Fury Bowser

"The beast's fury has grown too strong. The light of the Cat Shines can no longer keep it at bay..."

- Giga Bell

Fury Bowser (referred to as "the beast" by the Giga Bells and the lighthouses throughout Lake Lapcat) is a form that Bowser takes in the Bowser's Fury campaign of Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury. In this form, Bowser becomes a gigantic , being the largest physical form he has ever taken, surpassing even Giant Bowser in size. Similarly to Black Bowser from Paper Mario: Color Splash, Bowser enters this form when he is corrupted by black goop, which causes his skin to become entirely black in color, complete with glowing yellow eyes without pupils. In contrast, his hair glows a bright red, while the center of his carapace and the tips of his shell spikes glow orange and red. It is implied by Bowser Jr.'s paintings, both when Mario first encounters him and in the credits, that the form was unintentionally caused by Bowser Jr. painting his father black and angering him.

In comparison to his normal self, his body is much larger than his head, his tail and shell spikes are somewhat longer, he has more spikes on his arm bands, and he has more defined pectoral muscles; the lattermost trait is shared by Bowser's appearances in the Super Smash Bros. series. Compared to Bowser's normal roar and even the likes of Dark Bowser's or Dry Bowser's roars, Fury Bowser's roar is much louder and deeper, and has a reverberating effect.

Fury Bowser also appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a primary, Legend-class, Attack-type spirit, introduced during the five-day "Bowser's Fury" spirit event that began on April 9, 2021. When equipped, the strength of the fighter's fire-based attacks is increased. He is represented by a Metal Bowser in his spirit battle, which takes place on the Ω form of Find Mii. The arrangement of Bowser's battle theme in Super Mario Bros. 3 serves as the battle's music.

Behavior
When Mario lands on Fur Step Island at the beginning of the game, Lake Lapcat is already in its stormy state. Fury Bowser will begin rampaging after Mario reaches the crashed airship, during which he will remain in one place.

Typically, Fury Bowser is found sleeping in the middle of Lake Lapcat, hiding his entire body inside the Fury Sun, which slowly rises from the ground. He usually awakens at intervals of roughly six minutes, but scanning any Bowser amiibo in the game causes him to appear instantly. When he is about to awaken, the music changes and a rainstorm starts. After a few moments, Fury Bowser begins to spin rapidly before quickly launching into the air as the screen becomes completely white. This transition changes the clear daytime sky of Lake Lapcat to nighttime during a torrential thunderstorm.

Once awake, Fury Bowser will land at a location near Mario and begin rampaging. During his rampage, many Disaster Spikes are launched into set locations on the different islands of Lake Lapcat. Some spikes have a ? Block, coins, or a Mushroom Trampoline on them, and many can be used by Mario to scale platforms more quickly. Several large land masses of a similar material with Dash Panels rise from the water, and can be used by Plessie to move faster and cross gaps of goop. Golden spikes that release coins upon being destroyed also appear.

During Fury Bowser's rampage, he will target Mario with large beams of fire known as fury blasts, which will destroy the spikes upon contact (the golden ones leaving behind coins). These blasts will sweep across Lake Lapcat with a very long range, but can be avoided by hiding behind walls or the other objects spawned during the rampage. Additionally, they are the only attack capable of destroying Fury Blocks; to show this, the Bowser emblems on the blocks glow red during the rampage. Fury blasts can be dodged entirely if, while in water, Mario Ground Pounds, activates Lucky Cat Mario, or uses Plessie's dive move, which sends him underwater to dodge the blast while it moves over him. Hiding behind any solid wall will also protect Mario from damage. Fury Bowser uses this move at the beginning of the game when Mario is near the first Cat Shine.

Throughout the rampage, fireballs fall around the entirety of the lake and leave behind small circles of lava where they land, which will disappear after a small amount of time or if Fury Bowser stops rampaging. If Mario touches a fireball or lava puddle, he takes damage, and if a walking enemy such as a Cat Goomba,, or contacts a lava puddle, it is defeated. However, both of these attacks can be extinguished by baseballs. All kittens and Neko Parents on the lake become corrupted for the duration of the rampage. Any members of the Toad Brigade nearby will also cower in fear until Fury Bowser stops rampaging.

If Mario moves to a different location while Fury Bowser is active, he will jump to a position where he can target Mario with a fury blast. If Mario makes contact with Fury Bowser, he will take damage, as with the black goop found throughout Lake Lapcat. However, if Mario is riding Plessie and passes between Fury Bowser's legs, he will earn a Super Bell as a reward.

After a while, or if the player collects a Cat Shine, Fury Bowser stops attacking and goes back into his slumber. At this point, the sky will change back to calm daylight, all objects summoned during his rampage will disappear, and all cats will return to normal. If his rampage is ended by collecting a Cat Shine, a nearby lighthouse will either begin to shine or shine brighter than before, and this light damages Fury Bowser slightly. However, it is impossible to defeat Fury Bowser solely by collecting Cat Shines, due to the damage stopping once he reaches one point of health. The rampage can also be forced to end if Mario enters a golden Warp Pipe or Cloud Cannon; when he exits the sub-area, everything will be back to normal (except if the player has 47 Cat Shines, in which case the rainstorm begins again).

Battle
If Mario has collected enough Cat Shines to awaken the Giga Bells, they will become active while Fury Bowser is awake, allowing Mario to obtain them. After Mario obtains a Giga Bell and becomes Giga Cat Mario, a boss battle against Fury Bowser occurs; this happens five times throughout the game.

