Posted in: Games, Review, Video Games | Tagged: game review, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Mario Bros., nintendo, rabbids, ubisoft

The Weirdest Pairing That Works: A Quick Review Of 'Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle'

Published Wed, 04 Oct 2017 06:45:13 -0500

by Gavin Sheehan

Last updated Wed, 04 Oct 2017 11:45:29 -0500

Comments

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is a tactical adventure game from Ubisoft where, much like mixing chocolate and peanut butter, it's two good tastes that seem to go well together. The game makes absolutely no attempt to make a justified reason for them to be together beyond the cutscenes at the start, where our heroes from the Mushroom Kingdom team up with Nintendo-transformed Rabbids in an attempt to stop one specific Rabbid from destroying the meshed-up world they now inhabit.

If you've been hearing people compare the game to XCOMM, it is absolutely true. The game is essentially a playful version of XCOMM with a new skin attached. If you're having issues with Mario firing guns, get over it. He's not carrying a Desert Eagle, and the last time I checked, fireballs are a projectile even if they come from a flower. The game is beautiful to look at and having these familiar faces with energy weapons is a waste of a reason not to get it. The challenge behind the levels can be tiresome at times to try and get a perfect score, but the reward is worth it as you can make your characters more powerful.

As you progress you'll see that each person has a progressions tree where they can be upgraded with new weapons and abilities to make battles easier. The downside is that you'll find yourself getting stuck at times and need to go back to get more money on levels you already beat in order to buy new upgrades. It's a tedious task that doesn't help the flow of the game and turns it into tactical farming. That being said, as you move up and are able to change up your team, the game gets way fun for puzzle solving and combat scenarios.

There's a lot to love about Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, but it doesn't come without flaws. Even tactical game pros are going to have problems with this, and that's saying something for a game that's been made to look and feel like a cakewalk. It's going to be a challenge no matter what you do, so just enjoy yourself as best you can as you get to take some familiar characters down a new road.

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