Episode 117 - Snow Ass Peaks - Super Mario 3D World (and Bowser's Fury)

Mario, this podcast is out of control! I tried to help it but it’s
too big and mad. Welcome back to the podcast! It’s been a long time
since we’ve talked about a Mario platformer (depending on if you
could Mario Maker, it’s been two to three years), so with Nintendo
celebrating the 35th anniversary last year and releasing the Switch
port of 3D World, it seemed like a good time. So we waited a year
and then did it. Our lack of timeliness aside, 3D Word was the Wii
U’s entry into the world of 3D Mario platformers, and like the
console it was originally on it was, let’s say, differently
appreciated. 3D World follows the design sense of Super Mario 3D
Land, a game that was on the 3DS and tried to merge the 3D and 2D
Mario titles in the way it was presented and designed and this felt
normal and pretty good on a handheld console. 3D World, however,
puts the spotlight on some of the stranger aspects of this choice
now that it sits in the same circle as games like Mario Galaxy or
64. It being different than Mario’s other 3D outings is not
inherently a bad thing, though, and the game is still as charming
and polished as you’ve come to expect, but whether or not it’s what
you’re looking for in a Mario game will be up to you to decide. As
an added bonus, we’ll be talking about Bowser’s Fury, a game that
is more in the design space of Mario Sunshine et al., which came
packed in with the Switch port of 3D World. We’re going to be
talking about camera controls and perspective in a game that is
trying to be a hybrid of 2D and 3D platformer design, presentation
and absolutely nailing the musical interpretation of Mario, a game
series that helped create the video game music paradigm, and we try
for several minutes to remember the names of some Mario 64 levels.
Thank you for joining us again this week! It really has been a
startlingly long time since we’ve discussed a Mario game, and
despite this being a newer title (in the form of the Switch port),
it’s still one of the more off-beat games and one we probably would
have gotten around to had the port never released. How did 3D World
strike you? Did you think Bowser’s Fury was worth getting the game
for, or maybe not think we should have devoted almost half the
podcast to it? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord!
We’ve been going back to some older games recently, and we’ve got
one more to go before we hit Halloween hard. Next time we’re going
to be talking about Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, a heavily
anticipated sequel and one that didn’t do what a lot of people
expected, so we hope you’ll join us for that.