Bowser's Fury Guide: Tips We Wish We Knew Before Starting This New Super Mario 3D World Mode

Bowser's Fury, the new mode included with the Switch re-release Super Mario 3D World, combines the gameplay of Super Mario 3D World and Super Mario Odyssey into a brand new open-world Mario title. The game may seem daunting at first but fear not, fellow explorers, as we have some tips you may find useful before starting your adventure on Lake Lapcat.

If you're more curious about how Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury stacks up, then be sure to read our full review. Otherwise, as a certain Italian plumber would say, Let's-a go!

Looking For More Shines? Leave An Area And Come Back

Every major island has five Shines to collect, and once you get one, you might not know where to start searching for the others. You might even look all around the island and not find another Shine. But if you leave an island's proximity and then come back, it should refresh the island and spawn a new Shine, as well as give you a new Shine objective.

Usually, this amounts to walking out of the cat gate and walking back in, but if that doesn't work, then you can tell if you're outside of the island's proximity if the music changes since each island has a tune. This also applies to the Cat Shines split into five pieces, as some islands expand and change the more Shines you get, and some of those pieces are hiding in future versions of the island.

Don't Forget To Get The Power-Ups On The Towers!

Every time you collect a Shine, you'll get a little scene where the Shine flies up to the tower, and it begins to, well, shine. What you might not know is that the top of the tower has a little sparkling area you could ground pound to get a power-up. The nice thing about Bowser's Fury is that you can bank power-ups, five of each, so it's not like 3D World, where you only get the one you have equipped and a backup.

Each time you get a Shine, the top of the tower lights up again, and you can get another power-up, but they do not stack! For example, if you neglect to ground pound the top of the tower until you've got four of the five Shines, then you'll only get one power-up. Once you get all five Cat Shines, a flag will sprout on the top of the tower, and you won't be able to get any power-ups. Power-ups are abundant, so you don't have to worry about this, but it's nice to have the cards stacked in your favor early on.

Not Ready To Fight Fury Bowser? No Problem!

Every couple of minutes, Fury Bowser decides to rear his ugly head, and you may not want to fight him if you've not yet collected the necessary amount of Shines to do so. To make Fury Bowser go away, collect any Shine on the island. Alternatively, if you evade him for a while, he'll decide to leave anyway.

There isn't a considerable downside no matter which option you choose to deal with him. Fighting and defeating Fury Bowser opens more areas on the island, but waiting and collecting more Shines each time he appears can deplete his health to make the inevitable battle against him a little easier. You can't fully deplete his health before confronting him, though, so be careful not to abuse this, or he'll get even more furious.

Having Trouble Fighting Fury Bowser? Look For The Bells!

You might notice during the Fury Bowser fight that you no longer have access to your items, and yes, you can get hit and go back to regular Mario and even little Mario, just giant variants of those two. So what can you do? It might be hard to spot, but if you go back to any of the cat bell locations, they've now turned into bells you can use to go back into a Super Saiyan-like Cat Mario form. They don't always respawn immediately, but they do respawn, so don't worry if you lose the cat suit again.

The Bowser Amiibo Is Actually Helpful

Amiibo are pretty hit or miss when it comes to functionality within games, even if the figurines are pretty cool. But surprisingly, the Bowser amiibo is helpful in Bowser's Fury. Every island has steel boxes with Bowser's face on them. How do you break them? The answer is simple.

Fury Bowser has to blow fire on them when he's after you, and when they break, it reveals a Shine inside. Now without the amiibo, you could approach this one of two ways. You could stand there and wait for Fury Bowser to show up, or you could head straight there as the rain starts to fall and hope you get there in time. What the Bowser amiibo does is automatically spawn Fury Bowser. So when you get to the boxes, tap the amiibo, have Fury Bowser open the boxes, then get the Shine and have Fury Bowser go away.

It's true that the amiibo only works once per Shine, but if you summon Fury Bowser, get him to open the boxes and then collect the Shine that counts as one, so you could go from location to location and do this one after another if you wanted. No waiting, maximum efficiency.

Don't Forget About Bowser Jr.

Bowser Jr. is a very "set it and forget it" character if you're playing single player. You can choose to have him help a little, a lot, or not at all. This amounts to Bowser Jr. grabbing coins or hitting enemies off to the side, so he's pretty easy to forget. But, if you ever come across these little question marks on the wall, you have to hit R then use the gyro to send Bowser Jr. to paint over them. Sometimes it reveals just a power-up, but other times, it's a gold pipe that leads to a bunch of coins.

Admittedly, coins aren't super useful in this game. Get 100, and you'll get another power-up, and if you die, then you lose 50 coins, which is similar to the system in Odyssey, but hey, the more power-ups, the better right? Sometimes 100 coins will even lead to a Super Star! You can actually play Bowser's Fury with two players, and player two controls Bowser Jr., so if that's you, then you can throw this tip right out the window while making sure player two isn't screwing around and making your life more difficult.

Don't Worry About Dying

Jumping off an earlier point, dying in this game is not a big deal. There are no lives to collect, and you can die as many times as you want. The system works exactly like Odyssey, you die, and you lose coins. You only lose 50 at a time, so thankfully, if you're working towards a new power-up, you won't lose everything, but otherwise, there's no penalty, which gives you the freedom to explore the world and experiment with things.

Also, Don't Worry About Getting All The Shines Before The End

If you're like us, you probably want to get all the Shines before heading into the final battle, but you also might have noticed that the game doesn't clue you into where the remaining Shines are or how many are left. Fear not, fellow completionists; once you finish the final battle, Bowser Jr. will let you know how many are left and where the rest are on the map. There are also some Shines that only become accessible once you have finished the final fight, so it's impossible to get everything beforehand. That's not to say you should only get the necessary amount and move on. There are some benefits to having extra Cat Shines in the bank, such as...

But Maybe Don't Save The Hardest Ones For Last

As you progress through the game, Fury Bowser will show up a little more frequently than before. For example, if you have 48 Shines, but the Giga Bell unlocks at 50, Fury Bowser will show up even more than usual. And even if you have extra Shines, Fury Bowser will still show up a little more frequently than before as the game progresses and you unlock more islands. For this reason, we recommend not saving some of the trickier ones for the last as it can become an even bigger challenge. Ones that require precise platforming while also avoiding Fury Bowser's fiery blasts can be a bit of a headache, unless you're into that sort of thing.