Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope review | Switch

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There’s something about turn-based battles which make you feel like you’re being tactical. Perhaps it goes back to our younger days of playing Civilization II, where, frequently outsmarted by the AI and ambushed from multiple sides at once, the methodical, considered attempt at strategy was, at least, reassuring.

by James Michael Parry

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​@james_parry

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Developer: Ubisoft Milan, Ubisoft Paris
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Players: 1

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In Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, the second in the IP mash-up series after Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle back in 2017, which combines the Mushroom Kingdom’s favourites with the now Minions-esque, rabbits-on-catnip, from Rabbids Ubisoft games of old.

As firm fans of the first game, it’s fair to say we came into this with some anticipation. The simple concept, that some hijinks caused the two worlds to collide and now both the Rabbids and Mario and co. need to work together to clean up the mess, is still here.

What’s missing is the clever setup from the first game, which saw a experimenting youngster zap various merchandise in their room and a washing machine to fuse the worlds together. This time a large space ray, the animal rather than a beam of light, turns up and starts goo-ing up the place, as it searches for Sparks, a combination of rabbids and the tiny star-shaped creates from Mario’s outer space adventures.

Another noticeable change is that the Rabbids can talk now. Possibly to avoid the comparison with the Minions, which, of course, they predate by many years, there’s a passing reference to a translation-related invention and then it doesn’t really come up again.

In practice there’s little difference, since the Rabbids’ humour has always been more slapstick and observational, but hearing the odd voiceline still feels a little off for some reason, and given it doesn’t seem to add anything, why go to the trouble?

There’s also a voice for our favourite floating Roomba, Beep-o, which is a little too eccentric for our taste, though the performance for the new spaceship’s AI (more on that in a moment), Jeanie, who acts as a tutorial for new players, is spot on.

The gameplay itself is a series of turn-based battles with various enemies on a set board where you have a variety of objectives from simply defeating enemies to destroying large, creepy Darkmess eyes, formed by the space ray’s inky, gooey impact on the world.

Movement is more free than it was before, as you can move anywhere in a set space at any point throughout your turn, which might let you dash attack an enemy and then throw them at another for additional damage.

the developers have taken chances by changing things rather than just warming up a five-year-old game...

One way this makes it a little harder than before is that your characters don’t snap to cover as strongly as they did before, so it can be difficult to know if you’re in the right place or not. Previously while the movement could feel a little rigid, that structure made your movements feel very deliberate. The benefit is that your characters feel more flexible and it makes you think about moving them at different times to make the most of your various abilities.

Speaking of which, hero abilities also make a welcome return, offering up special moves on a several turn cooldown, but here there’s also the Sparks themselves, which you can slot into each character to provide another limited-time active buff and a continuous passive buff. With 30 to discover in the game and recruit to your team, it offers a lot more variety when combining them with different team members.

For example, one Spark called Aquanox gives your weapons water damage and a splash effect which knocks enemies back. This makes them particularly nasty for, you guessed it, fire-type foes, as well as making your team member immune from the splash effect themselves.

Weapons have had a spruce up as well. Instead of damage increasing as you unlock new skins, which are now in their own menu, and the characters’ ability points deal with damage as well as all manner of other upgrades like movement and abilities.

Each of your favourites have new weapons to get to grips with, which have a bit more variety and help give each character their own strengths and weaknesses. Luigi is still a long-range specialist, but has swapped his sniper rifle for a bow, while Rabbid Mario now has a pair of gauntlets rather than a basic shotgun.

Enemies too have changed, leaning into the elemental variations offered by the Sparks and levels rather than feeling like just reskinned variants from other locations.

​Progressing through the game is still linear but with a series of hub world sections, similar to a traditional Mario title, which disrupts the environmental storytelling which was one of the highlights of exploring locations last time around. It’s still here, to an extent, but not knowing what order you’ll come to certain things means it doesn’t gel as much with the action you’re taking.

You’ll also find random encounters, which can sometimes be avoided if you’re quick enough, but often need to be tackled to complete side objectives and collect planet coins, which then let you unlock not only a secret bonus area, but different cosmetic options specific to that world.

To make the most of a game like this you need to feel like it’s operating at the right difficulty level. Fortunately here you can adjust the settings at the beginning of each encounter, whether that’s respec-ing your character or taking the enemy aggression down. This should prove to make the game as a whole more approachable and fun to play with youngsters, who will no doubt appreciate the effective use of a colourful, cartoony presentation.

It might not quite be the Mario + Rabbids game we remember fondly, but there’s a good sprinkling of new ideas to be found here, and the teams at Ubisoft Milan and Ubisoft Paris have taken chances by changing things rather than just warming up a five-year-old game.

There’s a lot of replayability, with a huge number of combinations of team members, weapons and Sparks to use, and, most importantly, the battles themselves are both fun and really satisfying to finish. Even the levels, despite falling into familiar tropes here and there, use verticality and environmental details to keep things interesting all the way through.

If you’ve been hankering for some silly fun and games, especially on the go with the portable power of the Switch, then look no further.

Pros

• Colourful, fun and chaotic excitement with Mario and co., perfect for platformer-phobes
• Tons of tools to make things easier or harder and give a variety of experience
• Satisfying combat in a package filled with good humour and hidden depth

Cons

• Voice acting is a little sporadic and doesn’t add a lot
• The panic at throwing stunned bomb-ombs before they explode is stressful
• We’re still pressing the wrong button and shooting before we’ve finished moving

9/10