Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is a turn-based tactical role-playing video game developed and published by Ubisoft for the Nintendo Switch. The game is a crossover of Nintendo's Mario and Ubisoft's Raving Rabbids franchises, and features both single and cooperative gameplay. The game's story sees players controlling Mario, his friends and a group of Rabbids dressed as them, dealing with the aftermath of a sudden invasion by a group of Rabbids, who have accidentally misused a powerful invention that has brought chaos to the Mushroom Kingdom.

The game, developed by Ubisoft's Paris and Milan studio divisions, was conceived in 2014 by Davide Soliani, creative director of the Italian studio, who presented the prototype to Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto. It was released in Europe and North America in August 2017, while Nintendo published the game in East Asian countries in January 2018. It was met with generally favorable reception from critics, who praised its gameplay, depth, and graphics. By September 2018, the game had sold over two million copies.

Gameplay

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Mario attacking an enemy Rabbid from behind cover

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is a tactical strategy game in which Mario teams up with his friends; Luigi, Princess Peach, and Yoshi, along with four Rabbids dressed up like them, to battle against enemy Rabbids that hinder their progress. The main single-player campaign has players control a robot named Beep-O and lead a team of three heroes, including Mario, through four worlds split into multiple chapters, each composed of one or more battles. Along the way, the player can find alternate paths and solve puzzles on the game's overworld to locate hidden chests containing new weapons or bonus material such as 3D models and concept art. As the player progresses through the game, Beep-O can learn new abilities such as pushing blocks and carrying statues to access previously inaccessible areas.

Battles take place when the player reaches an enemy-inhabited territory. While most battles typically require the player to eliminate all or a certain number of enemies, some missions feature other objectives such as reaching a specific area or escorting another character. In these turn-based battles, control alternates between the player's team of three heroes and the enemy team. During each turn, players can perform up to three actions with each of their available heroes; Movement, Attack, and Ability. In the movement phase, players move a cursor to direct a character to a place on the field within their movement range. Characters can dash into enemies to deal extra damage, enter white pipes to reach other parts of the map, and leap off of each other to reach otherwise inaccessible areas. Each hero can attack with their main weapon, which range from simple blasters to wide-spreading shotguns, or secondary weapons such as melee weapons or grenades. Certain weapons may trigger status effects, such as dealing extra damage with Bounce or Fire damage or inhibiting certain actions with Freeze or Honey attacks. The effectiveness of an attack varies depending on whether the target is shielded by the environment (for example, characters hiding behind a half-sized wall have a 50% chance of getting hit). Finally, Abilities are unique support effects, ranging from barriers that can lessen damage to overwatch attacks that can be triggered outside of an Attack command. Certain weapons and abilities have cooldowns, requiring players to wait a certain number of turns before they can be used again. Additionally, certain characters possess passive abilities that are unique to them. For example, Peach can recover health upon landing from a team jump while Rabbid Luigi can absorb health from dashing into opponents.

Players lose a battle when all of their heroes run out of health and are knocked out, or fail a level-specific objective. When the player clears a chapter, they 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. Coins can be spent on new weapons for each character, with more options becoming available as the player finds Weapon Chests. Skill Orbs can be used on each character's Skill Tree, granting them new unique abilities or increases to stats such as health and movement range. After clearing a world, players can revisit them to take on additional challenge-based missions. Players can also unlock co-operative challenges, in which two players, each with a team of two heroes, must work together to clear objectives. Additional weapons can be unlocked by scanning compatible Amiibo figures.

Plot

In a certain world, a young inventor and avid Super Mario fan, with the help of her robot assistant Beep-O, has invented a device known as the SupaMerge helmet, which can merge any two objects into a single entity. She invented it with the intention to solve an energy crisis, but the device has a problem with overheating.

While the inventor is out of the room, a group of Rabbids arrive in their Time Washing Machine and begin playing with her things, annoying Beep-O. One of them puts on the SupaMerge helmet and starts causing chaos, merging some of the Rabbids with several items in the room: one with a cell phone and a Princess Peach wig into Rabbid Peach, a second with a balloon into a Rabbid balloon, a third with a Mario hat into Rabbid Mario, and a fourth with some sunglasses and a toy sunflower into a living sunflower. While having fun with the helmet, it accidentally hits the Time Washing Machine and causes a malfunction, sucking the Rabbids and Beep-O into an interdimensional vortex. At that time, another vortex appears above the Mushroom Kingdom during the unveiling of a large statue of Princess Peach and sucks up everyone, including Mario and his friends. As both Mario's friends and the Rabbids are thrown across the Mushroom Kingdom, Beep-O discovers that the SupaMerge helmet has merged itself with the Rabbid wearing it, who starts causing more chaos by merging more things. While most of the merged Rabbids become hostile, Mario and Beep-O encounter two good Rabbids: Rabbid Luigi and Rabbid Peach. Aided by a mysterious e-mail contact known only as F.B. (who also provides them with weapons to help them), the four decide to team up to put a stop to the chaos.

As Mario's team travels across the Mushroom Kingdom, defeating the corrupted Rabbids while also encountering allies both old and Rabbid (consisting of Princess Peach, Luigi, Rabbid Mario, Yoshi, and Rabbid Yoshi), Bowser Jr. comes across the SupaMerged Rabbid, which he nicknames Spawny, and takes him under his wing to cause more chaos. Resolving to recover Spawny so they can undo the damage he has caused, the team eventually learn that an entity known as the Megabug is behind the mysterious vortex, which grows more powerful as they defeat more corrupted Rabbids. The gang recover Spawny from Bowser Jr., only for him to get kidnapped by the Megabug, who then merges itself with Bowser to become MegaDragonBowser. Mario's team defeats the Megabug, saving both Bowser and Spawny. As peace returns to the Mushroom Kingdom and all the Rabbids are restored to normal, Beep-O comes to the realization that F.B. is actually his future self (F.B. stands for Future Beep-O) and uses the Time Washing Machine to help his past comrades by sending the same emails and weapons that his future self sent to him to his past self.

