Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (30/60$)

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle 30$/15$.  Grant Kirkhope is one of my favorite composers in the video game industry and when I heard he was scoring a Mario Rabbid crossover game I began to watch it closely, but was skeptical of a tactics style game with Mario being good.   Then I heard about the heart warming design process.  How the team at Ubisoft brought the idea to Nintendo in the form of a board game for the executives to play.  It is this focus on the core gameplay loop that gives the game the meat of it’s wonderful experience that falls short of its original 60$ asking price, but is an amazing deal at its current price.

The two best parts of this game is the writing and the battles, just about everything else is pretty shitty.  But Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle has probably the best battle system of any tactics style game I’ve played.  What makes the gameplay stand out is the distinct lack of phases for actions.  Each character on your team can shoot, move, and use a power in any order.  This simple change to the formula, coupled with the melee movement abilities/jumps make the gameplay truly standout.  It also has a bit of depth to it as well. Each weapon has a critical effect that changes the roles of the characters on your team.  Not by much, but it allows for crazy move combinations during one character's turn.  For example: Luigi is a sniper who has an ability that causes him to shoot at the first enemy to cross his line of sight.  This is a great move because it shuts down enemy movement, but since the enemy can only move on their turn it doesn’t have an offensive use.  Unless it is paired with Luigi's main weapon that has a bounce effect if it hits critically.  So now the pressure is on to get the critical, whereas in other games the pressure would be on to make the shot based on character accuracy.  M+R gets around it by either using 100%-50%-0%, which streamlines fights and saves players from those moments of missing a 99% chance shot that Xcom and tactic games are famous for.  Now this feels great to pull off, but it is definitely overpowered.  The enemy AI is good, but not God tier, and as a player masters the gameplay they will be able to beat almost every fight with ease.  The real challenge will come from seeking out the fewest moves in order to get the best score.  But I often beat the highest rank requirement by one or two turns.  Some bosses gave me trouble, but I did not mind the majority of the fights.  That is not to say they aren’t fun to play, they are amazing.  Each one takes full advantage of the wild world that Mario + Rabbids created.  One of the  rare games that will guinely make you laugh.  Rabbid Peach and her phone obsessed life is hilarious and surprisingly not cringe inducing. The game never takes itself seriously.  The world around you is filled with Rabbid being very stupid and terrorizing everything they can when they are not fighting you.  If this game was nothing but the story and the battles I would love it. It would be perfect.  But unfortunately, the game makes logistical failures that give it a classic, nintendo feel.  Like they almost made the game less than they could on purpose in the misguided attempt to adhere to their vision.

The best example of this is in the team customization.  There are no clear cut classes, but every character has something that they excel in like healing, taking damage, or giving it.  The problem is the perk trees for each character can and will be maxed out.  This makes each character an all around powerhouse regardless of their class.  The next level of customization is the weapon choice.  Each character has a main weapon and a secondary (normally AOE) weapon like Mario’s hammer or Yoshi’s Rocket Launcher.  Each of these weapons has an effect but some of the effects are garbage. The Bounce effect launches enemies into the air and allows you to deal so much damage in one turn through abilities that it is downright comical.  It’s cool to see Luigi take a guy out on his own, it’s hilarious to watch your entire team literally juggle some poor rabid back and forth between each other before it has a chance to die.  You could use the honey effect that roots enemies in place, the burn effect that might damage you, or the ink effect that blocks enemies abilities, but why would you do that when you can kill an enemy squad in one turn while also healing your team for full health using the bounce and vampire abilities because it is clearly the best gameplay option. It's a great experience to find the optimal turn but more classed based gameplay allows for replayability and/or players spending more time tweaking their characters. 

The game world which is gorgeous with set pieces that fit the atmosphere perfectly, but lacks any game play outside of really shitty block puzzles that don’t do anything new, rarely result in game changing rewards, and feel the same on the first level as they do on the final level:  a cheap attempt to confuse children into putting more hours into the game.  They should have focused less on adding 80 different puzzles and more on things like more stats, more party customization, and more focus on CO-OP/versus modes.  Which are fun, and some of my friends were keen to try the new Mario game like they had with soccer, rpgs, and iphone games.  All of those games may have flaws, but they are easy to play.  Like a fighting game, there is a learning curve to C+M that takes the fun of two players away quickly.  It’s not deep enough to keep the sole experience fresh, but just deep enough to scare off new players.   

M+R has me excited for the sequel.  That is something that not many games can do. I played the DLC, it was neat but there needs to be entire game systems changed in order to fully flesh out this experience.   Ideally with a massive overhaul to customization and the over world.  The Rabbids franchise spawned from Rayman and he is due for another 3D platformer of some kind.  The team behind these games clearly has a vision and a care for their work that could bring a more Rayman inspired Mushroom Kingdom to life.  Hell the OST for this game and the cutscenes are worth 15$ to watch by themselves, despite not having voice acting and relying on slapstick humor.  The combat idea is another 15$. But the game is lacking in every department outside of charm and a good set of gameplay bones.  You can buy it for 15$ now though, and I encourage you to not let this one go.