Super Mario 3D World: How Many Worlds Are in the Nintendo Switch Port?

Super Mario 3D World is now available for Nintendo Switch, which means that millions of fans are finally getting a chance to play one of the best 3D Super Mario games ever made after it originally debuted on the doomed to fail Wii U.

If you’re one of those many gamers that never got the chance to experience Super Mario 3D World the first time around, you may be wondering what it’s all about. Well, while the recently added Bowser’s Fury expansion adds a new ingredient to the formula, Super Mario 3D World is essentially what it presents itself to be: a 3D version of Super Mario World for SNES.

That means that most of the game is broken down into classic Super Mario platforming courses spread across various worlds that feature classic themes such as desert, ice, fire, and…ok, just take our word for it that these courses and worlds are far more clever than they may appear. In fact, they may just be some of the best in franchise history.

So how many words are there in Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury? The answer to that question kind of depends on how you look at things.

See, Super Mario 3D World features a large world map (much like the map in the original Super Mario World) that’s broken down into smaller worlds that typically feature 5-8 courses (along with several different types of bonus levels such as Lucy, Toad, and Mystery houses) and boss arenas. The various worlds are connected through interdimensional clear pipes that send you to the next area. At the start of the game, you’ll progress through six initially available worlds.

• World 1 – Grass World (Five Courses)
• World 2 – Desert World (Five Courses)
• World 3 – Snow World (Seven Courses)
• World 4 – Mountain World (Five Courses)
• World 5 – Beach World (Seven Courses)
• World 6 – Cloud World (Seven Courses)

Admittedly, those names are ours and not Nintendo’s official descriptions, but you get the idea. When you beat those six worlds, you’ll unlock two final “Boss” worlds:

• Castle World (Seven Courses)
• Bowser World (Eight Courses)

While that’s quite a bit of content by Super Mario standards, the fun doesn’t end there. When you’ve completed Bowser World, you’ll unlock the ability to take on these four bonus worlds:

• World Star (Nine Courses)
• World Mushroom (Seven Courses)
• World Flower (Twelve Courses)
• World Crown (Three Courses)

Considering that the final bonus worlds require you to complete various challenges (and that the bonus courses are incredibly difficult in their own right), it’s going to take you a while to actually beat the base game’s full collection of content.

Of course, Super Mario 3D World‘s Switch port is more than just the base game. It also comes with the recently added Bowser’s Fury DLC that you’ll be to jump into whenever you want. Unlike Super Mario 3D World, though, Bowser’s Fury is more of an open-world game somewhere between a classic Super Mario platformer and other 3D Mario games like Odyssey. It’s basically one big world, but the size of the DLC is fairly substantial. In fact, in terms of size, you should probably think of it as a fairly large Super Mario Odyssey level.

Many fans suspect that Bowser’s Fury could be a preview of what a future 3D Super Mario game will look like. As we’ve talked about before, the DLC is also loaded with references to cats. Whether or not you consider that information necessary to understanding the DLC is really up to you.

To summarize, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury features about 12 worlds, 82 courses, a variety of bonus levels, and a DLC area roughly the size of a larger Super Mario Odyssey map. Those numbers may vary based on how you interpret remixes and similar environments, but the point is that this is a massive release that will keep Super Mario fans busy for quite some time.