It's clear that with Bowser's Fury, Nintendo decided to use assets from 3D World and experimented. When viewed through that lense, Bowser's Fury is not only a great Mario game but also an exciting indicator of what's to come.
Turns out that the 3D World mechanics (especially with the added speed of the Switch port) work wonderfully when applied to a larger open world. Collecting all the Cat Shines was a ton of fun. The level design lacks variety and it feels like there's no single "holy shit that was awesome" moment. And while that's not a huge deal, it's noticeable simply due to the high bar set by Nintendo's other 3D Mario titles. The only truly "new" things are the Kaiju Bowser fights and those got old pretty fast especially since controlling Mario (and the camera) feel pretty bad during those fights.
I could not possibly have more faith in the next Mario title. It's gonna be a banger.
Turns out that the 3D World mechanics (especially with the added speed of the Switch port) work wonderfully when applied to a larger open world. Collecting all the Cat Shines was a ton of fun. The level design lacks variety and it feels like there's no single "holy shit that was awesome" moment. And while that's not a huge deal, it's noticeable simply due to the high bar set by Nintendo's other 3D Mario titles. The only truly "new" things are the Kaiju Bowser fights and those got old pretty fast especially since controlling Mario (and the camera) feel pretty bad during those fights.
I could not possibly have more faith in the next Mario title. It's gonna be a banger.