With The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nintendo took one of its oldest franchises in a bold new direction. Abandoning the more linear structure of previous Zelda games, Breath of the Wild is a massive open world experience, giving players unprecedented freedom for the franchise, while still feeling decidedly like a Zelda game. The gamble paid off, as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild became one of the highest-rated and most influential video games ever made. And now it's time for Nintendo to give Super Mario the Breath of the Wild treatment and bring the franchise to an open world.
Super Mario has experimented with open-ended sandbox video game worlds before. While the earlier Super Mario games are linear in structure, Super Mario 64 features sandbox levels, as does Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Odyssey. The Super Mario Galaxy games and Super Mario 3D World returned to more linear level design, but the fact remains that Super Mario has already dipped its toe in open world gaming.
And now is the time for Nintendo to throw the Super Mario franchise in the open world pool, especially after a recent entry in the franchise proved how well the core gameplay would translate to an open world structure.
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
If anyone doubts that the Super Mario franchise could excel in an open world environment, they just need to play Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury. The Bowser's Fury portion of the Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury Switch release is a brand new adventure that is a small-scale representation of how a potential open world Super Mario game might play. It effortlessly blends open world exploration with linear Super Mario platforming challenges, and the result is something that feels both like old-school Super Mario and completely new at the same time.
The setup of Bowser's Fury shows Mario exploring Lake Lapcat, a large body of water with various islands dotted around it. Each island has its own secrets for Mario to discover, including objectives that can be completed to earn Cat Shines, as well as hidden power-ups and other things of interest. Mario is at first confined to just a few islands, but as he collects Cat Shines and removes more of Fury Bowser's corruption from Lake Lapcat, more of the lake becomes available to explore.
Eventually, Mario has free reign over Lake Lapcat, able to visit any island at will, with the ability to fast-travel added before too long. These mechanics of exposing sections of the map and fast-traveling between important areas are longtime tropes of the open world genre. But despite Super Mario never fully embracing an open world format, until now, these tropes feel right at home in a Super Mario game.
Bowser's Fury is essentially one super-sized version of a typical Super Mario 3D platforming stage, and it shows that this open world formula would work very well. For the next Super Mario game, Nintendo could take what it's learned with Bowser's Fury and run with it, creating a full-fledged open world Super Mario experience. In fact, it would be surprising if Nintendo's next main series Super Mario game wasn't an open world experience, as Bowser's Fury plays almost like a test run of those concepts.
What Not to Do
Generally speaking, Nintendo fans and game critics seem to be in agreement that Bowser's Fury is a high-quality 3D platforming experience. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury reviews have been mostly positive, with particular praise given to the new ideas found in Bowser's Fury. But despite the high praise the game has earned, Bowser's Fury is not without its faults. Bowser's Fury's flaws can likely be chalked up to Nintendo experimenting with an open world Super Mario format, and thanks to that experimentation, the developers know what not to do in an open world Super Mario game.
One aspect of Bowser's Fury that has not landed well with everyone is the Fury Bowser gimmick. Essentially, Fury Bowser shows up every few minutes or so, causing a storm to overtake Lake Lapcat and make all kinds of hazards rain from the sky. Fury Bowser actively tries to attack Mario and his partner Bowser Jr. by shooting devastating fire blasts at them, and players have to actually use these fire blasts to destroy specially-marked blocks in the game.
The problem is that this interrupts the flow of the gameplay, as fans either have to wait out Fury Bowser or go collect a Cat Shine to send him packing. Having to wait around to destroy Fury Blocks is also counterintuitive and stands at odds with the game's generally fast-paced nature. There are other Cat Shines in the endgame where players have to wait around for Fury Bowser to arrive before they can pursue them, and while he can be summoned with amiibo, those playing the game with no amiibo are stuck literally standing around and waiting.
Had these elements been stripped out of Bowser's Fury, it would have been a leaner, and even better, gameplay experience. If Nintendo does decide to move forward with a full-fledged open world Super Mario game, it can learn from its mistakes and deliver something that pushes the long-running franchise forward in a big way.