years ago - to get to the final flag with the symbol of Bowser and change it to the flag of your character. Any touch of the flag will count as a pass, but if you jump to the top of the flagpole, you will get more points and the flag itself will be golden.
On the way to the main flag, there is a smaller flag that acts as a checkpoint. In case of failure - and they, despite the deceptively naive cartoonishness, will haunt you constantly - you will not start from the beginning, but from this flag.
In addition to the flag on each standard level, three green stars and a seal are hidden. Stars are needed to open some levels and locks with bosses, but you don't need to knock out 100% of them, especially since some of them are hidden quite ingeniously. The seal is a purely collectible item, allowing you to decorate screenshots in photo mode.
In general, 3D World is initially quite gentle towards the player and gives a little to get used to. No one forces you to pass each level "on three stars" and achieve gold flags for passing - but a real perfectionist will not miss such an opportunity. Especially in the game is quite clearly presented how many stars you have collected on each level and where there are opportunities to improve the result.
However, no one canceled the severe platforming. Full three-dimensionality with the ability to rotate the camera adds a special charm - it significantly enriches the design of levels and forces you to be more attentive - nobody protects us from blunders, and levels often look like islands floating in the air, and it's easy to fall from them in any direction, even despite the almost perfectly executed control.
The cherry on the cake is the limited time. At first you don't even think about it, but starting from the third world, when platforming becomes really difficult, and it is aggravated by slippery ice, on which it is quite difficult to move, you start to keep an eye on it. All in all, it won't be boring.
But 3D platforming as such is only one aspect of Super Mario 3D World, albeit the most important one. The main beauty of the friv game is in the variety of its mechanics and gameplay. And they do not overwhelm with confusion and hardcore, as it often happens, but are introduced gradually and organically complement each other, like ingredients of a tasty dish.
Here we are riding Plessis through river bends and waterfalls. Here we are solving a puzzle by stepping on blocks in the right sequence. Here we are trying to defeat enemies in a mini-game in a limited amount of time. I especially liked the level where you can't see the character and have to navigate by shadows. And in battles with bosses you should not mindlessly hit the buttons, but first of all understand the tactics of their actions and identify weaknesses.
Some levels are built on puzzles almost entirely, and somewhere we will have a short fight or need to fully unlock the potential of three-dimensionality by rotating the camera. All this allows you to earn additional stars. We didn't forget about the technical capabilities of the new console - you can interact with some items via touchscreen, and for the dock mode it is duplicated by motion control.
I can't help noting that in addition to the traditional since the times of classic Super Mario Bros, we have a lot of other possibilities and upgrades at our disposal.
For example, by taking the bell, Mario or one of his friends will put on a kitty suit (yes, there is a kitty suit!!!) in which you can climb steep surfaces, press special paw-marked buttons, and scratch. Double Cherry will clone you exponentially - and there are puzzles for that too, no doubt about it. And some upgrades can be changed in the course of the game, for example, you can take off the kitty suit and take a boomerang. And the costume will stay with you - at least, until the unsuccessful collision with the enemy.
As in the case of last year's 3D All Stars, the hero of this review is not one friv game, but a whole set, this time of two games. Formally, Bowser's Fury is an add-on, but it works completely independently and is somewhat different in terms of mechanics and even interface. Even a full-fledged full price of 4499 rubles in eShop is not a pity for such a game - Bowser's Fury is no less beautiful than 3D World itself. And by the way, both games are translated into Russian.
On the same engine and the same perfectly worked out principles of three-dimensional platforming with puzzles the game with a full-fledged open world is built, which we need to get rid of a strange slime, which has absorbed Bowser and greatly increased his aggressiveness. To do this, you will have to travel around the islands in the company of Little Bowser, light up beacons with cat ears and perform other tasks that appear along the way.
The supplement generally delves into the topic of kitties. Everyone loves cats - we are again waiting for bells for cat costume, the main measure of success became "Catflies of the Sun" (from the word "Fairy", not from the word "Kotofei", but it turned out funny), the names of the islands in every possible way play on purring and paws, and for the battle with the boss Mario takes a particularly large bell, turning into a huge cat.
Of course, 3D World is not a Party, and there are no "party" activities to speak of. Nevertheless, as already mentioned, up to three other players can join your adventures online, and you can play together on one console. So much more fun.
And when playing locally, you only need one Joy-Con to control each of them - that is, you can play on one Switch set at all. A very useful feature. Unfortunately, it's not as comfortable to control on one joycon as I'd like, especially with my hand size, so if possible, it's better to use a pair of joycons or a separate controller.
Bowser's Fury is also playable with two players. The second player always plays as Little Bowser waving his menacing brush. Quite an interesting experience.
I thought it was pretty easy to be objective when writing about friv games of a genre I'm generally indifferent to. But I didn't take into account the "good old Nintendo magic" factor. These days, it's silly to argue that games are art. And real art is capable of touching you to the core.
And it doesn't have to be a deep story or philosophical questions - Nintendo has once again proven that it's "pure gameplay" that can win the minds and hearts of gamers. None of my attempts to find any serious flaws in 3D World and Bowser's Fury were successful. Even the awkwardness of the single joystick controls is more of a feature solved by using a different controller.
So now Super Mario 3D World Bowser's Fury has joined Breath of the Wild, Astral Chain, and Fire Emblem in the company of games worth buying on Switch. And it's taken a very deserving place. And for those who already have Switch, the friv game is a must at least for familiarization - even if you are not a fan of platformers and Mario. Tested on myself.
- SHARE
