A Spark of Genius.
When the original Mario + Rabbids was first revealed, many were curious if the bizarre crossover would work, especially as the game would be developed by Ubisoft and not that of Nintendo themselves. However, trusting Ubisoft Milan with the Mario license surprisingly paid off, as they delivered a fantastic X-Com-flavored adventure, filled with strategy, humor, and of course, guns. Mario + Rabbits: Sparks of Hope continues this curious mixture of Mario and Rabbids with an adventure that refines nearly all aspects of what came before, resulting in one extremely enjoyable adventure, even if the Switch often struggles to keep up.
Sparks of Hope is a direct sequel to Kingdom Battle, where the Rabbids from the previous adventure have found a home alongside the Mario cast. Everything is seemingly peaceful until a large looming presence overhead engulfs the castle in black gunk, kickstarting the core cast of characters to take to battle, guns at the ready, and surprisingly equipped with an interstellar spaceship and a new AI to aid in their journey.
While initially light on story, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is built on the origins of an evil force called Cursa, traversing the galaxy to track down Sparks, a hybrid of Mario Galaxy’s star-like Luma and Rabbids, a mixture not unlike what else this spin-off has delivered. These Sparks represent great power, but it’s not until the final mission that a lot of the game’s story is even revealed. While it certainly pays off to a certain extent, the almost non-existent build-up is simply lacking, resulting in my only real gripe with the execution of this adventure.
That’s not to say that the overall story leading up to any of that is bad by any means, but a lot of that heavy lifting is from unique moments on each planet featuring a wealth of its Rabbid cast in humorous situations. Each location has its own host of characters, wardens that act as your main point of contact as you encounter Cursa’s forces that are wreaking havoc all around you. You’ll travel around each planet aiding them where you can, diving into the black gunk that has infected these once colorful and spacious locales. These relatively dangerous spots serve as your entry point into battle, transporting you to a battlefield ripe for some strategy shenanigans.
While Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle took place largely around the Mushroom Kingdom, decorated with notable Mario iconography, Sparks of Hope reaches out to the deep reaches of space, on small planetoids that almost have a Mario Galaxy-like charm to them, each unique in their environment. While there is a golden path of progressing throughout each of these worlds, there are numerous side quests, secrets, and special locations to unlock, usually requiring a certain amount of Sparks to be collected or a special power to obtain first. This allows you to revisit previous locations to squeeze every last drop out of this 25-30 hour adventure.
Each location has a variety of puzzles used to navigate each space. From using a series of upgrades to Beep-O, you can reveal objects that are invisible, use that same power to find hidden bridges, or flash purple navigation markers to make paths appear through vines in the ground or move large blocks or reveal hidden walls. Each location can often come across as maze-like in some ways as you attempt to make sense of paths, platforms, and cannons to move you from place to place. While the core story has you moving through these locations in a somewhat linear nature, these little planetoids are fairly sizable open worlds that have a lot to take in and explore off the beaten path.
Apart from a modest visual upgrade, the most noticeable change in Sparks of Hope is the degree of mobility you have in not only running around freely as any number of characters but also during combat. In Kingdom Battle, you controlled Beep-O as he would guide your heroes around each environment. Combat saw you moving a cursor around and then your characters would dash in that direction. Here, you take control of them personally as they can now freely move around each environment as you would find in any traditional Mario game. While you do not have a straightforward jump button, it’s still a massive improvement here and one that should certainly return if this series continues.
Apart from Yoshi, Rabbid-Yoshi, and those of the Donkey Kong DLC, every character from Kingdom Battle returns with a few new additions in Bowser, Rabbid Rosalina, and newcomer Edge; the latter being an original Rabbid character who has mysterious ties to that of Cursa. These nine characters can be swapped at any point before battles and unlike Kingdom Battle, you are not locked into being forced to have Mario on the team. In fact, the game has countless side missions where you’ll be outfitted with a select grouping of certain characters such as Bowser and Luigi that have their own little battles. That said, having to constantly change my team back to my main loadout after each of these was a minor annoyance.
Filling out the roster is Mario himself, joined alongside other mainstays such as Princess Peach, Luigi, and Bowser. On the Rabbid end of the spectrum are Rabbid Peach, Rabbid Mario, Rabbid Luigi, Rabbid Rosalina, and Edge. While Rosalina has a presence here, she is sadly not playable, at least in the base game. With the addition of Rabbid voice lines, each of the cast has even more personality than before, with Rabbid Mario often making all sorts of jabs at dialogue that feels written for Mario, or the social media diva personality of Rabbid Peach who has some of the funniest lines in the game. While the inclusion of these Rabbid hybrids were fun and charming in Kingdom Battle, they feel far more fleshed out in ways that complement their shtick.
In Kingdom Battle, you outfitted your team with an array of weaponry, each sporting variable stat increases should you have the coinage to purchase them. While there is a variety of weapon skins this time around to alter the look of your weapon, it is the Sparks themselves where you’ll find a different level of customization available to you. Spread out across each planet are a small army of upgradable Sparks, each tailored to different elements and abilities. Some affect the elemental theme of your weapon, such as shooting shots that burn or freeze enemies, to those elements also affecting your dash attacks. There are even Sparks that summon creatures that act of their own accord, almost making them an additional party member. As you can mix and match Sparks, carrying a maximum of two, you can customize your party for the task at hand, giving you a wealth of creative liberties on what you can do.
