Two unlikely worlds collide with Nintendo’s most intriguing release for the Switch or any console to date: Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. After this title was announced, the initial reaction by most was to dismiss it entirely. Ultimately it was confusing to imagine and didn’t drum up any excitement. I was definitely underwhelmed by this announcement and yet I ended up buying the game. Why?
This game had an opportunity that I haven’t seen too much of recently and that opportunity was: to be unique. Everyone is familiar with the idea that everything has been done before and so it’s impossible to create anything truly unique. Now though, we have an all new form of media to use as a platform to create brand new concepts and original ideas. This is a rare event, something that could be groundbreaking and pave the way for future games to follow. I saw that beautiful possibility, however slight it may be, with this game. I wanted to see history in the making.
Mario traveling with, from left to right, Beep-O, Rabbid Peach, and Rabbid Luigi.
So let’s break this down into categories with the first one being the story. *SPOILER ALERT* The plot is there’s this famous science girl who has an adorable little robot friend who assists her named Beep-O. As the camera pans around her room, you can see a whole lot of Mario merchandise as she’s singing the Mario theme song, which was so adorable. She starts showing off this cool gadget she’s working on called the SuperMerge that can combine two separate objects into one, which she uses on a desk lamp and a plant to become a plant with lightbulbs. (A fluorescent plant would’ve been a cooler concept in my opinion but it’s fine. I’m not bitter.) This gadget starts to overheat after this due to it still being in its early stages, so she places it on her desk and leaves to find something to fix it, I guess. Then, suddenly, a washing machine appears out of thin air and the Rabbids start propelling endlessly out of it. Thus insanity ensues as these reckless creatures stampede the room touching everything in sight dangerously. One of these Rabbids grabs the SuperMerge and begins zapping the others and combining them with whatever they happen to be next to. This whole scene is pretty hectic but still equally hilarious. I highly advise watching it, for a mere description by me will not do it justice.
Anyway, this Rabbid happens to zap their washing machine, which also happens to be their way to time travel… Somehow. So their time travel machine begins to reverse and sucks everyone back in along with a poster of Mario, Peach, and Luigi in front of Peach’s Castle. Within the next camera pan we are now in the world of the Toadstool Kingdom where Peach, Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi are about to unveil a statue of Princess Peach to the plethora of Toad subjects. (I’m unsure of the significance of this moment. I’m pretty sure this was just an excuse to have everyone gathered in one place.) The statue is unveiled, ‘Yippee! Hooray!’ they all cheer. All is good until a literal vortex tears through the sky pulling everything and everyone inside. (This part gets a little weird because Mario seems capable of defying gravity as everyone is flying through the air and he is completely unaffected by this change until he walks into the vortex and thats when he joins everyone in helplessly flying through space.)
Beep-O charging the way forward.
On the other end of this vortex we’re rejoined with Beep-O falling quickly to the world below. Suddenly, this little guy sprouts ears… bunny ears. I’m sure that wasn’t super important to the plot but it does maximize his cuteness, so I’m okay with it. Then Beep-O gets slammed into by the Rabbid who took the SuperMerge and it begins to malfunction even further. The gadget and the Rabbid combine, as such is the nature of the SuperMerge. He becomes more distinguishable and more adorable than the other Rabbids with the SuperMerge attached permanently to his face. He is still unable to control the SuperMerge and randomly combines the Rabbids with whatever they’re falling next to. Beep-O attempts to scold him and almost gets crushed by the washing-time traveling machine but is saved by Mario, still defying physics, at the last second. Then, Mario makes the most heroic landing ever. He’s a badass in this game for whatever reason and I’m loving it. He’s then joined, not so gracefully, by two other Rabbids who were merged with the personas of Peach and Luigi. These two are Mario’s initial companions throughout the game. Beep-O states his worries about the Rabbid with the SuperMerge and tells the three of them he needs to be saved. To do so, they have to make it past the other Rabbids, who were combined with random items and have now become more rambunctious than ever. Now, the journey begins! *END OF SPOILERS*
The plot isn’t entirely important to the player. It is entertaining to watch the Rabbids wreak havoc on the worlds they encounter but you could remove the opening cut scene and the game would still make sense. But the plot introduces the distinct flavor and character this game has. Here we have humor that is very basic and instinctive to understand. It definitely entrances its audience in its colossally “out there” humor. It’s odd, but it has this charm that works its way into your heart. One of my main motivations in beating the game was to see what other stupid antics the Rabbids would get into.
Other than the humor, the plot wasn’t really all that impressive. It seemed loosely strewn together in an attempt to present this idea that was difficult to digest. Surprisingly enough though, the better half of this game was the Rabbids. They were funny and weird and the Mario characters seemed bland in comparison. The Rabbid’s clumsy bombardment into the Mushroom Kingdom adds a lot more flavor to Mario’s world. It’s interesting because their presence isn’t necessarily needed for this story to work, but the personality they bring to it makes you connect with and perhaps prefer it the way it is.
One of the battlegrounds the Mario team battles in.
For the next category I’ll be talking about the gameplay. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is a turn based strategy game where you utilize three characters at a time, each with unique abilities and weapons, to complete certain missions involving an enemy force contesting you. There are four different mission types: defeat all enemies, defeat X amount of enemies, reach a certain area, and escort mission. There was a bit of controversy over Mario characters using guns but it honestly wasn’t all that shocking or out of place. It helped that their ammo were materials pulled from the Mushroom Kingdom. (Blooper Ink, Honey, and Fire.) I was a little disappointed that they didn’t use Koopa Shells in the combat system but the battles were super rad anyway.
