You may have to run a platforming gauntlet to reach the base of a lighthouse covered in black goo, restoring its lantern, or take on a challenging boss in a colosseum, race against the clock to collect blue coins set along a treacherous path, or scour the map for five hidden ‘Cat Shards’ on each island that come together to make a single complete Cat Shine. Like the Stars of Super Mario 64 or Power Moons of Super Mario Odyssey, these collectibles are awarded for completing different challenges set on each island and their surrounding lakes. How can Mario defeat him? By ringing one of several ‘GigaBells’ dotted around the archipelago, activated by collecting a set number of ‘Cat Shines’. There’s a genuine sense of dread as the music changes and rain begins to fall, signaling Bowser’s imminent arrival and giving you a few seconds to find a few powerups and a well-protected area to weather the bombardment from. It’s heart-racing stuff, and quite unlike anything a Mario game has done before. It’s all you can do but to survive the onslaught until Bowser wears himself out and goes back into hiding.

Every ten or so minutes (and increasing in frequency and destructiveness as the game progresses) Mario’s age-old nemesis Bowser will emerge from his gloopy slumber and rain down hellfire on the entire open-world setting. You’re tasked by cutie-at-heart Bowser Jr to help save his pops, who has become consumed by an oily goo that turns him into a fire-breathing tyrant of Godzilla-like proportions. It’s not the only thing that Bowser’s Fury pilfers from Zelda either – just as Breath of the Wild had its ‘Blood Moon’, temporarily enhancing enemy strength, and Majora’s Mask a day-and-night cycle that would affect progression, so too does Bowser’s Fury have a similar central conceit. In many ways, it’s a lot like what Nintendo did with The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask back on the Nintendo 64, which used assets from the previous game in the series, Ocarina of Time, to build a whole new adventure. Taking the speedy wall-climbing catsuit, floaty Tanooki suit and a few others from 3D World, it shifts the camera predominately behind Mario (a’la Odyssey), and opts for a mini open-world setting spread across a number of small islands, each with its own challenges and secrets to uncover, rather than the level-based rush of 3D World. 3D World, reconfigured to make an all-new game. Bowser’s Fury is made up of refreshed, revised and re-used assets and mechanics from Super Mario Bros.

Super mario bros 3d world 3-train