Star Power
Why Ubisoft’s stellar sequel is breaking all the rules – with a little help from a Nintendo classic
Ubisoft explains the Galaxyshaped ambitions of Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope
STAR POWER
“ONCE WE DECIDED, ‘OK, WE WANT TO JOURNEY THROUGH THE PLANETS’, IT CAME QUITE EASILY TO USE SOME GALAXY ELEMENTS”
Fifteen years ago, Nintendo decided it was time Mario left the Mushroom Kingdom behind – at least for a while – and sent its beloved mascot into space. We needn’t remind you of the result. Now, Ubisoft is looking to repeat the trick with its turn-based strategy sequel, although as in 2017’s Kingdom Battle, the plumber has some rambunctious company. “In Kingdom Battle, we were in a twisted version of the Mushroom Kingdom, so we thought: how can we expand the universe?” associate producer Cristina Nava begins. The answer: by going into the universe. “Once we decided, ‘OK, we want to journey through the planets’, it came quite easily to use some Galaxy elements. Of course, it’s not a Galaxy game, but there are for sure Galaxy vibes.”
The Super Mario Galaxy of strategy games is certainly one heck of a pitch. But the reason Sparks Of Hope is such an enticing proposition has less to do with the direct links to Galaxy
(including a jaded, sleepy-eyed Rabbid take on celestial goddess Rosalina, and those titular Sparks, hybrids of Lumas and Rabbids) and more what this cosmic journey represents. Like Nintendo’s seminal platformer, there is a clear desire to shake things up here – the game’s lead producer Xavier Manzanares uses variations on the word ‘breaking’ several times, not just in the context of new ground but with reference to deconstruction.
As such, rather than relying on the perfectly robust foundations of the first game, the development teams at Ubisoft Milan and Paris (assisted by staff from the publisher’s Montpellier, Chengdu and Pune branches) are rebuilding them, while still looking to retain the essence of what people loved about Kingdom Battle. “We cannot simply say, ‘OK, let’s do a sequel’ – because it’s Ubisoft plus Nintendo,” creative director Davide Soliani says. No, that would not do at all. “We need to bring something new to the table; we should go for something that represents the passion that the team has. It must be as courageous as the first one that we did.” Or, he adds, after the briefest of pauses, “the DK one.”
Donkey Kong Adventure, Kingdom Battle’s
generous 2018 expansion, has an important role in the genesis of Sparks Of Hope.
Separately, Manzanares and Soliani describe it as being closer to a sequel in their minds than a piece of DLC, which informed their approach to making it. “We wanted to test things out, based on what players were saying,” Manzanares says. “[Make it] more open-ended, put a hub system in place, and have more action in combat.” The combat system, indeed, was entirely reworked, its simian star placed right at the heart of it. His ability to pick up characters and cover, to be carried or thrown, transforms the game tactically, changing the way you think about mobility and combo attacks, as well as giving you the opportunity to reshape the battlefield to your advantage. Not surprisingly, all that wasn’t easy to implement. “It was a lot of work for the GPP [gameplay programmers],” Soliani says with an impish chuckle. “So they were not really happy with my proposal. But it gave us the possibility to experiment a lot with the grid system.”
Kingdom Battle’s grid system was, indeed, one of its biggest triumphs. It was built around Beep-0, an AI ally that was effectively the game’s protagonist. You controlled this sentient Roomba directly between encounters, your three-strong party following him dutifully in a neat line. On the battlefield, meanwhile, he traced a path for your heroes to follow, whether to send them trotting over to brick-block cover, across an ally’s path for them to boost you into the air, or to slide-tackle an enemy Rabbid before picking a target to shoot. It was designed partly, Soliani says, to establish that this wasn’t a Mario platformer, but something completely new. And it worked beautifully: Soliani, a huge fan of Julian Gollop’s work, says the greatest compliments he received were when players with no experience of tactical games prior to Kingdom Battle had been encouraged to give XCOM a try. And perhaps even more validating was the feedback from Japan. “Nintendo said that the cursor and grid system was almost ‘automatic’ – they put it like that,” he beams. As such, there was only one thing to do when it came to making a sequel: it was time to get rid of the grid entirely.
