Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope hands-on preview: Tactical mayhem with some tricks up its sleeve

Now the Rabbids are out of the hat, how can the sequel continue to surprise?

Rabbid Peach makes a return (iStock/The Independent)

When Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was first announced at video-game trade event E3 in 2017, it caught plenty of Nintendo fans off guard. Even more so when it was revealed the game would be a turn-based tactical action affair. Now with Sparks of Hope following up with the same titular residents of the Mushroom Kingdom alongside Ubisoft’s own Rabbid creations.

Speaking to Sparks of Hope creative director Davide Soliani, we asked how Ubisoft’s latest game in the series can continue to surprise its fans now the Rabbids are out of the hat. “One of the ideas we had straight at the beginning was to give the feeling of freedom in the combat system most of all, which extended to the exploration phase. Already, when we started on Kingdom Battle, the deal of doing a game between Rabbids and Mario was quite surprising and then doing the combat with tactical elements was even more surprising.”

Kingdom Battle laid out each of its levels in a grid-based arena, with each playable character able to move around, much like on a chessboard. In Sparks of Hope, a different approach to combat was taken, with characters able to navigate each stage with direct control and more real-time elements to contrast with the genre’s emphasis on strategic unit placement. According to Soliani, these design choices are at the heart of the sequel, while still trying to retain its roots.

“We really worked on ‘what is the next step of freedom?’, to expand the boundaries of the tactical genre. It’s not easy – we tried many different scenarios. At some point, it felt like we weren’t offering something new, it felt exactly as before but just a bit better and that’s not what we want, and then we exaggerated other elements.”

But while development on Sparks of Hope wasn’t afraid to throw everything it had at the wall, working with Nintendo’s vast toybox of characters still required a deft hand and bringing in more Rabbid variations.

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“When we did Kingdom Battle, Rabbid Peach was one of the most beloved characters of that game. That alone was quite scary to say ‘OK, we want to create a new character but who can be on the stage side-by-side with Rabbid Peach and not have the spotlight being stolen from them?’

“We needed to come up with something not similar to Rabbid Peach and at the same time that could be so charismatic to be on par with her, and we came up with Rabbid Rosalina, who we think is on the other end of the spectrum of traits.”

One of the biggest surprises to come out of the game’s announcement was Ubisoft’s own Rayman returning to the Rabbids franchise for the first time since 2008, in an upcoming DLC.

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“I think it’s a great opportunity and a very nice way to close the circle, because the Rabbids are born from the Rayman games and now Rayman is in a Rabbids game. So I think it’s going to be fun and quite demanding for us.”

‘Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope’: £49.99, Nintendo.co.uk

(Nintendo)

• Release date: 20 October 2022
• Platforms: Nintendo Switch
• Age rating: 7+

Hands-on preview

In its opening moments, Sparks of Hope is eager to showcase its most fundamental changes, with the returning cast playable from close to the get go. In Kingdom Battle, team composition demanded that Mario and at least one of the Rabbid variants be present within three available slots, which Sparks of Hope has gratefully decided to forgo. Not only does this give players more chance to experiment with some of their favourites, each character not placed in the party still gains experience, so at no point did any of them feel left behind.

In terms of movement, each character is able to freely run around a set area from their startpoint, clearly marked by a radius outlined on the floor. Within this space, each character can perform two actions: the first is to use an ability or item and the other is to attack. Once an attack has been made, characters are unable to move afterwards, so it’s important to plan each encounter ahead, before committing to the offensive.

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But while character movement is limited in range, team jumps have made a return, which enables adjacent characters to throw characters into the air and glide even further. As these glides are made using direct controls, it adds a layer of platforming into Sparks’ more-freeing movement and also makes unit placement more meaningful when trying to cover as much ground as possible.

Mario and friends are able to freely explore areas as before, but rather than having battle arenas baked into the existing level design, characters are transported to different stages for different encounters.

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Encountering enemies in the overworld can also trigger levels with a different range of objectives – most commonly defeating all opponents or reaching a specified area with one character. While it means each fight isn’t heavily scripted into the game, there’s a sense of possibility with what each character loadout can bring.

At the beginning of each of these stages, players can also choose which fighters they want to send into the fray, rather than ending up in a crossfire with the party they happened to have equipped at the time. Each character possesses their own unique abilities as well, such as healing, movement boosts and damage multipliers, but the game’s titular Sparks (an amalgamation of Rabbids and Lumens from Super Mario Galaxy) also add an extra layer of combat into the mix.

As Mario and friends collect each one, they can be assigned to different characters for different abilities. Red Sparks can cause fire damage, for example, scattering enemies around the battlefield as they try to extinguish themselves. Once activated, each Spark ability is guaranteed to have an effect, removing a randomisation component from the core gameplay and optimising the attacks of each character, by effectively exposing enemy weaknesses.

With Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope releasing on 20 October 2022, fans of Kingdom Battle will have plenty of returning features to look forward to. There’s enough meaningful changes to entice Super Mario fans that fall outside the tactical genre, while also staying true to its core appeal.

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