Luigomorphs
(This
review contains minor spoilers!)
The idea of two gaming franchises crossing over is one that has never really been explored to its full extent.
While characters making surprise appearances in other franchises isn’t exactly
uncommon, they’re usually used as surprise cameos (think Kratos in Shovel Knight) or it’s in a multiplayer
game geared entirely based off characters from different series fighting it out
(Super Smash Bros. and Marvel vs. Capcom being some of the most
famous).
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom
Battle is an
interesting experiment to say the least, taking the two titular franchises and
mishmashing them together into…a strategy game. Honestly, not what I was
expecting either. Is it perfect? God no. But is it fun? Absolutely!
The Rabbids have crash landed in the Mushroom Kingdom, and thanks
to a mysterious device one particular Rabbid got his hands on everything is
becoming all warped and weird. So it’s up to Mario, his friends, a really
annoying robot and a gang of cosplaying Rabbids to save the day and return
everything to normal. The story is pretty darn simple as is to be expected from
a Mario game, but it manages to mix
the two franchises together in a surprisingly successful way. While the Rabbids
are normally used as agents of pure chaos and nonsense in their own franchise,
here they are put to good use playing the fool to Mario and pals’ straight men.
Rabbid Peach and Rabbid Yoshi are especially hilarious in how they lampoon the
original characters.
The game is, strangely enough, a strategy game in similar
vein to the X-COM franchise. It’s a
strategy game at its heart, giving us a visual I never thought I’d see: Mario
with a gun. What started as a playground rumour from that one kid who said his
dad worked at Nintendo is now real and in an officially licensed Nintendo game.
Back on topic, despite its cutesy look, Mario + Rabbids is actually surprisingly complex and boasts very
smart and actually very challenging strategic gameplay. Each of the eight
characters you can unlock has their own unique set of abilities and playstyle,
and you can have two of your choice out at a time in addition to Mario, who’s
always in your party. While some characters are better than others (I was more
than happy to drop Rabbid Luigi once I unlocked his Mushroom Kingdom
counterpart), each has a unique feel to them which makes you want to give each
one a try before deciding on a final team.
There are four worlds in the game, each boasting nine
chapters worth of levels, including two boss battles per world. Each level
requires strategic planning and thinking things through in order to be
successful in the end. Trying to rush through things can and will end your
attempt in seconds. Despite this, the battles are fantastic, and easily
something I’d like to see more of should this game get a sequel. While it’s nothing
too complex, moving your characters around the board to get into prime position
to both protect them and defeat the Rabbids requires a lot of critical
thinking, making me feel like my brain was getting a workout playing alongside
my thumbs.
I’m not kidding when I say this game is hard. The entirety of Mario +
Rabbids easily joins the first few hours of Breath of the Wild and
Splatoon 2’s Salmon Run as some of the toughest challenges available on the
Nintendo Switch right now. Especially in the higher levels, the enemy Rabbids
are a force to be reckoned with, almost always outnumbering and outgunning you.
An optional Easy mode is offered at the start of every stage, and trust me,
this mode will quickly become your best friend as it’s the only way you can fully
heal your party in the middle of a chapter. With some careful planning and a
bit of using your noodle you can usually scrape by with a bit of health to
spare, sometimes a level will come out of nowhere that just kicks you right in
the balls and makes you redo it over and over and over again until you just
plain get lucky.
This is no more apparent than when making the jump from World
2 to World 3, as the difficulty almost immediately spikes way up. Out of
nowhere your foes gain more health and pack a much bigger punch, as well as
gaining access to a bunch of new special abilities you don’t have access to. It’s
extremely grating to go from finally thinking you’re getting the hang of the
game to being beat down and crushed like an empty can of soda the second you
set foot in World 3.
Equally frustrating is the fact that Ubisoft has left some of
their trademark glitches lying around unchecked. While far from an unplayable
game, Mario + Rabbids is pretty darn
unpolished presentation-wise. Early cutscenes blatantly show characters
vanishing and reappearing in new locations as the game’s script tells them to,
although this is a problem that is fixed later on. Even worse, upon reaching
the fourth and final world the game locked up on me on two separate occasions,
both times when using Rabbid Yoshi’s Stone power-up. The first time the game
froze for a good 30-45 seconds before returning me to the action, and the
second time the mission remained broken and I had to restart entirely. Ugh!
The developers have also peppered in a few puzzles between
battles to keep you doing something while you run from area to area, but
honestly I would’ve preferred an extra battle instead. All the puzzles
essentially boil down to “figure out which order you need to push the buttons
in”, and they range from boring to full-on aggravating. Just removing them
entirely in favour of the much more fun battles would’ve been a significant
improvement.
Lastly, it must be said that the music to this game is just
plain phenomenal. Composed by gaming legend Grant Kirkhope, his soundtrack is
eons beyond the forgettable tunes he wrote for Yooka-Laylee earlier this year. He adopts several classic Mario leitmotifs into his tracks, while
also incorporating fantastic bits of his own iconic style as well. Shades of Banjo Kazooie and Viva Piñata appear throughout your adventure, creating some very
hummable tunes.
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom
Battle is a game
that shouldn’t work. A strategy game combining two very different internal
properties and giving them guns just sounds silly on paper. But in practice, it
emerges as yet another standout title on Nintendo Switch. The titular battles
are delightful in how they make you exercise your brain trying to figure out
the most optimal solution, the music is fantastic, and the worlds of Mario and Rabbids mesh together surprisingly well. However, the difficulty
spike encountered at the halfway point is a big point of frustration, as is the
disappointing amount of glitches, including some that can send you back to the
beginning of levels beyond your control. A little more polish would’ve gone a
long way here. Despite these qualms and despite my dislike of Ubisoft, they’ve
created something new and original here, and one I really hope gets the
attention it deserves.
FINAL SCORE
7/10
Good
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