Date Released: 29 August 2017
Date Played: 18 November 2021
I can't even believe this game was made. I wonder how the meeting was at Nintendo when Ubisoft approached them about using their beloved Mario franchise in a crossover with the Rayman Rabbids franchise to do a turn-based tactical shooting game similar to the Xcom games. I'm surprised Shigeru Miyamoto didn't laugh them out of the room. Nintendo loves to keep most of their Mario game development in house, so handing over their cash cow to Ubisoft seems like a potential disaster. Regardless of how the sales pitch went down, Nintendo greenlighted it and the game actually got made. Any you know what? The game is really good and a lot of fun.
Because of their crazy antics and general disregard of decorum the Rabbids have misused a young inventor's newest creation and have accidentally transported themselves to the Mushroom Kingdom. One of the Rabbids continues to misuse the invention and begins causing havoc everywhere by merging his Rabbid buddies with various objects and characters from the surrounding areas. Bowser Jr. sees this and decides to kidnap the chaos causing Rabbid and use him for his own evil deeds.
Mario teams up with the usual cast of characters; Luigi, Peach, and Yoshi as well as Rabbid versions of the same characters. This lively cast then has to set out through 4 worlds to try to save the day. There is very little dialog, but the crazy Rabbids and familiar Mario cast more than make up for any lack of voice acting with their familiar and unique personalities. As Nintendo knows, a lot can be conveyed with a simple twirl and thumbs up. They are the same characters we know and love and it's very nice to see them in a new and novel situation as well as a different style of game.
The graphics look very... Mario... and are very colorful and bright, just like you would expect. Playing in handheld mode on the switch lowers the resolution to 720p and locks the framerate to 30fps which is standard, but does slightly detract from the full presentation of the game in docked mode. Still, for gaming on the go you can't complain. Exploring around Peach's castle which serves as a hub area is a lot of fun and there are plenty of secrets to find as well as plenty of humorous and eye catching objects around the scenery. I appreciated the display on the time travel washing machine that is taken directly from Back to the Future. It's the little touches like this that helps a game stand out. From here you can branch off into each of the four worlds as they become available. The first is the grassy Ancient Gardens which looks like your standard first area in any 3D Mario game. After that, you'll be visiting the Sherbet Desert which is a mashup of the standard desert and ice levels you always seem to encounter. Thirdly, is the Spooky Trails area that brings out the haunted mansion complete with Boos that are another hallmark of the series. Finally, is the Lava Pit which is exactly like you would expect. All of these areas are very unique and have a lot of different personality and exploring around them in between the battles is some of the most fun you'll have with the game and serves to give a well needed cool down between the combat portions.
Of course, magnificent music accompanies you on your journey that range from well know pieces from previous Mario classics to brand new fully orchestrated works that fill in the gaps. Like you would expect, these are memorable, unbelievably well composed, recorded and mixed expertly, and just add so much to the overall experience that they are basically enmeshed with the Mario franchise by this point. You can't have a Mario game without great music; and this game is no exception. Even though it borrows heavily from previous games in the series, it presents them (along with the new tracks) in such a deft and mindful manner that it truthfully elevates the game to a new level. On more than one occasion I found myself humming along to the music while I was focused on exploring an area. This is good thing and shows how well Nintendo understands the importance of a great tune with a catchy hook.
While on the aesthetic side of things, let me discuss the animations of the characters. All of the standard Mario cast and it's Rabbid counterparts have unique animations and personalities that are manifested by their movements. Seeing Rabbid Luigi stop, drop, and roll after getting lit on fire is hilarious and so well done. Rabbid peach being addicted to social media and constantly taking selfies at the worst moments, Mario's jumps and twirls as he lands on an enemy, the way Peach lobs a grenade, and so many other unique touches gives a lot of heart to this game. I never tired of seeing these and though you can fast forward through a lot of the combat steps to save time, I rarely ever did it because I loved watching the animations of the characters so much.
