Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

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About

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is a crossover video game starring characters from Nintendo's Super Mario franchise and Ubisoft's Raving Rabbids franchise. It is a turn-based tactical role-playing game developed by Ubisoft and released exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.

History

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was first presented to Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto in December of 2014.^[1] Miyamoto reportedly liked the concept of seeing Mario in an unfamiliar setting. It was developed by Ubisoft's Milan and Paris teams, who wanted to blend a Nintendo-like experience with the more ridiculous elements of the Raving Rabbids universe. Rumors of the game leaked as early as November of 2016.^[2] The title was confirmed in May of 2017,^[3] and the game was officially announced with a trailer (shown below) at E3 2017.

Gameplay and Plot

The game features turn-based combat. It features eight characters: Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Yoshi and four Rabbids dressed as the Nintendo characters. The characters wield guns and square off in various maps. In the game's story, a young girl scientist accidentally creates the hybrid Rabbids via a SuperMerge helmet. The hybrid Rabbids invade the Mushroom Kingdom and one is kidnapped by Bowser Jr., leading the Mario characters to go searching for the captured Rabbid.

Release and Reception

The game was released on August 29th, 2017 to positive reviews. As of the 29th, the game has a score of 85 on Metacritic.^[4] Kotaku^[5] writer Patricia Hernandez said the game "is a turn-based tactics game similar to, say, Fire Emblem or Advance Wars, except unlike most games in the genre, Mario + Rabbids combines humor with hardcore strategy." The site also praised the games visual design, saying "the characters’ animations oozed so much personality that, dozens of hours in, I still stopped to appreciate them." The Verge^[6] noted that Luigi's Death Stare had been included in the game as an attack. They also wrote the game had "some genuinely funny writing," and "plenty of visual gags."