Bowser's Fury

Plot

Mario stumbles upon a strange black goo shaped like an M while out for a stroll in the Mushroom Kingdom. The sludge pulls him in and drops him into Lake Lapcat, a chain of cat-themed islands covered in the same gunk. There he meets Fury Bowser, an enormous, shadowy version of the usual Bowser. After Mario grabs a Cat Shine, the giant Bowser backs off.

Bowser Jr. shows up and begs Mario to help fix his dad, and Mario grudgingly agrees. With the help of Plessie, a water-dwelling dinosaur, they sail around collecting Cat Shines. Once Mario has enough, he gets a Giga Bell, which turns him into Giga Cat Mario—a giant cat form—so he can fight Fury Bowser. After a few rounds, the sludge leaves Bowser, but he stays huge and swipes all three Giga Bells.

Mario snatches them back and uses all three to make Plessie gigantic, who then squashes Bowser. Bowser shrinks back to normal, and Bowser Jr. ends their team-up and leaves. Mario and the local cats party on top of the still-enormous Plessie. The end credits show Bowser Jr.'s drawings, revealing he accidentally created Fury Bowser by doodling on his sleeping dad's face with his magic paintbrush as a joke.

Development and release

Bowser's Fury was built by Nintendo's Entertainment Planning & Development division, with extra work from Nintendo Software Technology and 1-Up Studio. It first appeared as a quick tease at the end of a trailer for a Super Mario 3D World re-release, shown during the Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary Nintendo Direct on September 3, 2020. A commercial aired at The Game Awards in December 2020, but it didn't show any fresh footage. A later trailer on January 12, 2021, finally revealed the game's theme, story, and how it plays.

It launched for the Nintendo Switch on February 12, 2021, and by August 2021 had sold more than 6 million copies. On April 4, 2025, Nintendo announced that some Switch games, including Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, would get free updates for the Nintendo Switch 2. Developed by Panic Button, that update boosts the resolution to 1800p in TV Mode and native 1080p in Handheld Mode with HDR, doubles the handheld frame rate to 60 FPS, and adds GameShare, which lets two players use one copy of the game across a Switch 2 and another Switch console.

Reception

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury received generally favorable reviews on Metacritic. OpenCritic assessed the game received 'mighty' approval, recommended by 95% of critics. It was the best-selling game for February 2021 in the United States. Reviewers noted the game's experimental nature in its first fully open world for the series, foretelling future Mario games, but also its lack of technical polish, including noticeable framerate drops. Polygon described it as an improvisational rumpus room with colorful distractions. Some reviewers were frustrated by frequent Fury Bowser interruptions, especially late in the game, while others praised the added challenge. Ars Technica found the game repetitive and sparse after a few hours. GameSpot acknowledged uninspired repeat challenges worsened by the fury event. The game was nominated for Best Family Game at The Game Awards 2021.