Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is a role-playing crossover title between the Mario franchise and Ubisoft's Raving Rabbids titles released for the Nintendo Switch, as well as being the first and only turn-based tactics game in the Mario franchise. Ubisoft released the game in North America, Europe, Oceania, and Hong Kong on August 29, 2017, and is set to be released in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan on January 18, 2018, published by Nintendo themselves.

Story
The Rabbids end up with their Time Washing Machine in the laboratory of a Mario fan who is perfecting, along with her robot assistant Beep-0, a visor able to fuse two objects into one, called the SupaMerge. One Rabbid finds said visor and uses it to create Rabbid Peach, Rabbid Mario, and other Rabbids fused with objects. It also causes the Time Washing Machine to malfunction, sending Beep-0 and the Rabbids to the Mushroom Kingdom.

Meanwhile, Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Toadette (who is seen among an audience of Toads), Toad, and Princess Peach are inaugurating a new Princess Peach statue. Suddenly, a vortex is formed and sucks Mario and the others in.

In midair over the Ancient Gardens, Beep-0 gains rabbit ears and the outline of two rabbit's teeth on the front. The Rabbid with the SupaMerge fuses with the headset, causing it to be stuck to him. Mario later saves Beep-0 from being crushed by the Time Washing Machine. Upon landing, they soon encounter Rabbid Peach and Rabbid Luigi, who join Mario's team and help them fight off various Ziggies, thanks to weapons attached to a message sent by a mysterious F.B.. As they travel, they get a glimpse of the vortex, later referred to as the Megabug.

Soon after, they meet Luigi and the Rabbid with the SupaMerge headset. They are both scared by a Piranha Plant with which a white Rabbid is playing. Due to the fear, the SupaMerge Rabbid ends up fusing the white Rabbid with the Piranha Plant, creating the Pirabbid Plant. Mario's team successfully defeats the Plant and restore both the Piranha Plant and the white Rabbid to their original selves. Seeing this, Luigi joins their team. Meanwhile, Beep-0 notices that the Megabug has grown in size.

Bowser Jr. has observed what happened with the Pirabbid Plant and, when Mario's team meet the Rabbid with the headset and scares him, takes the chance to befriend him, naming him Spawny. With the intent of using Spawny's powers to take over the Mushroom Kingdom while his father is on vacation, Junior flies away with him on his Junior Clown Car, while Mario's team must face Rabbid Kong. They defeat Rabbid Kong, causing it to fall off of the platform they are standing on.

Mario's team then venture to Sherbet Desert, where thanks to a message from F.B. they discover that the Megabug is growing with every enemy Rabbid defeated. They also find Rabbid Mario frozen in an ice cube. They take him with them, and place the cube in a door in the hopes of freeing him. Said door opens, and they soon encounter Bowser Jr. with Spawny again. Bowser Jr. has Spawny look at Mario's team, which agitates the Rabbid, activating the SupaMerge's powers. Just before it activates, Bowser Jr. turns Spawny away, causing him to create Blizzy and Sandy, who proceed to attack Mario's team. Mario's team defeat both of them and save Rabbid Mario, who joins them. At the end of the desert, Mario's team face off against the Icicle Golem, who freezes them. However, Princess Peach appears and saves them, joining Mario's team in their fight against the monster. They eventually prevail.

Mario's team then go to Spooky Trails. They are directed to find two Relics of Goodness, a gramophone and a Boo-shaped balloon, under the instruction of a mysterious third party who wants them to wake up a being named "Tom Phan" who they claim has the power to defeat Bowser Jr.. After finding the relics, they discover through a message from the mysterious helper that they need a full moon. While finding a way to bring the full moon back, they come across Calavera, who is holding Rabbid Yoshi hostage. Mario's team defeat Calavera and are subsequently joined by Rabbid Yoshi. They then find a clock tower, by manipulating the clock they manage to get the full moon back and they get an invite to cross the now opened Moon Gate from the helper. They later find out that it is actually Bowser Jr. himself, who confronts them in a theater. Bowser Jr. scares Spawny, causing him to fuse a Rabbid with the Relics of Goodness to create the Phantom. The Phantom sings a pre-battle song and is eventually defeated.

