It’s not often Nintendo lets Mario play with guns. But then again, collaborations like Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle are far and few between.
The fact that Mario + Rabbids even exists is still fascinating to me. It’s another marker of a turning point for Nintendo, which has branched out in all sorts of weird ways this year.
For instance, just look at the art for Splatoon 2. Or the ways Breath of the Wild shook up the Zelda formula.
And then you have … well, this.
I’m still a little surprised at how well Mario + Rabbids works. And I’m kind of surprised that Nintendo hasn’t branched out in this direction, because it fits so, so well. Simplified turn-based strategy is actually kind of a natural fit for Nintendo when you think of what they can do with all of their various characters.
Sure, the whole weapons aspect is still a bit weird. But it works, and there are so many paths Nintendo can go from here.
A couple of grating things is that high ground doesn’t confer as much of an advantage as it probably should. Half cover doesn’t make sense if you’re shooting at someone from above – they shouldn’t be able to hide, but then the difficulty would probably be completely ruined without it.
Games have to sacrifice in silly ways sometimes.
The only other main criticism is that I probably wouldn’t playthrough Mario + Rabbids a second time. It’s not the kind of game where getting every coin and collectible is that fun. The battles have been great, but running around the world shifting stuff around is a little too much busy work for my liking.
How have you found Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle so far?
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