It’s a tense battle, and one wrong move could mean certain death. You order one member of your three-member team to fire at the monstrous enemy closest to them. It’s a dangerous move, because this particular type of foe reacts to attacks by rushing towards the aggressor in question, and then unleashing a devastating attack that literally sees the poor recipient flattened like a pancake.
But you have to take the chance. The shot hits, and the brute rushes forward, ready to inflict maximum damage on your warrior. But as he does so, the overwatch ability that you activated on another character the previous round kicks in, and he reacts to the enemy’s movement by firing his weapon. It’s a direct hit, and does just enough damage to kill the creature mere metres before it would have been within striking distance of its target.
The above scenario didn’t happen while I was playing XCOM or its sequel, and the characters I was controlling weren’t elite special forces soldiers or battle-hardened space marines. It happened while I was playing Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, the new turn-based tactical role-playing game by Ubisoft.
Nintendo’s mascot wielding a gun? A melding of the Mario and Raving Rabbids franchises? No one ever had to find answers to these questions, because no one even thought of asking them in the first place. Until, that is, Ubisoft got the idea to create this marvellous fusion of two very different franchises with a genre that you really do not associate with either.
What results is one of the best games of the year, and yet another reason to buy a Switch if you don’t already own one.
It all looks deceptively simple in the early going, as you’re introduced to the gameplay systems piece by piece. You learn how movement and cover work, and are introduced to a few different special character abilities. The initial maps are pretty straightforward, and you’d be forgiven for dismissing it as a simplified XCOM-for-kids at this point. But this would be a huge mistake, for it soon becomes apparent that there’s an astounding amount of depth in Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle.
Maps quickly become much more complicated, and once the skill tree is unlocked, you can start upgrading and customising the various colourful characters that you can pick to take to the battlefield.
The ever-expanding movement and attack options at your disposal pushes you to come up with creative solutions to scenarios that can get quite difficult as the game progresses. It may all look very cartoony, but you’ll have to flex your mind muscles quite a bit in the later levels (there’s an option to turn down the difficulty if you get stuck, though).
You’ve certainly never seen classic Mario characters like Princess Peach and Luigi like this before, and it’s a testament to the skills of the designers that it never seems wrong that you’re spending your coins buying better guns for them with which to take out the various colourful enemies they’ll come across over the course of the many hours of gameplay on offer here.
Special mention has to be made of the hilarious hybrid Rabbid-Mario characters, especially Rabbid Peach, whose attitude and penchant for taking selfies at the most inappropriate times will have you in stitches.
The story propelling the action forward is surprisingly engaging, and does a good job of setting up the crazy scenarios you find yourself in.
The sound and music is excellent, and the graphics are beautiful, crisp, and clear, whether playing in docked or hand-held modes.
Whether you’re an old hand at turn-based tactical games, or are looking to introduce younger players to this genre, there’ll be something for you in Mario + Rabbids. It’s a delightful game that proves that sometimes we really don’t know that we wanted something until someone is crazy enough to try the unthinkable.
Score: 9/10
Platform: Nintendo Switch
