Bowser's Fury
This game blew away my expectations. It still feels like 3D World, and yet it throws all of 3D Worlds mechanics into an entirely different scenario...and it just works!
Your experience with Fury Bowser will likely make or break your experience here. I realised early on you should prioritise getting any Fury-locked Cat Shines when Fury Bowser is out to maximise Cat Shine collecting pace, but if you don't do that and you were also planning to go for 100%, get ready to do a whole lot of waiting for those last Shines... Fury Bowser however is really good overall. Every time he shows up you need to re-plan or deal with him on the fly, or sometimes you may be planning for him in advance so you do something else to prepare yourself for him. For a game like this that isn't too long, he ends up bringing everything together wonderfully and keeps things interesting (Maybe just a few less Fury-locked shines would've made it perfect).
The level design in this game is nothing super crazy, but it's a fun open world remix of a bunch of things from 3D World and it's all fun to traverse and explore. I want to focus attention on Plessie. The dinosaur who was just a tiny gimmick for a few levels now takes an integral role here, and it's all the better for her. She is so much fun to travel with and avoids a potentially boring travel between points of interest in the open world (as some games can be guilty of). Thank you Plessie you're the best!!
Music is crazy good in this game. Not unexpected though being an extension of the already super good 3D World music.
3D World was cat related, but Bowser's Fury takes it a step further. Now literally everyone is cat. And there are actual cats as well. Even some not alive things are cats. I didn't realise I wanted a game that was all cats until now... Good upgrade.
Seeing as you got this just as a bonus from the Switch 3D World port (which on it's own is already an amazing game), they didn't need to go this hard... but I'm thankful they did.
Review taken from my Backloggd page.