Ditching one of your game’s defining features – one endorsed by Nintendo, no less – sounds a little like madness (when we ask Soliani about the decision, he uses the word ‘crazy’ once and ‘scary’ twice). But there is method in it. And, perhaps, a little of the creative spirit of one of Kyoto’s finest. Our minds go back to that heartwarming moment at E3 2017 when Shigeru Miyamoto paid effusive tribute to the efforts of Soliani and company at the reveal of Kingdom Battle, the camera cutting to the creative director in the audience, filling up at the praise from one of his game dev heroes.
Back then, of course, Kingdom Battle had the element of surprise in its locker: when the game was leaked before that appearance, it had been widely mocked. Even after the showcase, people had doubts. Expectations for Sparks Of Hope are inevitably much higher. And so, to borrow a term used to describe Miyamoto’s habit of dramatically changing a game’s direction during development, Soliani and company decided to upend the tea table.
“WE NEED TO BRING SOMETHING NEW TO THE TABLE. IT MUST BE AS COURAGEOUS AS THE FIRST ONE THAT WE DID”
THERE WAS ONLY ONE THING TO DO WHEN IT CAME TO MAKING A SEQUEL: IT WAS TIME TO GET RID OF THE GRID ENTIRELY
THE ABILITY TO WALK AROUND FREELY – WELL, WITHIN EACH CHARACTER’S MOVEMENT RANGE – OPENS UP A RANGE OF NEW POSSIBILITIES
Of course, not even a publisher as monied as Ubisoft has the resources of a Nintendo at its disposal, so the pivot in this case came relatively early. “We still had the grid in 2018,” Manzanares says. “The whole year we were doing presentations to Nintendo and Ubisoft and the grid system was still there, the cursor was still there. But in March or April 2019, we decided to break that system, [partly] because we felt that we had enough trust from Nintendo to control the characters directly in combat, that we could do stuff that maybe in the past would not have been possible. So that’s why we went there.” The shift wasn’t without its drawbacks: it took a number of prototypes and iterations to get right. “We failed many times,” Soliani admits, placing his hand to his chest and chuckling sheepishly – “my fault”. But it was important, he says, to make sure Kingdom Battle players felt comfortable with the new setup, and understood why it had to be this way.
On and off the battlefield, that now means you control the characters directly. Beep-0 remains part of the team, but no longer leads the way – rather, he hovers above as a kind of tactical cam, surveying the environment and enemy positions. But he also contributes to the game’s more dynamic approach to combat, which now includes realtime elements. It is just a flavour, Soliani insists, underlining that at heart this is “still a turnbased tactical game”. But the ability to walk around freely – well, within each character’s movement range – opens up a range of new possibilities. Boost a character up to Beep-0 and he can hover over to a group of enemies, letting you drop down to flank them, or even stomp on their heads. You can also dash into a Bob-omb to flip it over, picking it up as its fuse burns down and lobbing it towards a cluster of enemies before it flips back or explodes. And if you think that sounds like an unfair advantage, you should be aware that certain enemies can also respond to your actions in realtime.
There’s more to come, too, though Soliani says the team pulled back a little from including too many realtime elements. “At some point during production we pushed them so far that we started losing what we believe are the foundations of the game,” he admits. “And we said, ‘OK. We need to go step by step. We need to balance things and respect the soul of the game we created’.” Away from combat, however, there’s no such concern. Having made sure no one could confuse Kingdom Battle with a platformer, the development team is now blurring the lines with Sparks Of Hope’s exploration segments. These were, perhaps, the one element of the original that felt a little undercooked – they were a chance to catch a breather, and an opportunity to admire Ubisoft’s reimagining of the Mushroom Kingdom, but not much more than that. “It was very…” Soliani begins, searching for the right word before opting for the most honest answer. “Well, it was a corridor. All the scenery was a nice visual to enrich your journey. But you were not really able to explore those areas.”