Fury Bowser uses several different attacks during these fights. He may shoot fire blasts while moving his head back and forth, which Mario must jump over, flee from or duck under in order to avoid damage. He can also dig into the ground to summon many much larger Disaster Spikes, which will fall onto the ground in areas denoted by flashing red markers. These Disaster Spikes can be grabbed and thrown by Mario; if one makes contact with Fury Bowser, then he will retract into his shell and flip over. Sometimes, he will enter his shell and roll towards Mario on his side; if Giga Cat Mario claw swipes or runs into his carapace while he does this, he will also flip over. Finally, Bowser can enter his shell, jump up and aim at Mario, with a red circle appearing in the place he is set to land; once he does, a shockwave of fire emerges from him and he is flipped over. In later fights, he uses this attack three times in quick succession before flipping over. In later fights, Fury Bowser gains additional attacks, such as breathing a ring of huge fireballs and summoning gigantic Kick Bombs that can be deflected back at him to flip him over. His rolling attack will also be repeated multiple times in quick succession when used.

If Fury Bowser's shell is flipped over at any point, his carapace will temporarily become vulnerable to Ground Pounds. Doing this successfully will cause massive damage. In multiplayer, Bowser Jr. can also attack him in this state, though it deals significantly less damage. Fury Bowser also can be claw swiped by Giga Cat Mario at any time, but this only does a small amount of damage, and if Giga Cat Mario claws on him when his shell is flipped, he will immediately get up and stomp on the ground to send Mario away. A red health bar is above Fury Bowser and shows how much remaining health he has; during his first battle, it takes a total of three Ground Pounds to deplete his health bar completely. If Giga Cat Mario is hit by one of his attacks, then he will turn into a gigantic version of Super Mario; if he is hit again, then he will turn into a gigantic version of Small Mario. However, the Giga Bells will respawn infinitely on their pedestals, allowing Mario to collect them and turn back into Giga Cat Mario.

After enough of Fury Bowser's health bar has been depleted, he will be heavily knocked back and fall to the ground, seemingly unconscious. What happens after this depends on whether his health was fully depleted or not. If it was not, then Bowser will get back up, shake his head, and return to the Fury Sun. If Mario completely depleted his health bar, however, then he will glow brighter and brighter until a massive explosion occurs, causing him to fly upwards in his shell from the blast and hit the water before sinking back down and returning to the Fury Sun to recover. The latter outcome is the only way Fury Bowser can be defeated, progressing the story.

When Fury Bowser is defeated for the first and third times, new islands to explore will rise from beneath the water. When he is defeated for the fifth time, he expels a large amount of black goop from his mouth before glowing, and is then engulfed in an even larger explosion. Bowser Jr. approaches him with caution, but he rises back up as Giant Bowser, causing his son to flee. Devoid of black goop, Giant Bowser traps all three Giga Bells in a large crystal ball as the final battle begins.

Both Fury Bowser's behavior and the color of the sky change depending on how many times he has been defeated before. Initially, the sky is dark blue during his rampage, which lasts for a few minutes. After he has been defeated two times, the sky changes to be orange, and Bowser will stay for much longer unless a Cat Shine is collected, goes down a Gold Pipe or enters Coin Heaven via a Cloud Cannon. After he has been defeated three times, the sky becomes red, and Bowser will no longer retreat on his own, forcing the player to collect a Cat Shine to end the rampage. The final battle with Fury Bowser is available when the player has 50 Cat Shines. Therefore, if the player has defeated Fury Bowser four times and collects 47 Cat Shines, Fury Bowser will force a rampage and cannot be sent into slumber, forcing the player to collect the remaining three Cat Shines while he is still attacking. However, if the player collects more than 50 Cat Shines before the third battle, the continuous rampage state will not occur after it. The continuous rampage can also be skipped if the player lowers Fury Bowser's health to less than 50% of its full value through collecting Cat Shines. The damage from the lighthouses enables the player to defeat him during his fourth battle, which skips the rampage and begins the final chase sequence immediately.

If Bowser's Fury is played after Giant Bowser has been defeated once, Fury Bowser will be on either the first or second stage of attack, and the Giga Bells always have no black goop on them, allowing the player to fight Bowser whenever he appears. If all 100 Cat Shines are collected, the orange parts of Fury Bowser are changed to a bright white, and the health bar that appears during battle changes from red to cyan. He will also always start battles on maximum health, regardless of if his health had been depleted prior by collecting Cat Shines. Giga Cat Mario can also enter a more challenging version of the final battle against Fury Bowser and Giant Bowser where he uses all of his attacks at once; during the former's battle, Giga Bells no longer reappear after being collected, including the one that was initially collected to become Giga Cat Mario, only allowing for Mario to regain health twice.

Trivia

 * Fury Bowser has a very similar coloration to concept art of Black Bowser in Paper Mario: Color Splash, where his hair and eyebrows are red and his spikes are yellow.
 * Fury Bowser also bears a slight resemblance to Bowser's appearance when using his Mega Strike in Mario Strikers Charged.
 * Fury Bowser and the black goop in his surroundings resemble, a typically dark fluid that can form spikes when influenced by a magnetic field.
 * After collecting the first Cat Shine on Fur Step Island, Fury Bowser will not reawaken until after the player has partnered with Bowser Jr., no matter how long the player waits.
 * One of Fury Bowser’s attacks which involves Bowser retreating into his shell while turning upside-down, then propelling himself towards the ground is very similar to Bowser’s down aerial attack in Super Smash Bros. Wii U & 3DS and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate where he performs a very similar move.