Later, they go to the Lava Pit, a volcano which has been transformed into a factory by Bowser Jr.. Here, they battle Junior in his Mecha Jr.. After this battle, Spawny seemingly falls to his doom as Bowser Jr. escapes. However, he is saved by Yoshi, who subsequently joins Mario's team. It is only after this battle that Spawny seems regretful for all the trouble he has caused. After returning Spawny to safety, Mario's team attempt to leave via a crystal mine. However, Spawny is attracted to the Megabug which has grown strong enough to obtain a physical, phoenix-like form. The Megabug absorbs Spawny before heading in the direction of Bowser's Castle. Bowser Jr. returns to tell off Mario's team for allowing Spawny to get kidnapped and the Megabug to escape, noting that at least his father is still away. However, he gets a text message from his father who has decided to return home early. Realizing that his father is in danger, Bowser Jr. flies off to Bowser's Castle while Mario's team chases after. On the way, they encounter two villainous Rabbids resembling Wario and Waluigi, named Bwario and Bwaluigi respectively. They are defeated by Mario's group. Upon their arrival to Bowser's Castle, Bowser Jr. requests them to help Bowser return to his normal self, as he is barely conscious and near the Megabug. The latter fuses with Bowser, creating MegaDragonBowser. In this form, Bowser is defeated, freeing the Megabug that tries to attack Mario's team. Said team attacks the Megabug, destroying it and seemingly closing the rift while also freeing Spawny. Bowser Jr. takes Spawny back to the team and thanks them for what they have done, while also promising to be somewhat better. Fearing being chastised by his father, he tries to convince them to speak to Bowser on his behalf, but Mario's team return to Princess Peach's Castle to tell that the threat is no more, while also inaugurating a new statue of Rabbid Peach. Rabbid Peach then takes a selfie with the group. After this, Beep-0 sends a letter to his past self with weapons through the Time Washing Machine, revealing that F.B. is actually Future Beep-0.

Gameplay
The game is estimated to be composed of 35% exploration elements and 65% turn-based combat. There is also multiplayer, local co-op mode. The combat is weapon-based, with the weapons resembling guns.

The exploration aspect of the game is controlled by Beep-0, a new character. There are seven enemy archetypes, and one mid-boss and boss per world and four world environments.

Main Heroes
The player may use a total of three characters on a team, with Mario and at least one Rabbid always required. These restrictions were made for balancing, as the development team felt some combination of characters were too powerful.

Each character uses two weapons: a primary weapon that can be used every turn and a secondary weapon that requires cooling down in-between turns, as well as two Techniques. One of the techniques is either a line-of-sight technique that allows the user to fire at targets while they move for the Mario characters or a shield with different properties for the Rabbids. The other technique gives a unique effect exclusive to each of the eight characters.

Secondary Heroes
These characters are playable in escort levels. They cannot attack enemies.

Other characters

 * Beep-0
 * Boos
 * Bloopers
 * Banzai Bill
 * Bowser
 * Goombas
 * Madame Bwahstrella
 * Rabbids
 * Rabbid Challengers
 * Sunflower

Items and objects

 * Blue Coins
 * Brick Blocks
 * Coins
 * Giant Brick Blocks
 * Red Coins
 * Red Rings
 * Warp Pipes with Rabbid ears and teeth which function similarly to Clear Pipes.

Weapons
There are various weapons in the game, organized in nine categories: Blaster, Melee, Precision, Sentry, Rumblebang, Rocket, Boomshot, Grenaduck and Bworb. Each character can equip both a primary and secondary weapon, both of which pertain to specific classes.

amiibo compatibility
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is compatible with amiibo. The ability to scan amiibo in-game is unlocked after World 1-5, Brother, Where Art Thou?, is completed. The compatible amiibo are the characters Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Yoshi, and they each unlock a weapon for these characters and their Rabbid deriratives (i.e. Mario amiibo unlock weapons for Mario and Rabbid Mario, etc.).