As you advance in the game the maps, missions, and enemies get progressively harder at a pretty fair pace. These battles are manageable as long as you use the right combination of characters and intelligently upgrade their weapons and skill tree, which I’ll get into in a bit. Might I add the hilarity of the weapons names? Some good ones were: Rainbow Runner, Loaded Question, Pain Sprayer, and Birchin’ Urchin. (I definitely started choosing weapons based off of their names.) Each character only had access to certain weapon types which are: Blasters (guns), Precision Weapons (vacuum blaster), Rumble Bang Weapons (machine gun), Boomshots (wide-blast gun), Bworbs (magic zap balls), Melee Weapons (hammer), Sentrys (remote control bomb), Rockets (rocket launcher), and Grenaducks (rubber ducky grenades). A lot of the enjoyment I got from this game came from experimenting with new weapons I’d find around the world.
Rabbid Luigi’s Skill Tree.
On top of weapons, each player has what’s called a Skill Tree. There are four categories within the Skill Tree: movement, attack, technique, and other. Movement improves how wide a range your weapons or jump ability have. Attack allows you to carry a secondary weapon and increases how much damage you deal while holding higher ground. Technique adds special abilities that are specially tailored to the character. For example, Mario is able to take an extra shot on the enemy’s turn while moving if they’re in range of him. Other skills improve how far a character can travel and their max HP. This system allows you to think creatively and each mission created a perfect catalyst to test you in this aspect.
After competing all the missions within a part of the world, you have to defeat the boss in order to move on. These bosses ranged from hilarious to annoyingly difficult and sometimes they were both. *SPOILER ALERT* My favorite boss is a Rabbid who gets merged with a Boo balloon and a record player to become an Opera singing Rabbid Phantom! He sings awesomely sick burns at Mario as you battle him and its just one of my favorite things to ever exist. One of his tasty lines is: “Slithering down every pipe, Despite his plumb-shaped body type!” *END OF SPOILER*
One issue I had with the gameplay was that you couldn’t un-equip Mario from the team and you couldn’t have a full team of Mario characters or Rabbid characters. There were a lot of instances nearing the end of the game where I really didn’t want Mario because his abilities didn’t seem to help all that much. It’s obviously still possible to win with him but I had some trouble tailoring my strategies to include him. One disappointing but very minor detail, overall the gameplay was incredibly fun and the challenges were well laid out.
Mario and friends traveling through Sherbet Desert.
Next category is world layout. This is the weakest part of the game. There are four areas surrounding Peach’s Castle and each is themed specifically. *SPOILER ALERT* (World One is Ancient Gardens, World Two is Sherbet Desert, World Three is Spooky Trails, and World Four is Lava Pit.) *END OF SPOILER* Each world is constructed in a linear way in which there is only ever one path forward. This path will have battle grounds spaced out within it where the missions described earlier will happen. In between these, Beep-O and friends are simply following said path to the next battle ground. The world is pretty barren and simple with not too much going on to entertain the player. You’ll run into some super basic puzzles along the way that end up feeling more like a chore to complete and a waste of your time. Some of these puzzles are as simple as pushing a block onto a button to remove a wall blocking the way. They’re really just time fillers and, the further along in the game I progressed, the more annoying they became.
Throughout the world you can find collectable items such as: game concept art, soundtrack tunes, 3D models of characters, and tarot cards which you can view at the Museum just outside of Peach’s Castle. These items are mildly interesting at best. The only items I actually cared for were the art pieces and the tarot cards because they were somewhat amusing. These items though have no bearing on the rest of the game. You can also collect coins throughout the world which allows you to buy new weapons at the Battle HQ which can be found outside of Peach’s Castle alongside the Museum. Other than that, the world in between battle grounds doesn’t have much to offer. You’ll get to see Rabbids interact with the hybrid world they created and Beep-O will make some snarky comments about how dumb they are. The over world is really lack-luster and should’ve pulled more from 3D Mario games to make the adventuring more enjoyable.
There is also a multiplayer mode which can be accessed right outside of Peach’s Castle in what is called the Buddy Dome. With every level you complete in story mode you can also complete in the Buddy Dome with a friend! The challenges won’t match exactly what was in its counter-parts but the difficulty level will be the same. This segment is co-op with each player utilizing their own personal team of two to defeat the challenges. You’re also not limited to the abilities, weapons, or characters you had in a specific world, making getting through the earlier levels super easy and gratifying.
Rabbid Toad cheering your success at a challenge!
SPECIAL NOTE: Once you defeat the story mode, there will be new missions to find and defeat throughout the four worlds. There are two types with the first just being regular challenges and the second being the Ultimate Challenges. There will be around ten regular challenges spaced out within a world and are similar to all the other battles you need to complete in story mode. These extra challenges are helpful in giving the player more opportunities to earn coins and power orbs to increase your Skill Tree. With the Ultimate Challenges, the battles are extremely difficult, with the very first one being defeat every boss in the game within ten turns. (I have not been able to win any Ultimate Challenges as of yet.) Upon beating these challenges, you’ll have access to brand new weapons at the Battle HQ.
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle didn’t end up being a legendary addition to the gaming world which I’m assuming most of you are not surprised by that fact. I did enjoy myself a lot while playing through this though. I’m glad I made the purchase and powered through to the end. I wouldn’t say it was worth paying $60. I’d wait until they drop the price to around $30. In the end, the characters were lovable and goofy. I enjoyed my time with them and every time I got to blast an enemy with honey. I hope you all are able to gain something from this review and maybe will consider giving this game a try. It definitely wouldn’t be the worst thing to spend your money on.
Thank you for reading.