Ok, so that's a lot about the setting and aesthetics of the game. What about the gameplay? I'll come right out and say it. It's really good and very addictive. It's broken up into two phases. Firstly, you explore the areas in the game in typical 3D Mario fashion while solving puzzles, finding hidden areas, taking in the scenery, and collecting coins and other unlockables. As mentioned earlier, these sections are a lot of fun and do a good job of breaking up the repetitiveness of the game. They also add a bit of a platforming feel to the experience and serve as a somewhat familiar component in the game in contrast to the wild departure of the combat phase. I think this was a wise decision and was needed to ground the game and make it feel more like it belonged in the Mario universe. As you are exploring around, you'll come to a battle area where combat will break out. At this point, the game turns into a grid based tactical strategy game. You get to chose a team of three characters and you'll take turns moving around the map while taking cover, shooting at your enemies, buffing/debuffing your team, and all the other things you expect in this sort of game. You have special abilities that are on a cooldown that can give you an edge over your foes. Hiding behind different types of cover will give you varying degrees of protection from enemy shots and holding the high ground against your opponents can often give you the advantage you need to win the day. The combat is more simplified than you're normally used to seeing in this sort of game, but it adds some interesting mechanics that give it some remarkable depth. Each character only has a small handful of skills and abilities to aid them. These are all tied to specific characters and there's no real room to change up how a character plays. If they are designed to be a healer, they're a healer. If they're designed for a close combat melee character, there's no way to get around that. In addition to these specific skills, all characters whether friend or foe can dash into enemies for a free attack if they are close enough. They can also bounce of the heads of allies to give them a boost to travel further or to reach a higher elevation. Doing these actions are a huge component of the game and you'll find yourself doing these with every character on pretty much every turn. You'll also have to outmaneuver and flank your enemies to have a chance of winning and having a sound attack plan is essential. As you may have noticed from the peanut gallery of the internet, this game is pretty tough and can be relentless at times. Often, it feels like you're overwhelmed, or that the enemies are overpowered, or even that you're put in a less than favorable tactical position from the onset. You'll fail a lot of battles (especially at the beginning) and sometimes you'll have to repeat certain ones several times to succeed. Luckily, the game takes pity on you and gives you the option to get a heal and health boost before each combat scenario and this can really help and essentially serves as the game's, "easy mode."
In addition to having to master the tactics and mechanics of the game, you'll also need to upgrade each character's skills and weapons. These can be unlocked overtime and purchased with skill orbs or the coins you collect from exploring the maps and winning battles. Each character has a different skillset and you'll have to select a good team for Mario to help him best his foes. I say it like that because Mario (who is pretty much my least favorite character in the game) HAS to be on your team. So, you're stuck with selecting two other characters to serve along side him. I find the roles that they have assigned to the different characters to be hilarious. For example, Peach is a healer (like you would expect), but she also wields a huge shotgun and grenades. Luigi... is a Sniper. Rabbid Mario is a chaingun wielding psycho. It's all very clever and I appreciate what the development team did on this front to inject even more humor into the game. Of course, the bosses are all epic, challenging, and have some really interesting mechanics that evolve over the multiphase battles. They can be quite challenging and you might have to attempt them a couple of times. So, it's really wise for them to have memorable and fun character design so you don't get bored with them or dislike them too much. Be on the lookout for these bosses because the "Rabbidized" versions of some of your favorite Mario characters make an appearance that is often very delightful.
As you upgrade and unlock more characters... and hone your combat skills, the game does begin to get a little easier. I found myself smashing through battles with full health and wiping out handfuls of enemies on my first turn towards the last half of the game. This is in direct opposition to the first half of the game where I was just barely scraping by with only one or two characters barely alive at the end of a battle after failing it previously and having to retry. Knowing that both I and my team were getting better over time was a strong motivator and helped me push through some of those frustrating parts. I could see someone getting quite irritated with this game and rage quitting. Sadly, I wish I could tell them to hang in there because it gets better.
As for my final conclusion...
This is a really good and unique game that I would recommend to any fan of turn based strategy or tactical games. I'm not sure that I would necessarily recommend it to a Mario fan unless they were actively trying to find something different from what they are used to. It has all of the characters, scenery, music, and personality from a Mario game, but that's where it ends. The gameplay is just so wildly different that it might be a deterrent for the platforming fans. Personally, I like the game a good deal but didn't really fall in love with it. I'm not sure if it was the difficult combat at the beginning of the game or what, but it took me three and a half months to beat this game. I would play it for a few hours and have a pretty good time with it, but when I turned off my console, I didn't really have a craving to come back to it and sort of had to force myself to load up the game and play it. Yes, the combat can be a little draconian at times and man would see that as a negative, but I enjoyed having to overcome those challenges and found it refreshing for a game that looks so "kid friendly." The only negatives I have about the game is that I wish you had more control over your party selection. I didn't like being forced to use Mario in my party and wouldn't have used him at all if it wasn't required. Also, the co-op mode is locked behind single player completion. Meaning that if you want to play an area in co-op with a friend, you have to finish that area solo first. I wish there had been a separate solo and co-op campaign so you could experience the game with a friend for the first time together rather than your friend having to tag along on an area you've already completed before. Also, Mario games are typically pretty friendly for children; and while this game doesn't have anything offensive about it, the difficulty may be off putting to some younger kids that want to play. My daughter watched me play and really wanted to join in but couldn't get the hang of how the game works. Other than that, the game was fun and I look forward to seeing what the development team will do with the next entry in the series.
Final Status: Beaten (90% completion)
Final Score: 8/10 (Great)
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