Pixel Pack
A "pixel pack" of eight primary weapons is available via download code for those who preordered Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. Otherwise, it can be downloaded as paid add-on content via Nintendo eShop. The weapons included are as follows:
 * The Fragmenter for Mario
 * ASCII Eradicator for Rabbid Luigi
 * Retro Deflator for Rabbid Peach
 * Boom Broom for Luigi
 * Cartridge Commander for Rabbid Mario
 * Bait N' Switch Bruiser for Peach
 * Raster Blaster for Rabbid Yoshi
 * Hostile Voxel for Yoshi

Season Pass
A season pass of paid add-on content has been announced for Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. The content is set to be released in three packs, which contain the following:


 * Pack 1 (available at launch): A set of eight "steampunk"-themed secondary weapons with unique statistics. They are as follows:
 * Cranial Abogator for Mario
 * Effectual Atomizer for Rabbid Luigi
 * Calamitous Coupe for Rabbid Peach
 * Jeopardous Jalopy for Luigi
 * Baleful Bad-Ender for Rabbid Mario
 * Defalcating Dandy for Peach
 * Exalted Entropic Eggs for Rabbid Yoshi
 * Direly Dulcet Doomsayer for Yoshi
 * Pack 2 (released on October 17, 2017 ): Additional solo and co-op challenge levels.
 * Pack 3 (releases January 16, 2018 ): A story expansion.

Versus


Added through an update released on December 8th, 2017, Versus allows two players to pit their team of characters against each other. Players pick a team of three characters and assign them weapons. Each player is limited to three actions per turn, which are split between the three characters (for example, all three characters can perform one action or one character can perform three actions). The characters players can choose from are not based on those used in the main campaign.

Development


After the Japanese release of  in 2011, Nintendo and Ubisoft began experimenting a concept featuring a "new genre" with Mario and the Rabbids, in part due to the over 20 year relationship between the companies. According to producer Xavier Manzanare, Ubisoft's Rabbids developers were not going to make another Rabbids party game due to poor sales of later entries and "internal fatigue", but felt that the Rabbids character could bring something unique to other genres of games. Creative Director Davide Soliani and the development team (being "tactical fans") proposed creating a turn-based game, but wanted to "stay true to the Mario universe" and developed it with "tactical combat phases with adventure phases" while creating the enemies and tone. Three weeks after an internal pitch meeting, the development team created a playable prototype, featuring Mario and Luigi recreated from scratch in order to "bring the essence of those two characters", and presented it to Nintendo and Shigeru Miyamoto in Kyoto, Japan. Miyamoto was reportedly impressed, telling the development team he wanted a type of Mario game that was never done before and challenged them to make a Mario game with no jumping.

Although pre-release impressions most often compared Mario + Rabbids to the long-running ' series of turn-based tactics games (and indeed, X-Coms creator had been invited to work on the game ), Davide Soliani cited Mario Kart'' as a key inspiration for the design of the game, stating the goal was to make a turn-based tactics game that was not only quick and accessible, but also spectator friendly. Handling the crossover aspect was a challenge: Soliani stated that early on, the team was conscious about "having a balance" between the Mario and Rabbids universes, but were encouraged by Nintendo to "not worry about it" and Miyamoto, who said "Show me your colors. Show me your Rabbids' humor even more. Show me how crazy you can be". The developers were also apprehensive about the idea of featuring guns as the primary weapon in a Mario game, but Nintendo approved it the first time it was presented. Soliani characterized Nintendo as open-minded, stating "Every time you are proposing something crazy to Nintendo, they are quite open-minded. But you need a good justification and a good logic to create something in the Mario universe.

The game was officially announced at E3 2017 during Ubisoft's press conference, although images of it were leaked prior. The "leak" caused grief to the development team due to the largely negative reaction, although their fears were assuaged after the game's E3 unveiling was met with a positive response. Upon release, the game garnered positive reception (detailed below).

Early ideas
Davide Soliani mentioned a few scrapped ideas during an Ask Me Anything session set on 's Nintendo subreddit.


 * A Rabbid Whomp character.
 * A mechanic called "Fumble", described as "Some weapons were supposed to be truly powerful, but with a high risk of exploding".
 * A parody of the  transformation sequence starring Rabbid Peach. The animation had previously been posted on Soliani's account.

Eyeless Goomba
Goombas that are stuck in honey are rendered eyeless if the camera is positioned so that they appear near the side of the screen.

Critical reception
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle has received generally positive reviews from professional critics. It received a score of 8 out of 10 from Russ Frushtick of Polygon. He said that the game "offer[s] up a legitimately challenging squad tactics experience without alienating the family-friendly Mario audience", but also stated that "it doesn’t quite have the full layer of spit and polish of a [Nintendo developed] title". Dan Stapleton of IGN gave the game a 7.7 out of 10 (a "Good" rating). He praised the game's difficulty, animation, and "enemy variety", but criticized the rewards for completing puzzles and "the progression system". The game currently averages 85% on Metacritic based on 91 reviews.

