MARIO+RABBIDS

KINGDOM OF BATTLE

9-4-2018

Developer(s)

• Ubisoft Paris

• Ubisoft Milan

Publisher(s)Ubisoft

Director(s)Davide Soliani

Producer(s)

• Xavier Manzanares

• Gian Marco Zanna

Designer(s)Damiano Moro

Programmer(s)

• Sylvain Glaize

• Tiziano Sardone

Artist(s)

• Mauro Perini

• Fabrizio Stibiel

Writer(s)

• Andrea Babich

• Ed Kuehnel

Composer(s)Grant Kirkhope

Series

• Mario

• Raving Rabbids

EngineSnowdrop

Platform(s)Nintendo Switch

Release29 August 2017

Genre(s)Turn-based tactical role-playing

Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is a turn-based tactical role-playing video game developed and published by Ubisoft for the Nintendo Switch. The game is a crossover of Nintendo's Mario and Ubisoft's Raving Rabbids franchises, and features both single and cooperative gameplay. The game's story sees players controlling Mario, his friends and a group of Rabbids dressed as them, dealing with the aftermath of a sudden invasion by a group of Rabbids, who have accidentally misused a powerful invention that has brought chaos to the Mushroom Kingdom.

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is a tactical strategy game in which Mario teams up with his friends; Luigi, Princess Peach, and Yoshi, along with four Rabbids dressed up like them, to battle against enemy Rabbids that hinder their progress. The main single-player campaign has players control a robot named Beep-O and lead a team of three heroes, including Mario, through four worlds split into multiple chapters, each composed of one or more battles. Along the way, the player can find alternate paths and solve puzzles on the game's overworld to locate hidden chests containing new weapons or bonus material such as 3D models and concept art. As the player progresses through the game, Beep-O can learn new abilities such as pushing blocks and carrying statues to access previously inaccessible areas.

Battles take place when the player reaches an enemy-inhabited territory. While most battles typically require the player to eliminate all or a certain amount of enemies, some missions feature other objectives such as reaching a specific area or escorting another character. In these turn-based battles, control alternates between the player's team of three heroes and the enemy team. During each turn, players can perform up to three actions with each of their available heroes; Movement, Attack, and Ability. In the movement phase, players move a cursor to direct a character to a place on the field within their movement range. Characters can dash into enemies to deal extra damage, enter white pipes to reach other parts of the map, and leap off of each other to reach otherwise inaccessible areas. Each hero can attack with their main weapon, which range from simple blasters to wide-spreading shotguns, or secondary weapons such as melee weapons or grenades. Certain weapons may trigger status effects, such as dealing extra damage with Bounce or Fire damage or inhibiting certain actions with Freeze or Honey attacks. The effectiveness of an attack varies depending on whether the target is shielded by the environment (for example, characters hiding behind a half-sized wall have a 50% chance of getting hit). Finally, Abilities are unique support effects, ranging from barriers that can lessen damage to overwatch attacks that can be triggered outside of an Attack command. Certain weapons and abilities have cooldowns, requiring players to wait a certain amount of turns before they can be used again. Additionally, certain characters possess passive abilities that are unique to them. For example, Peach can recover health upon landing from a team jump while Rabbid Luigi can absorb health from dashing into opponents.

Players lose a battle when all of their heroes run out of health and are knocked out, or fail a level-specific objective. When the player clears a chapter, they receive coins and Skill Orbs, which can also be found by exploring the overworld, with greater rewards earned clearing battles within a certain number of turns with all characters intact. Coins can be spent on new weapons for each character, with more options becoming available as the player finds Weapon Chests. Skill Orbs can be used on each character's Skill Tree, granting them new unique abilities or increases to stats such as health and movement range. After clearing a world, players can revisit them to take on additional challenge-based missions. Players can also unlock co-operative challanges, in which two players, each with a team of two heroes, must work together to clear objectives. Additional weapons can be unlocked by scanning compatible Amiibo figures.