The new Super Mario game for the Nintendo Switch is totally fresh and delightfully bizarre
I can't stop playing "Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle." Could any endorsement be stronger?
Allow me to be up front about another major aspect of "Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle": It's outrageously stupid. And it takes that stupidity very seriously.
That's a good thing, to be clear. More than just a surprise, "Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle" is a genuinely excellent game that's sure to be the start of an entirely new franchise. It's also entirely different from what you might expect from a game starring the Mario crew.
How did the Rabbids end up in a Mario game? It's complicated.
The conceit, plot-wise, of "Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle" is that the infamous Rabbids — Ubisoft's kid-friendly, maniacal rabbit characters — have invaded the Mushroom Kingdom by accident. Worse: One of the Rabbids has a futuristic headset on (seen above) that combines objects, and in the transfer from wherever the Rabbids come from to the Mushroom Kingdom, that headset was corrupted.
Thus, everything the headset sees (which is being blindly, accidentally fired by said Rabbid) is being turned into an enemy that Mario and his pals must defeat. Here's the dastardly Rabbid in question:
Nintendo/Ubisoft
He looks confused and scared because he is exactly that. He just wanted to play with a toy, and now he's an accidental villain.
"Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle" is not a typical Mario game. You don't leap from platform to platform, or stomp Goombas. Instead, Mario has a gun. Really.
In fact, everyone has a gun "Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle." Luigi's a sniper! Who would've thought? That's because the main thing you're doing in the game is facing off against armed enemies in "turn-based" battles.
It looks like nothing you've seen before in a Mario game:
Nintendo/Ubisoft
There's a lot going on in this image, I realize. Bear with me.
The first thing you need to know is that this is a battle screen, and this is the main thing you do in "Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle" (as the name implies). It's a "turn-based" strategy game, meaning you and your teammates have a chance to move around a battlefield, line up shots, and otherwise strategize before turning over control to the enemy. Whoever survives the battle wins.
Each member of your team can perform three actions during their turn: move, shoot, and one special move. In the image above, you can see Mario in the lower right, crouching behind cover; Rabbid Peach is on one side of a block, and Luigi is on the other. Each of them has health ratings (211 for Peach, for instance), and you can see that her "Rainbow Runner" weapon is selected. There don't appear to be any enemies in sight. Not yet, anyway.
The battle system in "Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle" is outrageously clever.
Above all, "Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle" is a strategy game. If you're a fan of the "XCOM" series, you'll be right at home here.
Battlefields are on a grid system — each of the squares on the floor in the image above are considered one space. During your turn on the battlefield, each of your team members can move a certain number of spaces. You can multiply that by chaining movement between team members — if you move Luigi, for instance, onto a space occupied by Mario, Mario will offer a jump assist to Luigi that enables him to move further than he otherwise could. In this way, you can also reach higher ground — which is often strategically crucial, just like in real battle.
This becomes more complex and intense as the game goes on, forcing you to think through every move carefully. In a very Mario-esque way, "Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle" builds on simple systems over time to create a complex overall system that requires mastery.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
No comments: