Mario + Rabbids for Nintendo Switch

When I first heard the leaks of this game described, I was aghast. I've never played the rabbids games, because they never interested me. When "Rayman's Raving Rabbids" launched on Wii, to much success, I never once even thought of playing or touching it. I saw it once, and said "Why not just release a Rayman game? I'd play that." and never once gave it another thought. So, when I heard a Mario game was coming out, I was stoked. Then I head "& Rabbids" and was very confused and disappointed. Then I saw gameplay and saw it was an XCom Style tactical game. I thought the world was playing some joke on me. But at e3 coverage, I watched, and was impressed with what I saw, so I decided to try it. It's a Mario game. It can't be bad, right? Well, I would like to apologize to Ubisoft immensely. They created a Xcom style tactical game, that is sometimes unforgiving to newcomers of the genre, and made a skillfully fun "Easy to learn, hard to master" game. I thought the Rabbids would grate on me, due to the gibberish speak, but thankfully they are not overdone, and the puns, humor, and sometimes even toilet humor actually warrants a chuckle. I'm about 15 hours in, and half way through the game, and not once have I bored from it. Battles can get intense, and make you think, and for those who are less experienced you can turn on an easy mode at any time. The bosses are creative, and the story is rather unique for a Mario game, this is not your regular save the princess style story from our red capped friend. There are 8 party members you can unlock. You start off with 3, Mario, Luigi Rabbid, and Peach Rabbid". Peach rabbid is actually very funny, in that she's always such a diva, parodying a social media obsessed teen. There are tons of mechanics in battles, it isn't simply move+shoot. The characters are all very different as well, acting as classes. Rabbid Luigi for instance, specializes in elemental damage and effects, while Luigi himself is essentially a sniper, with low HP for this reason. You can only equip 3 party members (at least, 15 hours into the game, I don't know if it changes for end game) so you have to think. If you put 3 low HP high damage characters in, you could be putting yourself at major risk. The game keeps introducing new mechanics, or new skills every hour or so, or you can unlock them every hour, and there are a surprising amount of collectable art, models, soundtrack, and gear scattered about, urging you to replay levels when you have unlocked later abilities, helping replay-ability. So far, I can't put this game down, and man, I really am going to go out and admit how wrong I was. Ubisoft proved me wrong ten fold, this game oozes quality and charm, and makes me yearn for a sequel on it, and that this trend continues, as the gameplay is something stellar. Fans of XCom, I haven't played Xcom much, so I can't say how it stacks up, however you will find that 50% in this game, actually means 50%, rather than "MISS". There is a multiplayer mode, and challenge levels, though these are unlocked later after chapter (or world) 1, so you can't team up in the main game as far as I know. For those on the fence, rent it if you need to. I want this game on my shelf, as it's a dead knockout out to me, and right now (At the time of this writing, October with Mario Odyssey is coming fast though!) second on switch only to breath of the wild in my opinion. I'm not even a tactical game fan, as I usually am really bad at them, but the learning curve is very gradual in this game, and it only punishes you if you want it to (you can dip down to easy mode at any time to bypass this, but I like the challenge in this game and I may go pick up XCom after I play through this fully.

For those of you that like the Fire Emblem series, I recommend giving this game a shot. It’s good, plan and simple. Now for those of you that are skeptical, I’ll do my best to try and convince you to join the cause to save the Mushroom Kingdom.Now as a veteran gamer the first thing that would turn me off to this game are the Rabbids themselves. I’m here to tell you not to worry. They are nowhere near as annoying as they were in the old Rayman raving rabid games. In fact they are actually funny from time to time. It’s still slapstick humor, so don’t expect high brow jokes. As soon as you reach the first gameplay section, it’s apparent that the graphics are nothing short of stunning, especially the levels themselves. They are filled with such detail and personality, my favorite being the vines that play the music in the spooky kingdom. And in the battles themselves the animation work is also top notch, although there are a few caveats I need to mention, the most troublesome in my opinion is the camera, you don’t have control over it as much as I’d like. It can only be moved in 90 degree angles I’ve lost a gun fight or two because I couldn’t get a good view of the battle field. Now In a close second, is a gameplay mechanic. Those of you that are Fire Emblem vets will share my pain. In FE you get into a habit of moving your characters close to the enemies in order to see how much damage you will inflict on your foes, If it’s not to your liking you will simply tap B and warp back to where you were correct? Well in this game once you move your character and press A your locked in, so it’s a little tough fighting an urge that was second nature in FE. Other then that every character( a total of about 8) has a special ability and a specific role to play in your team(e.g sniper, healer etc.) Mario however is a permanent fixture so I recommend buying better gear for him as soon as it’s available to you. The game also won’t hold your hand so be prepared to be in for a tough time if you get careless. There is also a Co-op mode but I recommend playing it with a friend once you’ve beaten the game, as that will unlock all the levels. Oh and stay away from any Hard challenges that you get by clearing a map in story mode, unless of course you like fighting the urge not to stab your Switch in the face repeatedly. The bottom line is I can’t wait for a sequel, Ubisoft really set a standard for 3rd party development on this one. Stay behind cover and good luck out there.