Now you can. Having opted to take us into space, it makes sense that Ubisoft would afford us more room to roam. Soliani warns not to expect “a classical open world like Assassin’s Creed” – environments are selfcontained, confined to the various planetoids you visit. But within them there are larger areas to explore, where you can find a broad variety of activities. The trick, Manzanares says, was to make these feel valuable enough to players that they felt worthwhile, without unbalancing the game to the degree that those who largely stick to the critical path are going to feel underpowered – characters will, after all, be able to level up this time.
“There are roaming enemies and epic enemies,” Manzanares continues, rattling off the list of side activities, new and old. As in Kingdom Battle, he says, there will be coin trails to find and environmental puzzles besides, but it seems there will be more of each spread across the worlds. “Then we thought, ‘Hey, what about potential vaults that could be unlocked if you get new exploration skills later on?’” Manzanares adds. “You can come back to a planet and thanks to Beep-0 you can unlock new zones. Then we added activities, again with Beep-0, where you can scan the world and reveal elements that are hidden.” Samus and Link might not be here in person, but their spirit is very much present in Sparks Of Hope.
YOU’LL HAVE OPPORTUNITY TO PLAY WITH THE WIDER CAST AS WELL, AS YOU’RE NO LONGER RESTRICTED TO A PARTICULAR TEAM SETUP
But the best reason to venture off the beaten path is to locate more of those titular creatures, which Nava describes as “the embodiment of our partnership and collaboration with Nintendo”, while pointing out that “they really reshuffle the cards in battle”. The Sparks were initially conceived as an alternative to the more weapon-heavy approach of Kingdom Battle. “We felt maybe we should have only one weapon per hero and then invent something new, like a type of sidekick that could bring a bit more personality and fun,” Manzanares says. Indeed, so excited was the developer by the idea that it originally had “hundreds and hundreds” of Sparks in the game. “We went crazy with them, but it was too much – we felt like we were losing the personality of them because there was just this huge amount,” he adds. Ultimately, the team opted to have fewer Sparks but to make each individual one distinct from its celestial brethren, as well as broadening their capabilities.
At the beginning of the game, units can only equip one Spark each, but eventually they’ll be able to bring two into combat with them. “Sparks are a game-changer for me, because they’re modular,” Soliani says, explaining that you can use them to either lean into a character’s specialities by boosting their best stats or else balance out their weaknesses. And they can be interchanged to suit the type of opponent you’re facing. “There are conditions in which Sparks can really help by protecting the team against very specific types of enemy,” he adds, noting that each affords you active and passive abilities. Some have elemental powers, too: Rabbid Luigi’s Disruptor weapon, whose projectiles bounce between enemies, can be enhanced with a water Spark, while (non-Rabbid) Luigi’s arrows – whose damage output increases the farther away he is from his target – can be electrified. Land a direct hit on an enemy that moves when struck and you can potentially zap multiple threats within its vicinity.
You’ll have more opportunity to play with the wider cast as well, since you’re no longer restricted to a particular team setup. His name may be in the title, and he might come with twin pistols that let him attack two enemies in one turn, but if you want to bench Mario for a battle, you’re free to do so. There are now nine characters in the cast, split into three categories: Fighters are the best choice for targeting single
“WE NEED A HEAVY HITTER. WHO COULD IT BE? IT’S BOWSER! IT’S OBVIOUS. SO LET’S INVENT SITUATIONS IN WHICH HE COULD BE USED”
“BECAUSE IT’S MARIO + RABBIDS, IT’S THE PERFECT TEMPLATE TO MIX THINGS THAT MAYBE WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE ELSEWHERE”
units, Supporters can protect their teammates, and Controllers are best at crowd control. “But inside those three macro areas, we have [distinct] roles for each character,” Soliani says. For example, newcomer Edge (no relation) boasts an overwatch ability of sorts, albeit one where she throws her sword out like a bladed boomerang. Rabbid Rosalina, a drowsy, jaded version of Galaxy’s celestial protector, can read from a storybook to send groups of enemies to sleep. And, angered by the way his minions have fallen under the dark spell of mysterious antagonist Cursa (see ‘The Villainess’), Bowser joins the party, accompanied by a rocket launcher.
