Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle
is a 2017 action-adventure tactical role-playing game developed by Ubisoft Milan and Ubisoft Paris and published by Ubisoft for the Nintendo Switch. A crossover between Nintendo's Mario and Ubisoft's Rabbids franchises, it follows Mario, his friends and the Rabbids, who must save the Mushroom Kingdom from the latter's invading brethren following their mishandling of an avid Mario fan's powerful invention in their world.
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was conceived in 2014 by Ubisoft Milan creative director Davide Soliani and Ubisoft brand producer Xavier Manzanares. The design objectives emphasized the dissonance of both franchises and creating a strategy game that stood out with unique elements. Its visual elements and animation were casual and vibrant and its music was composed by Grant Kirkhope. Although the game was met with poor reception when it was leaked, primarily due to its use of elements from the Rabbids franchise and weaponry, it was well received when it was officially announced at E3 2017.
The game's critical reception was overall positive, with praise towards its characters and turn-based combat and mixed responses to its puzzles and level-based combat. In 2018, a Donkey Kong-centric expansion pack for the game was released as downloadable content. A sequel, titled Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, was released on 20 October 2022.
Gameplay
Gameplay follows Mario and a cast of other Mario and Rabbids characters of the player's choosing, including Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi and a quartet of Rabbids akin to the aforementioned Mario characters with exaggerated personalities. They are guided by a small robot named Beep-0. The campaign story mode is split up into four unique locations, or "worlds", each of which has a linear path to completion. In each world, some puzzles must be completed for progression, or give weapons and collectibles when solved. When a world is completed, Beep-0 learns a new ability to solve puzzles. Two unique weapons can be unlocked by connecting the console to any one of several Amiibo figurines.If the team comes across territory inhabited by enemy Rabbids, a battle will commence. While the goal of each battle is usually to defeat every enemy on the field, some levels have a fixed objective, such as escorting a Toad to the end of the stage. The level is completed if all enemies are defeated or the fixed objective is satisfied; the player loses when all characters run out of health or fail to meet their goal. Before a battle, the player can choose to change their current selection of characters and weaponry; three out of eight playable characters can fight in a battle, and each fighter can be equipped with weapons, each one dealing different amounts of damage or causing certain special effects that hinder the opponent. Battles are turn-based, and each character can perform up to three different options: they can move to a new location, with each character having a set distance they can travel; they can use a weapon, and have two choices of attack that vary per player; or they can use a special effect, with each character having different abilities that vary in function. If a player moves to a location where they are obscured to the enemy, the enemy's accuracy changes based on the cover's effectiveness. Characters also have movement abilities, where they can dash into an enemy to deal damage or be boosted by another character to travel a further distance. Some weapons have special effects; for example, the player can shoot a glob of honey at the enemy to restrict them from moving temporarily, or shoot an ignited bullet to burn an opponent and send them running around in a random direction in panic. Special effects also vary, such as a healing effect that restores some health to other characters, or a hypnosis effect that draws enemies towards the character that used it.
Levels are divided into chapters and each one usually contains three levels. When a chapter is completed, characters receive coins and "Skill Orbs", which can also be found by exploring the overworld, with greater rewards earned clearing battles within a certain number of turns with all characters intact. Skill Orbs can be used in each character's skill tree to grant them new abilities or increase stats such as health or movement distance. Coins can be used to purchase new weaponry and items.
Plot
''Kingdom Battle''
A young inventor and avid fan of the Mario franchise has invented the SupaMerge, a headset-like device that can merge any pair of objects into a single entity, with the help of her virtual robot assistant Beep-0; however, the device has an overheating problem that the inventor is trying to rectify. Upon testing it, it successfully merges two items, but overheats again. While the inventor is out of the room, the Rabbids suddenly arrive in their Time Washing Machine and they begin to mischievously play with her belongings, to Beep-0's annoyance. One of them dons the SupaMerge and starts merging some of its fellow Rabbids with various items in the room. During this, the Time Washing Machine is then afflicted by the device and it malfunctions, sucking everything in the room into an interdimensional vortex.An anomaly in spacetime appears above the Mushroom Kingdom during the unveiling of a statue of Princess Peach and sucks everyone into it, including Mario and his allies. They and the Rabbids are thrown across the kingdom along with the now-enlarged objects from the room. Beep-0, now a physical entity with Rabbid-like attributes and an ability to speak, discovers that the SupaMerge has become part of the Rabbid wearing it, who uncontrollably transfigures more of its brethren. Beep-0 is nearly hit by the now-enlarged Time Washing Machine, but Mario saves him as it crash-lands near Peach's castle. While the recently transfigured Rabbids are hostile due to the SupaMerge's power now becoming corrupted upon entering the Mario universe, a quartet of some of them akin to Mario and company are not. Aided by a mysterious email contact known only as F.B., who provides them with weapons, abilities and advice, the two groups join forces to put a stop to the chaos.
As the heroes travel across the Mushroom Kingdom while defeating and rehabilitating the corrupted Rabbids, Bowser Jr. comes across the one fused to the SupaMerge, which he dubs Spawny, and tries to uses him in worsening the crisis to earn praise from his father, who is currently on vacation. Resolving to recover Spawny so they can put an end to the crisis, the heroes eventually learn that the anomaly presumably created by the SupaMerge and referred to as the "Megabug" is growing more powerful as they rehabilitate more of the corrupted Rabbids. They eventually recover Spawny from Bowser Jr., only for him to be abducted by the Megabug, which has now assumed a physical form, and becomes part of it, empowering the Megabug with the SupaMerge's abilities. It continues to create more corrupted Rabbids and later possesses Bowser, who had just returned from his vacation, to combat the heroes, who then vanquish the Megabug, saving both him and Spawny. As peace returns to the Mushroom Kingdom, the heroes celebrate their victory by replacing the statue of Princess Peach that had been destroyed when the crisis began with one of the Peach-like Rabbid. In an epilogue, Beep-0 realizes that F.B. is his future self, Future Beep-0, and uses the Time Washing Machine to help his comrades in the past by sending the same emails, weapons and abilities that were sent to his past self.