Month of Mario: Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Switch)

The Mario franchise doesn’t cross over with other game series often, mostly just being one participating member of the broader Super Smash Bros. fighting game series and meeting up with Sonic the Hedgehog for the Olympic games. A full game crossover with the chaotic mischief makers known as the Rabbids hardly felt like something the squeaky clean plumber’s adventures would intersect with, let alone in a full blown title, and even stranger than the crossover existing at all is that it lead to a turn-based tactical shooter. This baffling mixture of elements few would ever predict coming together feels like something created by randomly pulling concepts out of a hat, but it seems this desire to chart a new course for all parties involved lead to a game that held together surprisingly well, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle feeling remarkably cohesive and well executed despite its concept being almost as chaotic as the Rabbids themselves.

As for why the Rabbids and Mario’s friend and foes in the Mushroom Kingdom end up interacting, it all comes down to the invention of a brilliant young woman. Creating a device that can fuse together two objects with ease, she was hoping to work out the bugs in the design only for the Rabbids to drop into her room in their time-traveling washing machine. The energetic little rascals quickly grab anything and everything around them to try and have some fun, one of the Rabbids snagging the device and getting it fused to their face. This Rabbid, known later as Spawny, ends up accidentally fusing more and more objects together, and since the inventor was a big fan of Super Mario, Rabbids start taking on characteristics of nearby Mario merchandise they fuse with. When the device zaps the washing machine though, the world of the Rabbids ends up fused with the actual Mushroom Kingdom. Plungers and underpants litter the realms, Mario enemies like Goombas are stuck to walls with honey by prankster Rabbids, and entire areas are warped into new forms. Mario is quick to want to set things right by stopping Spawny’s accidental fusion rampage, but the fusions also start to lead to a mysterious and dangerous vortex forming overhead, Mario and his allies needing to find a way to undo the damage already done on top of preventing any more fusions from happening.

The most delightful element of Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle has to be seeing the strange ways familiar Mario series staples have been warped by their contact with the unusual insanity the Rabbids bring to the table. Many Rabbids end up adorned in outfits similar to characters like Mario and Luigi, but they aren’t just imitating the recognizable faces. One Rabbid dresses up as Princess Peach, but the kind and proper princess is portrayed by the Rabbid almost like how someone who disliked her might think she is, Rabbid Peach stuck up and vain but still in an entertaining and endearing way as she keeps trying to snag selfies of herself even in dire situations. Someone who disliked Mario would probably figure him for prideful, so Rabbid Mario has an almost detached air of coolness save for when he’s reveling in unleashing his great strength. These distortions and parodies aren’t intent on being one-to-one imitations, allowing them to have unique personalities and concepts that make finding a new one actually more interesting since they aren’t even exaggerations of the Mario characters so much as different directions to take a base concept. Few characters actually speak properly though, Mario and his growing set of allies that includes his friends and the Rabbid imitators alike instead lead by a little talking robot named Beep-0. Beep-0 is an excellent choice to be the team’s mouthpiece though, being competent when he needs to be but also being a bit of a hothead when things don’t go his way. He can even come up with some pretty good jokes of his own, and as you explore it’s always fun to find a place where Beep-0 will comment on the silly ways nearby Rabbids interact with the kingdom in chaos since you don’t know if he’ll have a quip or just shake his head at the inanity on show.

Fighting your way through the corrupted Mushroom Kingdom will involve you coming across little battle arenas with plenty of cover, high ground, and most important of all, dangerous Rabbids who are far less playful and more interested in blasting you to bits. This is where the turn-based tactical shooting elements unfold, and even from the get-go the game introduces an idea that is great for people new to the genre but filled with potential strategic depth. Movement in Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is grid-based, but when its your turn, a character is free to move all throughout any space within their movement range. You do not have a set amount of spaces you can cross, only a total distance you are free to travel all about, this incredibly important because one of your first ways of dealing damage is to ram through enemy Rabbids as part of your movement. What’s more, you can even use your allies as springboards or figure out ways to chain together utilizing warp pipes since they reset your movement distance range, meaning positioning isn’t the only benefit to figuring out where your characters should go. Cover is definitely important, hiding behind it can give enemy attacks a 50% or even 100% chance to miss depending on their position, but some of it is destructible or may even hide something dangerous inside so even blasting cover apart can prove strategic. Figuring out where you want to be is more than a matter of making sure you have a bead on your foe, smart use of all movement techniques and tricks able to make even the hardest battles more manageable.