The game has been credited by Ubisoft Milan staff as a "game changer" for the studio as, following the game's critical and commercial success, the studio started receiving ten times more job applications than it had at any point of its history.

Sales
As of September 21 2017, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is the best-selling third party game on the Nintendo Switch, and was noted to have outsold at least one first-party game, although no specific numbers were disclosed. According to data, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was the 7th best-selling individual game for September 2017.

Awards and acknowledgements
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle won the "Best Strategy Game" award at The Game Awards 2017. Other nominees were XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, Tooth and Tail, Total War: Warhammer II, and Halo Wars 2. It was also nominated for the "Best Family Game" award, alongside Splatoon 2, Sonic Mania, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Super Mario Odyssey.

References to other games

 * Donkey Kong: The Phantom mentions this game in his song.
 * Super Mario Bros.: The wallpaper in the laboratory in the introductory cutscene is a scene from this game. When clearing all battles in a level, a remix of the Goal Pole fanfare plays. The Phantom says "your princess is in another castle" in his song, which is derived from a quote from this game. Rabbid Mario's The Splatformer weapon has a design based on a scene from this game. Also, the description for said weapon mentions the Minus World.
 * Super Mario Bros. 3: When the Rabbids' Time Washing Machine malfunctions in the introductory cutscene, sprites of Super Mushrooms, ? Blocks, and Mario taken from this game can be seen on the number displays.
 * Super Mario Land: In bonus levels, the Blue Coins make the same sounds as the coins in this game when collected.
 * Donkey Kong Country series: DK Barrels can be seen floating in the ocean as part of the background of World 1-7. The sound effect that plays when a banana bunch is collected in the original Donkey Kong Country can be heard as several bananas fall in front of Rabbid Kong at the beginning of his battle.
 * Mario Kart series: During the Phantom's song he makes a mention toward this series about Mario doing well until he gets hit by a Spiny Shell.
 * Yoshi's Island series: Beep-0 asks Yoshi if it is true that the latter has his own island.
 * Super Mario 64: The music that plays in the hub world is a rearrangement of the Peach's Castle theme from this game. Also, several of Mario's voice clips from this game are reused.
 * Donkey Kong 64: Rabbid Kong's battle theme is a rearrangement of the Jungle Japes music from this game.
 * Luigi's Mansion: Luigi's primary weapons are all shaped like vacuum cleaners as a reference to the Poltergust 3000. Also, several of Luigi's voice clips from this game are reused.
 * New Super Mario Bros.: A poster featuring artwork from this game appears in the introductory cutscene.
 * Super Mario Galaxy: A tube of honey with a Bee Mushroom design on it appears in World 1-1 and near Peach's castle. A weapon called the "Matter Splatter" shares its name and color scheme with a galaxy from this game. The voice clip of Peach calling for Mario from this game is reused.
 * Super Mario Galaxy 2: A weapon modeled after Gobblegut appears.
 * Mario Party series: The jingle that is heard after activating a switch was previously used in Mario Party 9 and Mario Party 10 for landing on a Bowser Jr. Space. Some of Luigi's animations from Mario Party 10 are reused. A poster featuring artwork from Mario Party: Star Rush appears in the introductory cutscene.
 * Skylanders: SuperChargers: Rabbid Peach's weapon, the Barrel Blaster, has the same name as Donkey Kong's vehicle from this game.

Trivia

 * Possibly by coincidence, all main heroes (with the exceptions of Mario, Rabbid Peach, and Rabbid Luigi, who are available from the start of the game) are unlocked in boss or midboss levels present in the main game.
 * Luigi is unlocked after the Pirabbid Plant is defeated in Brother, Where Art Thou?, Rabbid Mario is unlocked after Blizzy and Sandy are defeated in The Gatecrashers, Peach is unlocked during the It Came From the Freezer level (a boss battle against the Icicle Golem), Rabbid Yoshi is unlocked after Calavera is defeated in Introducing El Calavera!, and Yoshi is unlocked after the Mecha Jr. is defeated in Bowser Jr.'s Lair.