The Ubisoft E3 conference started off with a bang, with the reveal of Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle as a Nintendo Switch exclusive. Strangely, the game does not appear to be any sort of platformer, instead taking both the Mario universe and the Rayman universe in a vastly different direction. Strangely, Kingdom Battle appears to look most inspired by… XCOM?
The story is that the Rabbids have invaded the Mushroom Kingdom, and Mario and his crew have to team up with a few of them in order to save the day. Princesses will most likely need to be rescued, mushrooms will need to be eaten, and coins will have to be collected.
The main portion of gameplay shown for the new game was of the combat, which is turn based in nature, features partial and full cover, special abilities, and pipes to help you move around the battlefield. Players have various characters to choose from, each with their own unique stats and abilities, and a variety of tactics and movement options at their disposal. Each character comes equipped with a sort of blaster in order to fight off waves of enemies, which look like a combination of the Rabbids and a variety of Mario enemies, like goombas, boos, and the like.
It seems like a bizarre combination, and looks it in practice. However, Nintendo doesn’t often use its first party characters in trash games, so it seems likely that this game will be the typical Nintendo combination of endearing and excellent quality. We will publish more details as they become available. You can watch the announcement trailer for Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle below. It is scheduled to release on August 29.
What do you think of the XCOM gameplay in the Mario universe? Ready for a tactics RPG on the Nintendo Switch? Let us know in the comments below.
Jordan has been gaming and geeking as far back as he can remember. You can find him on Twitter @Jordality and occasionally find him streaming on Twitch.tv/JojoTheNinjaGaming. You can also check out his YouTube channel, Dolly Bear Productions.