In a battle, you’ll be limited to using only three of the heroes you’ve recruited along your adventure, although one must always be Mario and the game insists one must be one of the four Rabbid characters as well. All of the eight characters utilize some unique mixture of abilities and weapons, and while the requirements do limit some strategic potential, they thankfully don’t completely rob the player of meaningful customization choices. Luigi for example is designed like a long range sniper and Rabbid Peach a support healer, choosing to bring one over the other giving you different benefits in a fight or vulnerabilities since Luigi has fairly low health and Rabbid Peach won’t pack the same punch someone like Yoshi would. Each character has two weapons though, usually a heavy hitting tool like a bouncing explosive or hammer they can only use every few turns plus their twist on the energy guns common across the cast, and then abilities can also influence how they impact the battle. There is definitely a little too much overlap when it comes to the reused technique of a character automatically firing on an enemy when they start moving, but other abilities like sending enemies running or pulling them towards you can reshape the battle situation in interesting ways and drive who you use in your three person team.

More tactical considerations come from how you level up your crew though. Clearing battles will earn you coins and orbs that go towards improving your fighters. Coins unlock new weapons, and while you’ll need to buy new stuff gradually to increase your power, the decisions come down to which additional effects you want to invest in. A gun that can inflict the Honey status will lock a foe in place momentarily, while statuses like Freeze and Ink instead block abilities and standard weapon fire from being used respectively. Planning around special effects isn’t too reliable since the percentage chance never gets too high, but they do add interesting wrinkles and you can press your luck in a tough situation as these statuses are almost always impactful if they activate. The orbs go towards teaching your heroes new abilities or improving they ones they already have, and this is where you can start to truly cater to your preferred play style with a character. The game may have intended classes for everyone, but you can also utilize upgrades to turn someone into a powerful battering ram that deals heavy damage just by moving around or you can bulk them up so they can weather enemy aggression after you put them in a spot too tantalizing for enemies to devote time to try to go after someone harder to reach.

Battles often occur in small but well laid out areas with a good deal of interesting considerations to make, and they even feature different goals to change up how you approach those spaces. Some fights are just about clearing out the enemy, but others can involve trying to get to a set location or escorting a character like Toad who can’t fend for himself. Boss battles are also multi-phase fights that embrace some creative and fun ideas, although the choice in opponent can seem a bit odd. The game opens strong with the enormous Rabbid Kong and there’s a musical fight later in the adventure that delivers on a strong personality and a neat concept involving the foe’s conditional invulnerability. However, sometimes the game will have you face a mid-boss that just seems to be a Rabbid with some new trick up their sleeves like the ice and sandstorm based duo that aren’t quite as fun conceptually. The enemy variety does do a good job throughout most of the adventure in keeping the battles varied, foes like the Smashers moving whenever you shoot them so you have to bait them around properly or risk taking heavy damage when they actually catch you. Enemies with their own movement tricks require you to be keenly aware of you enemy’s capabilities or you risk losing a fighter, and the game doesn’t take it easy on players just because of the two franchises involved being normally family-friendly. If you want to earn the most rewards from a fight you need to clear it in a set amount of turns and without losing a character, this goal feeling achievable but requiring more aggressive play to pull off, thus leading to more dangerous situations. You can take it slow and cautious or accept a character loss and still clear the fight with a major penalty, but you are encouraged to fight better or just take the Extra Health offered at the start of each battle if you feel it is still too tough even when you’re not going for the gold trophies.

