Back in late 2016, Nintendo finally announced the much-rumored Nintendo Switch, featuring a new 3D Super Mario game, Mario Kart 8, Skyrim, Splatoon, and of course Breath of the Wild. But one other notable exclusive showed up in an unexpected way. Reports were coming out suggesting that a crossover between Mario and the oft-maligned Raving Rabbids from Ubisoft was coming, and that it would feature music by legendary composer Grant Kirkhope. People weren’t sure what to make of this; they were skeptical at best and actively dreading it at worst.
And then, the leaks happened. In early 2017, key promotional art for this strange new Mario and Rabbids crossover circulated around the internet, and it made people even more worried. Things looked bad, but then at [E3 2017](https://youtu.be/6zH-Rhdj5Wc?feature=shared) those impressions would change. At Ubisoft’s press conference, they opened the show with Shigeru Miyamoto walking on stage to announced Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, a turn based tactics game taking clear inspiration from XCOM for its gameplay. The creative director even cried on screen which in itself won the hearts of many watching the show. The reveal was met with radiating enthusiasm, and the eventual release on August 29th of that year more so. Critics and fans loved it, particularly the humor, soundtrack, and tactical gameplay, even painting a more positive impression of the once-irritating Rabbid characters. It has reportedly sold more than 2 million copies, although it does go on sale quite frequently.
A DLC season pass featuring new weapons, new challenge battles, and an entirely new campaign starring Donkey Kong would release over the course of the next year. Rabbids got to show up as spirits and Mii costumes in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and a full-blown sequel would be released in 2022. The final DLC for that sequel, which will star Ubisoft’s neglected hero Rayman, is scheduled to launch tomorrow, putting a poetic end to this fruitful collaboration.
by Asad_Farooqui
41 Comments
i enjoyed it for a little bit. not great or amazing but fun
Whenever I think of this game, I kept thinking back to how the director cried seeing Miyamoto talked about his game. There’s immense love in this title, and you can feel it every second of the game.
I bought the game and dlc bundled together for really cheap and had a blast! The donkey Kong dlc I think I enjoyed more than the already great base game.
played it earlier this year and I loved it so much and it was surprisingly challenging at times.
I really liked it! I think the sequel was a decent improvement.
Also the DK DLC for the first game was so good. Felt like a full game almost.
A very, very weak game.
It is pretty, but it is still bugged (Challenge 3, I am talking to you, lol).
They sold the game as a “strategic”, as a Xcom lite. But the game is nothing like XCom (some people said that it plays like the dumbed down XCom that was recently released, not the classic one).
Also, you do not need strategy at all, you can just brute force everything. I beat the final boss with only 2 characters.
Meanwhile, the world is full of “Turn the camera to find the secret” and a lot of pushing blocks puzzles that are soooo boring.
Probably my biggest regret on Switch and I am happy that the 2nd bombed.
Please, developers. Play real strategic games before calling you adventure-lite a strategic one.
That segment is one of my strongest memories of E3. Everyone looked so happy.
It was a fun distraction until the real Mario game came out.
I’ve never gotten or played the game. I bring shame to the community.
Fond memories of drinking coffee and playing this on weekend mornings with my (at the time) preschool age kids watching.
Now I’m doing something similar with the sequel. The kids are still interested in the characters, power up and cinematic scenes, but they don’t care to sit and watch me play battles for an hour or 2 like they used to. I’ve got the difficulty cranked up on this one so I do have to restart battles when I realize I’ve made a really bad turn early in the fight.
Loved the first one, quit the second one really fast, not sure why
I feel both games are underrated
Fun game
Thought it was great. Having put ridiculous amount of time into XCOM and XCOM2, it really scratch the tactical itch on the Switch. Yeah it’s quirky and weird but overall a really fun game. I thought it was well balanced and challenging enough for me.
The first one is so good
I struggled to deal with the fidelity of the over world on the tiny screen…you asked!
Awful
Cool game and runs like butter unlike the horrible XCOM2 port on Switch.
I didn’t understand any of the skepticism about the game. The Rabbids use the same exact slapstick humor that the Mario RPGs used, especially Super Mario RPG. So I was excited about the game as soon as I heard the rumors.
8/10
10/10 with rice
One of my favorite games! But I’m a sucker for turn-based games.
It’s 6 years old??….🫠
Glorious game. Loved it. Great way to do turn based strategy without it getting tedious.
