User blog:TyrantRex/TyrantRex's thoughts on Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Note: This isn't a proper review, but rather my thoughts and opinions on the game!

I recommend listening to this while reading this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md_O41H_gJs

Background
I like Mario (Duh!), I enjoy the Rabbids since they originally were Rayman antagonists, so when a crossover between the two franchises was announced I... completely missed the announcement and didn't pay much attention to the game after I realized it's a thing. Tactical Turn-Based Strategy games aren't exactly a genre I flock towards (on that topic, I REALLY need to start looking at stuff besides mascot platformers...) unless its Worms: Armaggedon on PS1. But to my surprise I got this game for my birthday. Seeing a "Game Awards 2017 Winner" sticker on it did give me more confidence on it though, and I had already finished Mario Odyssey so why not?

I did some research and actually found out that this game has a pretty cool backstory (I may be wrong on some details, don't know the entire story): A guy named Davide Soleani who works for Ubisoft and is a big fan of Shigeru Miyamoto was tasked with making a Rabbids game for Nintendo and he always wanted to make a Mario game, so he came up with the idea to pitch a Mario`- Rabbids crossover. He made character models for both Mario and Luigi completely from scratch for that pitch, and Miyamoto was so impressed by them that he personally approved the idea.

I mention this because knowing that backstory genuinely affected my opinion on the game.

The Game
Just to be clear, this game is strictly an Ubisoft game, they were the ones who developed and published it, as far as I know all Nintendo did was give them the Mario Bros. license and make it a Switch exclusive. I mention this because, every single second of this game feels like a genuine Nintendo game. Like seriously, if you look at this game's presentation I wouldn't blame you if you assumed Nintendo developed the game in-house and not just because of the Mario Bros. characters.

I absolutely love the game's visuals, it's very colorful and pleasant to the eye, filled with personality, cartoony, and just feels at home on a Nintendo console. It's impressive how Ubisoft tried so hard to replicate the feel of a Mario game, in my opinion they absolutely nailed it. They even gave the characters cartoony unrealistic weapons so Mario holding a gun doesn't feel out of place. The music is fantastic, and for some reason felt very familiar to me but couldn't quite figure out why. Turns out Grant Kirkhope was the composer, that immediately explained it. In case you don't know, Kirkhope is the guy that composed Banjo-Kazooie's soundtrack.

The game is very easy to pick-up-and play to make it very accessible for everyone while still being able to offer a challenge without insulting player intelligence (AGAIN, just like how Nintendo approaches game design). It should only take about 10-15 minutes to get the basics enough to get started but the game gets really difficult as it goes on and playing carelessly is a sure-fire way to get killed. Explaining how the mechanics work would be rather hard for me to explain but I've been told that the gameplay is very similar to X-Com so... check X-Com to get an idea? As for the LOCAL multiplayer, it's very good too, though it can get repetitive because there are only 8 playable characters. I think Ubisoft mentioned they'll add more characteres via DLC WITHOUT LOOT BOXES so that's good.

The plot of the game is about as stupid as you might expect from the Rabbids and about as simple yet effective as you might expect from a Mario game. The one thing I was the most curious about is how Mario interacting with Rabbids would work. It worked VERY well. This has to be the funniest Rabbids game I've played, for one thing they really toned down the Rabbid's typical insanity, which I think was a smart call given that many people find Rabbids annoying. In this game the Rabbids are very funny without coming off as obnoxious or relying on forced humor and they never got old for me. I particularly loved how each Mario character reacted to their Rabbid counterparts, my favorite being when Mario Rabbid singing the Mario Bros. theme immediately after meeting the real Mario. Im not joking here, that actually happens. '''This is just one of those games that keeps a dumb smile on my face the entire time I'm playing it.

So yeah, I love the game's presentation, I liked the gameplay a lot, and I constantly laughed the whole time. If it wasn't obvious enough, this is an excellent game in my opinon, but there's another reason I liked it so much. Remember I mentioned the backstory of the game, how Soleani admires Miyamoto and Miyamoto personally gave him the chance to make a Mario game with the Rabbids on? And small trivia, Soleani actually cried a bit out of happiness when the game was officially revealed on E3 2017.

I mention this, because you can feel the passion Soleani had every second that you play this game. This is one of those games were you can easily tell that the developers genuinely gave a *BLEEP* about the game they were making and making a quality product was more important to them than pleasing investors. Nowadays, that's rare to see sadly, which is why I respect Mario + Rabbids so much more after knowing how it came to be. This game won several awards and is the best selling non-Nintendo game on the Switch honestly I think it deserves those accolades.

If you have a Nintendo Switch PLEASE get Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. Not just because it's a good game, but also because it's a game that was made by people that cared about what they were making.