Donkey Kong Adventure

When Rabbid Kong damages the Time Washing Machine, Rabbid Peach and Beep-O are inadvertently transported to another dimension. They crash land on a tropical island, destroying the washer. To get back to the Mushroom Kingdom, the two must find the machine's missing parts and reassemble it. After being attacked by the native islanders they are saved by Donkey Kong and Rabbid Cranky, who were also transported by the washer and agree to help. Rabbid Kong, who was also sent to the island, gains power from a banana charged with Megabug energy, becoming Mega Rabbid Kong. Seeking revenge against Rabbid Peach for his previous defeat, he starts a banana racketeering operation on the island and takes one of the missing parts. After infiltrating his temple, the trio defeat Mega Rabbid Kong in a final duel, draining his powers. Rabbid Peach and Rabbid Kong make amends, and Rabbid Kong helps them rebuild the Washer, sending Rabbid Peach and Beep-O back to the Mushroom Kingdom. In a post-credits scene, the inventor from the prologue returns and discovers Rabbid Peach's photos of the island.

Development

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The game's score was written by Grant Kirkhope, a British composer formerly of Rare.

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was developed by Ubisoft Paris and Ubisoft Milan using Ubisoft's proprietary Snowdrop game engine. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto was impressed by the prototype of a Mario and Rabbids crossover game that was presented to him by Ubisoft Milan's creative director Davide Soliani in 2014. That prototype was created in less than a month. Miyamoto felt the concept was easy to understand and that it was refreshing to see Mario placed in a genre of game that he had not anticipated. Development of the game was led under Soliani once their pitch was approved by Nintendo.

The Ubisoft development team traveled to Nintendo's headquarters in Kyoto on several occasions to ensure their understanding of the Mario universe was solid and that their new take on genre had not been covered that much before. Art director Mauro Perini noted that it was important to capture the atmosphere of Nintendo games, however they also wanted to combine the crazier elements of the Rabbids universe with existing components of Mario. Lead producer Xavier Manzanares wanted the game to offer a deep and content-filled experience that was structured so that the game could be played in short sessions. They felt this format was ideal for the Nintendo Switch system which is capable of being a handheld and a home console. Ubisoft enlisted British video game composer Grant Kirkhope to compose the score for the game, best known for composing the soundtracks of Rareware games Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64, among others.

Release

Information on a cross-over between the Mario and Raving Rabbids franchises was leaked as early as November 2016, although the title Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was first leaked in May 2017, prior to its official announcement during Ubisoft's press conference at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017. The game was released in North America and PAL territories for the Nintendo Switch on 29 August 2017. It was later released in Japan and other East Asian territories on 18 January 2018, courtesy of Nintendo. A collector's edition was also released, which came with a soundtrack CD, cards, and a Rabbid Mario figurine. Ubisoft released post-launch downloadable content through a season pass, which includes new weapons, solo challenges, cooperative maps, and story-based content. On 26 June 2018, an expansion known as Donkey Kong Adventure was released. It includes a new story featuring Rabbid Peach and Beep-O teaming up with Donkey Kong and Rabbid Cranky to defeat Rabbid Kong, one of the bosses in the main game.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic 85/100 Review scores Publication Score Destructoid 7.5/10 EGM 8.5/10 Eurogamer Recommended Game Informer 8.5/10 GameSpot 9/10 GamesRadar IGN 7.7/10 Nintendo Life Nintendo World Report 9/10 Polygon 8/10

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Many critics favorably compared the gameplay to XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

It debuted at number two on the UK physical video game sales charts. It was the best-selling physical video game in Australia in the week ending 3 September. It sold 66,692 copies within its first week on sale in Japan, which placed it at number one on the all format sales chart.

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is the best-selling game on the Switch to have not been published by Nintendo. By September 2018, the game had sold over two million copies worldwide.

Eurogamer ranked the game fifth on their list of the "Top 50 Games of 2017"; GamesRadar+ ranked it 13th on their list of the 25 best games of 2017; EGMNow ranked it 14th on their list of the 25 Best Games of 2017; Polygon ranked it 33rd on their list of the 50 best games of 2017. The game won the award for "Best Strategy Game" in IGN's Best of 2017 Awards, whereas its other nominations were for "Best Switch Game" and "Best Original Music".

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Result	Ref.
2017	Game Critics Awards	Best of Show	Nominated
		Best Original Game	Won
		Best Console Game	Nominated
		Best Strategy Game	Won
	Gamescom	Best Console Game (Nintendo Switch)	Nominated
		Best Strategy Game	Won
		Best Casual Game	Nominated
	Golden Joystick Awards	Nintendo Game of the Year	Nominated
	Ping Awards	Best Console Game	Won
		Grand Prize	Won
	The Game Awards 2017	Best Family Game	Nominated
		Best Strategy Game	Won
	Titanium Awards	Best Game Design	Nominated
		Best Family/Social Game	Won
2018	D.I.C.E. Awards	Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year	Won
	NAVGTR Awards	Game, Strategy	Nominated
		Original Light Mix Score, Franchise	Nominated
	Italian Video Game Awards	Game of the Year	Nominated
		Best Game Design	Nominated
		Best Family Game	Won
		Best Italian Game	Won
	14th British Academy Games Awards	Family	Nominated
	Develop Awards	Animation	Won
		Visual Design	Won