Really fun game, bought it cheap cheap bundle 2 years ago.
As a big fan of games like XCOM, I was hesitant but saw a lot of praise for the game. I gave it a go and really liked it… until I reached the point where the game said that I needed to keep at least one of the Rabbids in the party. I was so excited to finally recruit Sniper Luigi and wanted to roll with him, Mario, and Peach, but no: the game arbitrarily forces you to keep the annoying, crappy, failed Ubisoft mascots around. I dropped it almost immediately; all of my enthusiasm left with that restrictive notification.
It was very boring and I did not enjoy it
Completed it and the dlc. Found the gameplay really satisfying. Never checked out the second one because I heard the difficulty was much lower and I thought it was perfect in the first game
I loved it, which was why I went so far as to buy Sparks of Hope at launch. The sequel didn’t hold my interest, unfortunately. It feels bigger and yet more generic somehow. Like just another Ubisoft game lol.
hands down the worst mario game I have ever played. total and absolute waste of money, and since I bought it digital, I can’t get it back. Bought it and deleted it on the same day.
Hmm kind of a random game to have, albeit, a 6th anniversary. Could this post just be a plug to advertise the game? Probably…. There’s a ton of redditors claiming to be legit but are actually employees of companies selling products…. That sounds like what this post is. Who celebrates a 6 years anniversary for a random game…? Weird.
I love it. Had a blast playing through it during the summer when my daughter was 3. I carried my switch to use during her nap time. Also played quite a bit on a trip to the west coast for a wedding. I remember the credits rolled while I was on a train. Good good times. great summer.
I am an avid hater of Ubisoft, but these games and Child of Light prove that they have the capacity to make good games.
I loved Kingdom Battle so much! It was kind of a unique gaming experience for me when it came out, but it hooked me fast. The strategy was very engaging, and the world and characters were really interesting (disclaimer: I’ve always been a Mario fan and I really enjoyed the early Rabbid games). I also enjoyed the collectable aspect of it, which is typical for Ubisoft games. However I thought the story was kind of average.
However, I thought Sparks of Hope was an improvement in almost every way. The addition of Sparks added even more strategy to the gameplay, and the levels oozed with love and care. I think the world design was the biggest improvement from Kingdom Battle, and I’m pretty disappointed that it doesn’t look like I’ll get to see more in a Mario and Rabbids 3. Also the story in Sparks of Hope was more interesting, and the new characters introduced were great. Also, both games have incredible music, as expected from Grant Kirkhope. Thank you for this post OP!
I got this game a few years after it came out with all the DLC and I loved it. The dialogue was funny, and the combat was fun. It was a weird crossover but they made it work
I thought it was the dumbest thing ever when announced. Then I played it and had a ton of fun with it. The game mechanics were solid and the challenges make you think. It was super fun and glad I gave it a shot!
The second one is still on my backlog though…
Man I still remember the early days when the leak happened, it was almost impossible to find somebody else who was actually excited for it. But I had grown up with a couple Rabbids games on the Wii that I actually enjoyed.
Also some of the negative people were hilarious saying how its a bad look for Mario and that it’d hurt the brand’s image, how Mario was above such a collaboration. Like y’all mustn’t have been paying attention to what Nintendo had been doing with Mario prior to this.
Turns out it was a fantastic game, not so amazing that I’d ever really consider replaying it but one that I enjoyed enough that I had no regrets paying full price for it at launch. The perfect launch window game, when your just excited to have any excuse to play your shiny new console.
It was actually the game that made me purchase the Switch. I already love turn based tactic games so having one with the light hearted whimsey of Mario really spoke to me. It’s good fun, and I feel they addressed some of my complaints about the game in the sequel. In Kingdom Battle you HAD to have Mario and at least one Rabbid in your team, in Sparks of Hope you can be as flexible with your team composition as you want.
I hate strategy games, but the Gold Edition was on sale on the eShop for $13, so I said “why not” – and I actually really enjoyed it. It wasn’t the walls of text & confusing stats that usually make me nope out of strategy games. Lots of great animation & addicting gameplay. I played through the entire game!
I think we need more crossover like this
I thought this game was going to suck but I have way too much fun playing it. It exceeded my expectations by far.
We need more games like this!
The game is amazing, the DLC glorious, the sequel horrible