It’s not the first time Mario and his nemesis have fought on the same side, though it’s still something of a surprise to see the two team up here. When it comes to determining which characters should be added to the roster, then, is it a case of form following function? “I think the most honest answer is that it’s a mix of factors,” Soliani says. “So, OK, we need a heavy hitter. Who could it be? It’s Bowser! It’s obvious, come on. So let’s invent some techniques or situations in which he could be used.” Sometimes, however, it’s their narrative potential that takes precedence. “It’s like, ‘Oh, we totally need to have Rabbids Rosalina – she could be incredible’, and then we struggle and spend time figuring out in which ways she could be useful to the team.”
Nava says that while there is a greater level of trust between the two parties since the success of Kingdom Battle, Nintendo invariably has more say in how its own characters are depicted in the game. “They all have peculiar and stratified characteristics; they have their own set-in-stone personalities,” she explains. “What Nintendo helps us with is making sure that we are aligned in depicting the characters and this universe in a respectful way. Though this doesn’t mean that we cannot make fun of them.” Indeed, anyone who remembers the Phantom boss battle from the first game surely cannot have forgotten his signature song – effectively a Mario diss track. We can probably expect the king of the Koopas to get similarly irreverent treatment here.
There’s a sense that this mutual respect has encouraged Ubisoft to dream bigger – and that, having spent time acclimatising newcomers to the strategy genre in Kingdom Battle, it feels comfortable removing the training wheels. Combine that wider cast with more abilities, greater freedom in the makeup of your squad, and the wildcards that are the Sparks, and the array of tactical possibilities is far greater than before. And that’s before Soliani teases that you won’t always be limited to three characters. “There could be fewer,” he begins, unable to resist breaking into a grin, “Or more.” But he’s not yet willing to elaborate further, simply adding that “it’s something that players will find out along the journey”. OK, one last tease. “We try to be very ambitious at some points of the game.”
That aspirational approach extends to a more expansive soundtrack, which pairs the returning Grant Kirkhope with Gareth Coker, perhaps best known for scoring the Ori games. But the real coup is the third name on the list: Yoko Shimomura. Was it the game’s RPG elements that encouraged Ubisoft to approach the veteran composer? Shimomura does, after all, have plenty of previous in the genre. “The decision was made more because it would be a dream to work with them,” Manzanares says, crediting audio art director Romain Brillaud with ensuring that the three composers, working separately, were contributing to a cohesive whole. “We know we’ve made some choices that were based purely on passion; things that maybe other games would not do. Because it’s Mario + Rabbids – it’s the perfect template to mix things that maybe would not be possible elsewhere.”
A bold stride into unknown territory, with unconventional ingredients combined in surprising ways, a diverse collection of worlds and a sweeping, space-opera soundtrack: those “Galaxy vibes” are strong indeed. But it’s not the first game of which Sparks Of Hope most reminds us. Rather, it’s Galaxy 2 – that more assured second trip into space that was much quicker to reach warp speed, its maker confident in the knowledge that players were ready and willing to make the leap with it. The endearing lethargy of Rabbid Rosalina notwithstanding, Ubisoft’s game is shot through with a freewheeling energy and confidence that suggests it might just live up to that comparison. “When the first game is a success, or people love it, you have two choices,” Manzanares says. “One is to continue and polish the game as it was in some sort of 1.5 sequel, or change everything and then maybe frustrate or not. It’s a bit of a bet. You only live once and you want to surprise. So let’s go!”