The past couple of months, I've been undertaking the rare effort to actually burn through my backlog. One of the interesting side effects playing game with the intent of finishing them as quickly as possible is that minor frustrations I'd normally power through become showstoppers that make me move on to the next game in the pile. Splatoon 3? Way too similar to the first two. Pokemon Legends Arceus? Don't care to grind to finish the postgame. Crosscode? Shouldn't have platforming challenges.
One of these stinkers was Super Mario 3D World. I originally quit the game a month ago after being completely unenthused by World 1. Despite the negative first impression, I was recommended to check out Bowser's Fury by somebody with trustworthy opinions.
And what a difference a good opening makes! From start to finish, Bowser's Fury is just a joy to play. Traversal between the points of interest is frictionless with plenty of thoughtfully placed Plessie spawns. The POIs are packed with just the right amount of Cat Shines to hold your interest, and are portioned at just the right size enough to prevent the interminable moon hunts that made Super Mario Odyssey such a chore to complete.
The game clearly takes lessons from Breath of the Wild regarding open world design - there's great incentive to explore whatever is just over the horizon, and by the time you're done there the game's progression mechanic has unlocked a new challenge at the POI you just came from.
I came out of Odyssey extremely cynical about Mario platformers, but Bowser's Fury has reinvigorated my faith that Nintendo EPD still hasn't lost the plot. I'm excited for whatever comes next out of the house of Mario.