Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
No bad hare day, here!
It’s somewhat ironic that the first game on Nintendo Switch starring Mario hasn’t actually come from the big N itself. Instead, this cross-over title sees Ubisoft’s Rabbids (a race of bonkers and unhinged rabbits) invading the Mushroom Kingdom, and it’s up to you to lead Mario and friends to reclaim the land in a series of XCOMstyle turn-based battles.
And M+R undoubtedly owes a big debt to the latter series, although it stays on the right side of the ‘homage’ line by bite-sizing and simplifying the action, and doing-away with any kind of base-building. In essence, it successfully distills the XCOM formula down into the most fun bit — the battles — and excels at it.
Each fight has you leading Mario and two companions from a roster which includes traditional sidekicks (like Luigi and Princess Peach) or Rabbids who’ve been crossed with the latter. Each character has their own combination of unique special abilities and weapons — Rabbid Peach, for example, is basically your medic, able to heal other characters around her, while Luigi is your sniper, with a weapon that shoots 50% further than most others. (Of course, this being a family-friendly Mario title, all those weapons are completely non-fatal — ‘killed’ enemies are merely beamed off the battlefield.)
Different battles have different objectives as well, and along with constantly changing landscapes, that helps keep M+R feeling fresh. Sometimes, battles require you to clear the field of all enemies, while others challenge you to reach a certain area or escort an NPC. Like XCOM, you need to keep your characters behind cover and work to flank your enemies if you want to succeed. You won’t always win, either: the game gets tougher as it goes along, and time (or turn) limits or just having selected the wrong roster for a certain battlefield or set of enemies can scupper your chances.
When you do win, you’ll earn gold coins, which can be used to purchase upgraded weapons, alongside Orbs, which can enhance your character’s abilities — so Rabbid Peach can heal more damage, for instance — unlock new ones, or just improve basics, like how far a character can move per turn.
The campaign takes place over four worlds, each with nine sections which can consists of one to three battles apiece and, once you’ve cleared a world, you can come back and it’ll have a whole new set of smaller ‘challenge’ battles for you to beat. Progressing from fight to fight involves leading Mario around a 3D world and some light environmental puzzling — pushing blocks around to open up new paths, mostly.
Ubisoft’s done a wonderful job with M+R, and it makes for a very approachable turn-based strategy game that’ll appeal to both genre fans and newcomers alike. You’d be rabbid to miss it.
Dan Gardiner