Enemy variety does start to stagnate some as you start reaching the later fights of the campaign, but Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle isn’t just fight after fight. While out exploring the world and seeing what mischief the Rabbids are getting into, you’ll also find plenty of areas to poke around and puzzles to solve. Beep-0 gradually unlocks new abilities that open up hidden spaces, although only his power to push blocks feels like it really impacts how you explore with the others mostly just opening paths that were previously blocked. Behind block and switch puzzles will often be treasure rewards, some just models and music for the museum but others being useful weapons or resources, and sometimes the path forward requires a little problem-solving first to proceed. These do hit on the same issue as the enemies, the game starting to repeat ideas a little much as you near the end, but the unlockable Challenges can present some strong gimmick fights that would probably be too unusual for the main adventure. Battles where you need to lure enemies out in front of Chain Chomps to have a chance of defeating them quickly enough, bad weather sending tornadoes through the fight, and other briefly touched on concepts in the main battles are able to be retooled into battle puzzles in the challenges, although the real extra value in Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle will come from people who buy the DLC or Gold Edition as the Donkey Kong Adventure is an excellent evolution of the emphasis on movement in battle. The big gorilla Donkey Kong can lift and throw allies, enemies, and even parts of the battlefield, completely changing the limitations you dealt with in the main adventure and opening up even greater opportunities for interesting traversal. Donkey Kong Adventure certainly shouldn’t be missed as it has some of the satisfying battles found in Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, but the main game still has a lot to offer and even as it runs out of steam near the end it at least starts whipping out more boss encounters to make sure the end still has unique fights to carry it home.

THE VERDICT: Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle provides plenty of amusing Rabbid antics and delightful unexpected twists to the familiar character and enemies from the Mario series, but while providing goofy laughs it also has surprisingly tactical battles broken up by interesting puzzles to work the more logical side of your mind. The difficulty is something you manage yourself based on whether you shoot for gold, the movement has more layers to it than just positioning, and boss fights bring out the best from your range of attack options. It does lose some steam as enemies and puzzles lose their uniqueness later down the line, but this wonderfully wacky mixture of franchises and genres feels like it nails each component properly while providing even more surprises to make it an unusual delight.

And so, I give Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle for Nintendo Switch…

A GREAT rating. Had it kept its momentum to the very end, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle would be a phenomenal tactical shooter even more inexplicable in how it managed to make seemingly disparate parts work so well together. Characters aren’t merely plopped into a tactical shooter, you see their character shine in moments like Rabbid Kong needing to have his bananas stolen to take the fight seriously or Rabbid Yoshi’s unhinged insanity being used to scare enemies away from him as a battle technique. Mario characters can sometimes be the straight men to the more unusual antics of the Rabbids, but then Bowser Jr. is a great source of comedy as he tries to hide his schemes from his more serious father. The puzzles help ease up some of the reliance on tactical fights and give you a reason to look around at the fused environments to find more interesting sights, and it feels like just having a bit more creative energy put into the puzzles and standard enemies in the game’s final chapter would help bring this experience home. The Donkey Kong Adventure serves as an excellent showcase of how the concept could keep evolving, Donkey Kong’s throws and movement options really reshaping how you view the battlefield while still carrying on the main game’s interesting emphasis on making the most of every action on a turn. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle even offers a few co-op campaigns and a Versus battle mode where you can further explore how its systems shift when you’re either managing four characters with a partner or trying to take down an intelligent human player.

If there was any area that was truly disappointing, it’s that the game came to an end before you could see even more of the odd fusions between Mario and Rabbids that lead to so many hilarious concepts or unique battles. Neither side of the crossover is lost in hosting the other and even in fights you have things like Mario packing the unique ability to bounce of enemy heads for heavy damage so his usual theming connects to the tactical shooting. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is undoubtedly an unusual idea on the surface, but its abnormality was most likely the reason for its success. Its creators picked the genre specifically because it was new ground for Mario and the Rabbids both, and it’s likely the extra amount of thought needed to properly translate them into a new formula lead to the concepts that help this chaotic concept shine.