Aiding you in how you outfit each character is a basic but rewarding skill tree. Spread out across Health, Movement, Weapon, and Technique, you can spend Skill Prisms that you earn to purchase a skill in each category. Some serve as a way to grant you more health or range for your weapon, but other skills are based more on opportunity, such as the jump shot skill that allows you to target and attack an opponent while gliding in the air, all while delivering bonus damage. While there is a fifth skill tree category, you’ll unlock this Spark-based upgrade upon completing special side quests, such as defeating a large gunk-covered Goomba. One aspect of filling out this skill tree system is that you can set it to automatically spend your Prisms for you, allowing anyone to simply let the strategy elements work in the background while they focus more on the gameplay elements.
Once you have your skills in order, and your Sparks equipped, battles work by achieving a set of goals set at the start of a battle. These range from defeating a set number of enemies to simply reaching a goal on the other side of the map. Depending on how you outfit your team, such as using boost items to increase Luigi’s movement range, you can sometimes wrap a match in a single turn or even unleashing a ton of gun power to destroy your foes in mere minutes. I really enjoyed the quick matches that were consistent, but short enough that I never felt like a round was taking forever.
Combat is handled with a few different systems at play. Each character has a movement stat that determines how far they can move on each turn. Now, you can use jump pads to extend that range, but you can also have a teammate give you a boost, causing that elevated character to use Beep-O to hover over to their destination. You certainly have to watch how far you can hover, which is illustrated by a meter atop the Roomba-like companion. By combining the jump pads and team jump mechanic, you can seriously get some range to flank enemies or progress quicker to your goal.
With moving freely around the battlefield, characters can dash into their foes, and should you have a Spark-infused dash attack active, this can cause some series damage. Across each zone, you’ll have platforms to hide behind, increasing your protection from enemy fire, but your opponents have that luxury as well, which can cause your shots to have a 50/50 chance of hitting. I would often set Mario up with his Hero Sight ability, which allows him to instantly shoot at a moving target and use another character to dash into another enemy, lifting them up into the air to trigger Mario’s special skill and absolutely melt them in the process. Part of where this game excels is seeing the combinations of attacks, skills, and elemental warfare all working together to often set off chain reactions of enemies being set on fire, seeing them run around and then set off explosions that further flow into the chaos that all started with a single shot.
Throughout your journey, you’ll accrue coins that can be spent to heal your party outside of battle, which is a weird choice but one that I chalk up to how you pay your medical bills in the Mushroom Kingdom. Taking damage in one battle will persist to the next, and while you can set the game to allow for some healing after a fight, or even through an accessibility setting to turn off damage altogether, you’ll need to purchase a series of healing items to aid during combat or ensure that Rabbid Peach is in your party, offering out some heals. Other items you can use are POW blocks that cause some decent damage to a wide area, reset cooldowns or movement limits, or gain an extra dash or two. Each planet will have a vendor that will sell you these items as well as additional weapon skins and other items, with the latter pair using a special currency that you earn on each individual planet.
Across each planet is a decent variety of enemy types, ranging from small but nimble foes with sizable movement range or large hulking foes that might be slow but certainly pack a punch. There is certainly a large reuse of enemies from planet to planet, but given this is Cursa’s forces, having set enemy troops certainly makes sense, even if the small variations between some types are largely minimal. The game also plays host to the Spark Hunters, a small group of Cursa’s most elite soldiers that are certainly entertaining, but I really wish would have been used more in subsequent battles as their one-and-done approach was a tad disappointing.
Out of all the boss-like encounters, I think my favorite was a fight with an enraged Wiggler that is racing alongside a train that you are currently on. This battle has them shifting their alignment alongside the train with a series of destructible targets that are growing on the side of the Wiggler. This battle forces you to be smart about where you place your troops as well as how you go about destroying the targets on the Wiggler but also dealing with the enemies that are all around you. There are a few additional bosses that are much harder to track down, but these are largely how you’ll spend most of your endgame.
While Sparks of Hope is a gorgeous experience, all dressed up in the same charm and personality of any Mario adventure, there are a few rough spots that do stand out. Some locations caused the game to significantly stutter and while the game was more than playable, it’s pretty rare to see a Mario title, regardless of who developed it, to have this sort of performance drop. I also am not a fan of the loading screens to simply access the menu, especially as I often would hit the wrong button to exit out of a menu and then have to load back in. These loads are small, sure, but man do they add up.
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is the type of sequel you want. It elevates what came before, refines nearly every system, and feels fresh and unique and yet just familiar enough that it’s not a whole new experience. The freeform movement is revolutionary here, despite being such a simple changeover that your brain tries to tell you that it always was this way. The added voice lines for the Rabbid cast bring an added level of personality and charm that work extremely well alongside the colorful and bold new locations, filled to the brim with secrets, puzzles, and more. Sparks of Hope is not only one of the best Ubisoft games in years, but also one of the best Mario games pretty much ever made, and that is a feat well-earned.
Developer - Ubisoft Milan, Ubisoft Paris. Publisher - Ubisoft. Released - October 20th, 2022. Available On - Nintendo Switch. Rated - (E 10+) Cartoon Violence. Platform Reviewed - Nintendo Switch OLED Docked/Portable. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.