Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is the long-anticipated sequel to one of the most iconic crossovers on Nintendo Switch. Super Mario joins forces with the crazy Rabbids again to save the world! Sparks of Hope uses the same formula as the first entry but innovates on almost everything, making this a must-have for Switch owners. Want to know why? Let’s jump in!
Time to save the universe!
The game immediately throws you into the story with a rather relaxing opening at Peach’s castle. It’s an idyllic scenery where the Super Mario and Rabbids crew are finally unwinding after the events of the first game. In your first minutes, you’ll immediately notice the massive difference in Sparks of Hope. This time, you’re not limited to a rather straightforward adventure where you have to follow a set path, instead, you’re free to explore the 3D environment as you please. The opening reminded me of the Super Mario 64 opening and even gave me a similar feeling. Running around freely in the royal gardens got me thrilled to see and play more. My first quest was to find the outfit of Rabbid Mario who was currently hiding in the bushes. The main purpose of the first quest is to demonstrate the freedom of movement. While I was looking for his trousers, I spoke with a couple of other Rabbids, collected some coins, and discovered my first couple of secrets. It’s a fun and relaxing introduction to the world of Sparks of Hope but quickly, things got a lot more serious.
After I collected the trousers of Rabbid Mario, I was introduced to the main villain of the game called Cursa. Cursa is taking over the universe with darkness, stripping away the light and hope of several planets. She consumes Sparks and spreads Darkmess across the galaxy. Darkmess is extremely dangerous since it drains the power of the Sparks (a combination of a Luma and a Rabbid). I love how bombastic and cinematic your first encounter with Cursa is. The game really knows what it’s doing by combining epic cutscenes and a stellar soundtrack with the humor of the Rabbids and the heroism of Super Mario. In no time, you’re hooked and ready to save the universe!
Different planet, different challenge
In order to save the universe, you’ll travel to a couple of planets, five in total, where you’ll always face a different challenge. The first planet was covered in sand and cozy beach vistas but due to the Darkmess, it was constantly raining. Darkmess really alters the way the planets look, the second icy planet simply got too cold to survive due to the Darkmess. It’s always a different problem and it keeps the variation in gameplay high enough to remain motivated during your adventure. Although the planets all follow the same gameplay mechanics, you never really know what to expect. Exploration is key during your adventure and running around on the planets really feels like a modern Super Mario game, which is a huge leap forward and a crucial innovation since I found the first game lacking that typical Super Mario feeling. On the planets, you can choose to go with the main quests only, which will eventually lead up to an epic boss battle before you gathered enough essence to travel to the next planet. But, if you’re only playing the main missions, you’ll miss out on a lot of fun.
All planets offer tons of side quests and secrets, and discovering them all drastically increases the length of the game, resulting in a couple of extra hours of fun. Side missions can revolve around solving some clever environmental puzzles or defeating a couple of challenging enemies. When it comes to combat, the game offers three levels of difficulty depending on how you want to experience the game. Overall, combat got a bit more mainstream and easier to understand but if you’re playing on the highest level of difficulty, you’ll still struggle to survive. If you want to enjoy the story and discover all of the planet’s secrets without having to stress about combat, you can even play it in invincible mode, which is a fun mode for younger gamers. You can switch between the different levels of difficulty at any time, except when you’re in combat.
New and improved combat
Talking about combat, things changed for the better. Gone is the grid battle and in is the more open approach. When you select one of the three characters on the field, you’re no longer limited to moving around a couple of squares, instead, you can run around freely in a limited zone on the map. This means that you can run around everywhere you want in your limited area when it’s your turn. To make it even better, you can perform certain attacks and tactical moves without having to stop your movements. If you tackle your opponent, you can still move around freely afterward. This unlocks huge tactical advantages if you use it correctly. Let me give you an example. I could run around with Rabbid Mario, who’s good at delivering devastating damage to a couple of enemies within close range, tackle a Bob-omb, pick it up, throw it at a couple of enemies delivering damage when the Bob-om explodes, continue to move towards Super Mario who gives me a team jump, which allows me to move even further on the map where I delivered damage to my enemies with my main weapon and added some extra damage by using my Spark, all in one turn. After I attacked, I was finally forced to stand still.
I love how this more open approach manages to combine freedom of movement with turn-based combat. After you ended your turn, it’s time for your enemies to move forwards but even in this phase, you can alter the outcome by using some of your special abilities. Mario’s special ability allows him to attack enemies who come within range, even when it’s the enemy’s turn. This resulted in me taking down my enemies even when it wasn’t my turn. Each character has its own ability and learning how to use them is important to decide on who you’re taking into combat. Before the combat starts, you can select your heroes and their Sparks so you always have the right team for the right job. Although open combat makes it a bit easier to create deadly combos, it still offers a steep learning curve when you’re playing this on the highest level of difficulty. On this level, your enemies will use the same kind of combos against you and take down your cover in order to deliver some devastating damage. Yes, overall, the game got a bit more forgiving and easier to please a more mainstream audience but if you’re looking for a challenging game similar to the first one, the options are still here.
A lot more depth
Even though the game is labeled as a tactical game for everyone, there still is a lot of depth when it comes to your heroes. As said before, you can have three heroes on the combat field at once but their abilities differentiate from each other. My personal preference was a team of Super Mario, Rabbid Mario, and Edge. Edge is an entirely new character who prefers close combat with her sword which she can easily throw at a couple of enemies at once. Besides these three, you can select other playable characters too, you can even team up with Bowser! Every character has its own skill tree where you can alter certain stats, enabling you to create your dream team.
But that’s not all! The Sparks also add an extra layer to the strategy and you can even level them up during your adventure! During the adventure, you’ll encounter and save a lot of Sparks, who will then join your team to help you out a bit. Some Sparks buff your special abilities or health while others can even inflict damage on the field. Selecting different Sparks to take with you into combat is one of the game’s biggest strategic innovations. Selecting the right type of hero and combining him/her with the right type of Spark can easily grant you some huge advantage over certain types of enemies. I love how the developers managed to make combat more accessible and deeper at the same time, this certainly is a tactical game for everyone!
Conclusion:
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is the perfect sequel, it follows the same formula as its predecessor but innovates on almost everything to deliver an even better adventure. The combat is way more balanced and the open exploration offers some typical Super Mario moments. There’s a lot to discover here but in the end, this simply is a must-have on Nintendo Switch.
