Created and published by Ubisoft, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is an action-adventure turned-based combat game, picking back up from where Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle left off. A giant space monster has now descended upon the Mushroom Kingdom, leaving an ooze on the land that corrupts the area. Mario and friends, plus the mix match of Rabbids in Mario-themed dress-up, set off to clean up the ooze and bring peace back to the worlds.

The combat for the game is kind of like XCOM. You will have a limited range of movement and can have the character take cover against walls or boxes while dealing damage is done by line of sight and a chance to hit percentage, so when it’s harder to see the target, the lower the hit percentage chance is. Each character plays differently, and Mario himself uses dual plasma guns, hence he can hit two targets during an attack turn, or focus two hits onto one target, which is ideal for more significant enemy types.

Rabbid Peach is a vital party member to have as she can heal and fire over cover. We also have Sparks. They are Rabbid-like star creatures that we save, but they can be assigned as buffs to the player, like being able to grant extra defence, or making the next hit you land cause fire damage. Finding ideal Sparks for your playstyle is worth it.

Outside of combat segments, players will be able to run around and explore the planets and the locations they visit to collect coins, solve puzzles, or partake in mini-games with the locals. After you have cleared the main mission in an area, there will still be a few enemies still trying to take over, and you’ll need to defeat them before moving on to the next location.

The difficulty of the game is very forgiving, and while set to normal, there were not many enemies that had me pinned down or outright beat me down, but they did still leave me slightly damaged after an encounter. Each time you start combat, you are given the option to heal the team by spending coins collected; the more you use the heal, the higher the cost, so be aware of your spendings.

The enemy variants are generic skins with different coloured outfits or an extra item attached to them, like Goomba’s with pans on their heads making them safe from ranged attacks. I will say, I did like the way to defeat certain enemies, such as being able to dash into a row of Goomba, or kick a Bob-omb, pick it up, and throw it at other enemies as it explodes. It offered a bit more freedom for combat.

The controls are easy to learn, but I wasn’t really a fan of having to switch between my characters after their turn was exhausted. I would’ve imagined it would automatically do that, as well as when ending my turn after all my action points had been spent. I had to do that myself.

Graphically speaking, Nintendo has always made sure Mario looks good and polished, and here, they’re sticking with that formula. This is a gorgeous game in and out of combat, and it also holds some spectacular boss fights to behold that is visually stunning. The audio is great with composers from Banjo-Kazooie, Super Mario RPG, and Ori, and the Blind Forest music ties in perfectly with the audio from the characters, really setting them apart to make us see their personalities.

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope takes a step forward from the last instalment of Kingdom Battle, keeping some of the core gameplay but expanding the world itself. It offers a challenging and fun world to explore with a range of characters to mix and match your play style. While it is a good game, the Switch feels a little underpowered for it, as there are quite a few issues like missions not working despite restarting and a few minor performance issues.

Written by: Shane Walsh