9 / 10

Nintendo / Ubisoft

We'll admit, when the idea of Nintendo's immortal icon Mario crossing paths with Ubisoft's anarchic and – we'll say it – frequently irritating Rabbids was first floated, we groaned along with the rest of the internet. Surely, at best, it would be a crossover on par with the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games sub-franchise – good for character recognition and keeping younger players happy, but not living up to the best of either half of the equation.

Then, we played it, and happily ate humble pie. The strange pairing worked far better than it seemingly had any right to, despite adding another dollop of weirdness into the mix: the game is a turn based strategy, rather than the platformer you might expect given the origins of both character families.


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Now, with the full version in hand, we're happy to go one step further in our praise: Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle is the best Mario game that Nintendo never made. Despite development being headed up by Ubisoft's Paris and Milan studios, its style, tone, and presentation has every drop of Nintendo magic you'd expect, with the Rabbids fitting strangely well into the Mushroom Kingdom.

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They get there thanks to an engineer in 'our' world who creates a VR-style headset that can merge two items into one. Supposedly, this will "solve the energy crisis" – wearable nuclear fusion does seem a pretty important development, to be fair – but the unexpected arrival of Rabbids in a dimension-hopping washing machine soon sends things awry. Of course.

With one Rabbid – later dubbed Spawny – merging with the headset, and the washing machine knocked off course by its energies, it's off to Mario's adopted homeland. Their arrival twists the Mushroom Kingdom into a land invested with hybridised monsters and where the landscape itself is twisted, with new Rabbid pipes linking areas and locations becoming mismatched, like a desert of ice. Cue Mario, joined initially by new allies Rabbid Peach (a selfie-obsessed prima donna princess) and Rabbid Luigi (every bit as cowardly as his non-leporine counterpart), setting out to find Spawny and reset the world, guided by robot mentor Beep-O.


Nintendo / Ubisoft

Each battle sees Mario and friends – non-Rabbid Luigi, Yoshi, and other characters become available as you progress through the story – taking up position against an assortment of Rabbid foes. Early matches have simple victory conditions such as defeating all enemies, or a set number of endlessly respawning ones, but rules become stricter as you progress. Some maps have you trying to reach a specific area, or escort a supporting character like Toad to safety, while the amount of turns you're afforded dwindles.

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Overall, combat mechanics owe a lot to the rebooted XCOM games. Characters have freedom of movement within an area defined by their personal stats and skills, and can take half or full shelter behind objects on the map, reducing the risk of being hit by enemy attacks. Shelter can be destroyed, or attacks lined up to provide clear line of sight to enemies.


The uniquely Mario twists come in how you move and attack. Most enemies are taken out by shots from a new arsenal of wrist-cannons provided by Beep-O, but movement and unlockable skills provide more intricate forms of mushroom warfare. You can dash through an enemy as you move, dealing a few points of damage, take a Rabbid Pipe to another part of the map, then run to cover before taking your shot. Alternatively, you can run to a partner, have them throw you further, and take out a more distant enemy.

Nintendo / Ubisoft

Then you have character specific skills – Mario can be thrown and jump onto an enemy, dealing damage, while Rabbid Peach can chain up to four dash attacks, allowing her to run through scores of foes before she even takes a proper shot. Best of all, you can chain these skills, allowing you to get creative with how you dominate the battlefield. Having Mario dash an enemy, then be thrown into a jump attack on another, land into a defensible position and fire off a blast is delightful – and that’s before you get to support moves like his Hero Sight, which delivers yet another attack to the first enemy that moves in range.

While that may sound like you're over-powered, the variety of enemy types and their own skills keeps you on your toes throughout, challenging you to come up with fresh tactics each round. Unlike XCOM, although Mario + Rabbids is frequently and increasingly challenging – and its later, tougher maps will have you cursing profusely – it rarely feels punishing, keeping the proceedings fun even when they get tough.

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Nintendo / Ubisoft

There's also a plethora of replayability. Each world is split into chapters, with 'Perfect' results to shoot for in each bout – returning with more powerful weapons and upgraded skills makes these a nice objective to aim for. Entire worlds can also be returned to for exploration, with Beep-O learning new abilities as you progress to help solve environmental puzzles, reach new challenges, and unlock secret chapters. Factor in a two-player co-op mode that perfectly suits the Switch's Joy-Con controllers, and there's days of entertainment to be found here.

The challenges are a particularly nice addition. Each offered by a Rabbid in Toad cosplay, they're often more puzzles than battles – get each character to a specific square on the map in just one round, for instance. There are specific solutions to these, pushing you to think about movement and skill combinations in entirely new ways.

Nintendo / Ubisoft

One of our early complaints, that Mario and co. can't jump when moving around between battles, turns out to be a feature, rather than a bug. It turns out that each world is one massive area, linked start to finish in a connected whole. Battles don't take place in sectioned off new maps, they're build into the Rabbid-warped landscape you're navigating. As elevation factors into combat – the higher a vantage point you have, the more damage you'll do, and you'll reach those higher areas by either by being thrown by allies or darting through Rabbid pipes – hopping around like Mario usually does would totally change the game's balance. It still feels weird controlling a Mario that doesn't jump, but it makes sense within the context of this game.


A gripe that does hold water in the full version though is that you can out-think the game itself, as some combinations of moves and tactics aren't allowed. For instance, as Mario, you can't dash and jump onto the same enemy, which annoys if you're trying to take down some of the tougher Rabbid rascals. Similarly, you can't throw allies over small gaps, even though you can throw them up mountainous cliff. Nor can you enter a Rabbid pipe after a throw, reducing your movement options slightly. These feel like arbitrary restrictions rather than mechanically necessary ones.

Nintendo / Ubisoft

Nevertheless, Mario + Rabbids is tremendously fun, and a triumph for Ubisoft. Its easy accessibility and familiar characters make it perfect for younger players ready to move onto more challenging gaming experiences, but its consistent difficulty curve means it keeps the attention of more seasoned players. With tonnes of content to warrant returning long after the story is done, chalk this up as another great entry to the Switch's burgeoning software library.