Turns out well crafted gameplay elements can make even the most bizarre crossover you've ever seen work
Just about everyone didn’t expect much from this crossover when they first heard about it. The crazy Rabbids mixed with Mario seemed like an odd match that couldn't go anywhere good. Yet finding out it was a turn based strategy game my curiosity made me want to check it out. My usual spiel of going through the narrative is quite pointless for this game. All you need to know is that the wacky Rabbids have invaded the Mushroom Kingdom and it’s up to Mario & Co to stop a out of control Rabbid that is transforming the kingdom into a mess.
The one thing that becomes obvious is that this strategy game relies on a lot of movement tech. Every character has a different movement attack that must be used effectively along with blasting fools with energy guns. For example Mario can jump on an ally to stomp on a enemy for extra damage along with just being able to dash into them as well. Finding ways to use this to your advantage becomes more important the deeper you get into the campaign. I really liked using Rabbid Mario to lay waste to most of the enemy team since his entire move set is about destroying anything that is nearby.
Along with movement skills everyone has different special skills too. Comboing them together is where it gets fun like using a enemy behind a exploding box to combo into Luigi’s steely stare skill that lets him attack whenever an enemy moves. The real issue doing it effectively without the enemy Rabbids ganging up on one of your characters. I’ve lost a few battles by going all in only for me to loose someone early which almost guarantees defeat. Honestly I wasn’t expecting much of a challenge but some levels will test your strategy skills by the time the credits roll.
Setting up your enemies to perish is cool but even once the final boss is defeated a good amount of bonus context is unlocked to keep a player busy. The gist of it consists of challenge maps that will require some thought to finish. A lot of the levels in this game feel almost like a puzzle game more than a top down strategy game. After solving the “puzzle” of where everyone has to go to finish it really is satisfying. Other collectibles are scattered throughout each world but other than extra skill points most are pretty pointless like collecting figures of every enemy.
All of this is great but the one of the issues is a lack of a reason to change up the team composition. Other than swapping out a character once they get introduced I kept going back to my main team every time. Mario, Rabbid Mario and Rabbid Peach just work to well together. Changing up is certainly encouraged by introducing a new character per world yeti t up never felt as effective to me at least. Additionally the out of combat puzzle sections ended up feeling like busy work. None of the puzzles require much thought leading them to be kinda boring the more you end up encountering them. Especially since 90% of them are just block puzzles.
Neither of those points took away from my enjoyment of the rest of the game. Watching as Mario blasts his way through evil Rabbids never got old in the 20 hours it took before I confronted the final boss. That overall hour count was with me doing a lot of the side challenges along the way. Overall this was mostly a delight to play through. A few boring puzzles doesn’t make this any less fun to play. Although I have to wonder if the sheer wackiness of this pairing makes it easier to keep my attention compared to other top down strategy games. Either way this if you have a Switch this is at least worth looking at if you like this style of game.
