Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle Review – A bwahtastic time

Ever since they broke free of Rayman, the Rabbids have been causing no shortage of mayhem all over the place. With a string of games in their wake and even their own TV show, these rascally Rabbids have got it made. Now with the release of their latest endeavour, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, they’ve hit the jackpot when it comes to entertainment.

I’m not going to lie, right from the moment Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was announced I was excited – no that seems like too small of a word… I was ecstatic! The combination of the Mario universe and the Rabbids just seemed to be a match made in heaven, for not only myself but a lot of Nintendo fans. In fact if I’m being honest I was kind of surprised this hadn’t been attempted sooner.

Right from the get-go it’s clear that Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle isn’t like any of the other Mario games out there. It’s a turn based strategy game built around the XCOM combat system with a delightfully accessible and visual world. Add to this a hefty dose of humour thanks to the Rabbids and you’ve got yourself a game with more layers than an onion.

The story for Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is a hilarious introduction to the Mario universe from Ubisoft and is a wonderful foundation to start the game on. The game starts with a Massive Mario fan and programmer (who just so happens to look a heck of a lot like Tracer) along with her trusty robot friend Beep-O who have designed a visor called the SupaMerge capable of merging two objects together. Sadly it has a slight glitch and isn’t quite ready for use yet. Meanwhile, time-travelling Rabbids in their washing machine stumble across the visor. One of the Rabbids dons the device and begins merging everything it lays its eyes on. All havoc breaks loose and before too long the lint hits the dryer fan and they find themselves in the Mushroom Kingdom with everything out of order.

As I’ve stated before this is an XCOM style game and that means it has cover and half-cover, line of sight, chance to hit, overwatch, criticals and supers, skill trees, and whole lot of calculating to be done for movement to be spent across its grid layouts. Whilst all these squad based tactics and skill trees are normally quite complex in turn-based tactics games, here in Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle they’ve been simplified to some degree.

A simple UI and clean presentation go a long way to helping beginners understand the intricacies of team strategy and the turn based tactics genre. Focusing on just the core combat and character customisation means there’s nothing to distract you from figuring out the basic concepts of this exciting genre. A bunch of funny Rabbid references splattered through out and no permadeath is a particularly nice bonus as well.

Not wielding a fiery flower this time, Mario and his friends have guns… a lot of guns!  Should we blame the Rabbids? At any rate there’s lots of fun, goofy named and particularly kooky looking guns and other odd weaponry that you will spend your time finding and then unlocking. Your decision on which weapons to go after will be based more on cosmetic or comedy value rather than strategic value if you’re anything like me.

Despite being a simplified XCOM, the actual turn-based battles aren’t necessarily easy. Mario + Rabbids’ difficulty spikes rather quickly as the game progresses. At first it may seem like a cake walk to the experienced gamer, simply flying through the earlier encounters. But it isn’t long before you’ve unknowingly been flanked by various types of enemy Rabbids who wipe you out in only a few turns. This is where the game makes it crucial to develop new strategies to take advantage of the various talents and abilities of each character, cycling them around for particular battles and boss encounters.

With new enemy types constantly being added as you progress through the game you’ll need to know how to heal, when to taunt a melee-heavy brute to take pressure off your sniper, or learn to go straight for the enemy healers before taking down the boss. It’s all crucial to victory and is the perfect warm up to Mario + Rabbids Buddydome and the end level challenges!

The Buddydome is where you and a friend can play together (however if Nintendo don’t make a battle Buddydome at some point I think this is a lost opportunity) each controlling a team of two heroes to complete a campaign involving lots of challenges. Challenges are unlocked by finishing a world in story mode and are available when you walk back through, pin pointed by a mushroom hat wearing Rabbid.

Described as sassy but easily bored, with a fondness for the camera, Rabbid Peach will stop at nothing to get her main squeeze Mario and the perfect selfie whilst she’s at it. Unfortunately for Rabbid Peach the real Princess Peach just so happens to be around and she’s definitely no damsel in distress any more!

Although I have a lot of love for Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, that doesn’t mean it isn’t without its faults. I felt that the whole moving around the explorations zones was to a degree underutilised here by Ubisoft, with you simply being moved from battle to battle in a continuous fashion unable to jump or explore the path. I cant help but think how much more exciting this portion of the game could have been had they taken some more inspiration from the Mario RPGs.

I also found the coin system irksome. Collecting coins as you walk around the exploration zones like crumbs from Hansel and Gretel or earning them as you win battles and complete challenges, it all feels a bit slow to me. Particularly when you use them to unlock and buy the weapons you equip to you characters. The slow trickle of coins meant I never went crazy and bought cool and fun things to experiment with, instead choosing to hoard my gold like a crazy leprechaun.