Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope

 They're back. God help us all.

Ubisoft might hold the record as the only developers out there who've managed to finagle the rights to a main Nintendo mascot and get to develop a game with him free outside of the direct preview of Nintendo. I mean, obviously Nintendo show up for their due look over to okay the product before it sees the light of day, I don't think anyone is questioning whether that happens; but Ubisoft get to stick their name on the box as the sole developers; they don't have to pretend to be part of the Nintendo conglomerate. That's pretty crazy, don't you think? No other developer would be afforded that right, and most Nintendo Studios don't even get individual names. Guess all you need to do to get some recognition and respect around the Nintendo offices is literally be their biggest international competition, and to offer up the soul of your worthless franchise for the exchange. And yes, I do consider Rabbids a worthless franchise. Maybe 10 years ago that wouldn't be the case, but thankfully we live in ever so slightly more enlightened times. (Can't believe humanity let that become a franchise... what were we thinking?)

That same special place in ear-scrapping hell that most people reserve exclusively for the minions, is my person sauna for the Rabbids. I hate their intentionally plain ugly design, their generic irksome voices, their gormless gaping maws and most of all I hate the way they managed to utterly destroy the Rayman franchise by way of annexation. Rayman birthed these monstrosities, and for his trouble his series was taken over by them. Ubisoft would rather dedicate their funds towards making their little pale snot eating money printers go on another adventure than support my main man with the floating hands. Heck, I don't think it's any coincidence that the second the franchise ditched these hell spawn, what followed was undoubtedly the single best Rayman game ever made in 'Legends'. Which is currently on it's way to being 8 years old. (Don't mind me whilst I shrivel up into a ball and fade to dust.)

But I can't mourn Ray's death forever, and what better way to honour his legacy than by going to a game where you literally get the chance to shoot Rabbids to death. (Or just to unconsciousness. But I choose to believe that's quickly followed by death) This spawned 'Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle' and to this day I cannot possible fathom a more dream game for someone like me. First of all it's a game that features warfare against the faux cute mascots of destruction whom I've loathed since first inception, but much more importantly is the gameplay. Who'd have thought there'd ever be a Mario game that has the X-Com style of turn based tactics to it? And I love the X-Com turned based formula! It's as though it were a game made specifically for me.

And what's more it was actually good. I suspect that may be due to the exacting standards of the Nintendo quality division as much as for the developer over at Ubisoft, (If left to their own devices they'd have pawned off recolours of Mario's outfits as microtransactions) but the result is another modern classic under the plumber's stuffed belt. The levels were fun, the fights felt engaging, it didn't get wobbly under the weight of it's own systems, and it featured Luigi as a battle hardened sniper. Any game in which Luigi gets to hit us all with that 1000 yard square is destined for greatness in my book. But alas I'm not sure the game sold so well and thus chances of a sequel were ever going to be sli- oh wait, didn't I bring up this whole thing because a sequel was literally just announced?

Oh that's right! 'Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope' (Would it kill ya to use 'and' Ubisoft?) hopes to capture lighting in a bottle for a second time with the help of some intergalactic travel, a few remixed core gameplay systems and Rabbid Rosalina. Although if you think that's bad then it's perhaps in your sanity's best interest that you don't look into the toothy aberration that are the new Lumas.Why did you have to ruin poor celestial, grace-strewn, dignified Rosalina for us? Also- that title. 'Sparks of Hope'. It sounds like lyrics for the new Smash title song, doesn't it? It's not straight-forward and to-the-point like 'Kingdom Battle' is, I feel like it could do with a little of form correction. But I'm really pulling at threads here, the truth is that it's another XCOM Mario and in my heart of hearts I all the way down for some fun like that.

So does the thing look any good? Of course it does, it's a Nintendo approved product. Throwing players into the new locales fraught with storms and Grecian-style beaches is never going to be enough to overpower the sheer style of modern Mario, and I love that Ubisoft were able to emulate the same clean look for the Plumber of the realm rather than having to try their own hand at envisioning him. (I guess it's just a happy coincidence that their Rabbids design lines up so well with Nintendo's modern Mario, huh?) Some of the fantastical world design that we've seen from the reveal do one-up what the first game pulled off, though, and come into something just mind-bogglingly gorgeous to look at. Some of this looks Disney-quality level of design down there, I'd say that I didn't know Ubisoft had it in them but that wouldn't be true, world design has always been their forte.

What I'm actually curious about is the brand new reimagining the team have treated the tried and tested turn based strategy formula to, which we get a glimpse of here in the trailer. From the looks of it, on your turn the player is given a circle within which they get a limited time to do whatever they want to and position themselves in whatever position they feel they need to. Now at face value this sort of looks like an accessibility tool to help out newcomers to the genre type, as one of the most frustrating things one can go through is a misclick that throws your entire plan out of whack. (Trust me, that pain is very fresh now that I'm playing through 'Divinity: Original Sin 2' on Tactician difficulty) But I also wonder how exploitable this will be for veterans. Will multiple actions be allowed within the timelimit, are we able to move after an action, could we essentially use something like this to play as a 'rogue-duellist'?  Sneaking out from behind cover to do excessive damage and then taking cover before the round is up with a free action? And whatsmore, is this going to slow down matches at all? Tacticals games in this vein can already drag on, and I feel this might be an opportunity to serious exacerbate the issue unless balanced to a tee.

It's hard to really nail down things right now because we're really just looking at teases, something the Nintendo conference would go on to mirror after a few days, but I can't really find anything to be significantly worried about. Knock on wood and pinch my nose super tight, but games in this vein seem to always be some sort of good in their own right, and though  I actually refuse to look it up I've never heard of a turn based tactical game be a steaming mess. (Ignorance is total bliss today) And though I loathe them, some of the Rabbid designs do look a little fun- fun to shoot in the face as a dual wielding Mario that is- and can we really ask for anything more in our video games than the chance to shoot a Rabbid? What an actually cool reveal that came out of E3, I'm not really used to that in such a low-key year for reveals, and to think that was only the third coolest Nintendo product... there's some exciting looking games lined up that I'm buzzing for. (At least this means you can go and pick up the original Kingdom Battle for cheap now; retroactive support ya'll!)