{"id":99746,"date":"2022-10-17T16:39:15","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T16:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/mario-rabbids-sparks-of-hope-review\/"},"modified":"2022-10-17T16:39:15","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T16:39:15","slug":"mario-rabbids-sparks-of-hope-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/mario-rabbids-sparks-of-hope-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When a game hits on a good idea, some developers are content to play it safe for the sequel, making a few refinements but largely stick to what worked the first time. That totally makes sense. But Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is not that kind of sequel; even though Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle surprised us all with its smart XCOM-style tactics in Nintendo clothing, this followup maintains its best ideas but reinvents itself to the point where it immediately feels very different. It’s bigger and better in nearly every way, with a more freeform and customizable take on combat and an almost completely rethought overworld that’s much less linear and absolutely packed with puzzles. The story’s all over the place and the Switch can’t always handle everything smoothly, but it’s a fantastic game that can be played as either an enjoyable cakewalk or a deep, demanding tactical challenge, all while maintaining its zany sense of humor.<\/p>\n

Picking back up in the post-Rabbid invasion Mushroom Kingdom, things immediately get even weirder when a giant manta ray from space arrives to cause trouble. The story is actually one of Sparks of Hope’s few missteps: the original’s trans-dimensional blending of Mario characters and goofball Rabbids is completely absurd, but it kind of makes sense in its own way. This time, though, the completely unrelated enemy spreads what’s effectively Ganon’s corrupt ooze with eyeballs from Breath of the Wild everywhere, and most but not all of her minions are also Rabbids for some reason? Also we have a spaceship for traveling between literal worlds? It makes Kingdom Battle look grounded in reality by comparison, which is something I never thought I’d say about that game. I wasn’t expecting deep lore or anything, but it’s kind of a mess. It does consistently have some pretty good jokes, though, so at least I was chuckling as I was scratching my head.<\/p>\n

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That weirdness is more than made up for by the fact that all nine characters on your team are absolutely dripping with personality \u2013 none more than Rabbid Peach. With her satirical Gen Z social media diva persona and jaunty walk in the overworld, she stands out among the crew even though they all have their own entertaining quirks. Luigi has his traditional awkward leaning run, Rabbid Rosalina is determinedly lethargic, and Bowser is as much of a hulking bulldozer as you’d expect. They’re just fun to watch, and I’m still noticing new and amusing subtleties to their animations. It can go too far at times, such as how an animation plays every time you activate a character’s signature ability, but mercifully you can turn that off when you get tired of it.<\/p>\n

They’re just fun to watch, and I’m still noticing new and amusing subtleties.<\/p>\n\n

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Battles themselves feel different right away. I’m sure there’s still a grid underneath the maps somewhere, but Sparks of Hope does a fantastic job of hiding it and making movement in tactical battles look and feel smooth as Mario and friends run around. You’re still confined to a radius based on each character’s movement stats, but there are plenty of ways to chain actions together to extend it \u2013 most notably the team jump, where one character can bounce off of another to cross the usually small maps in one turn That move now adds a clever touch of real-time movement to this turn-based game: heroes will hover for a few seconds, during which you have to steer them. Wasting precious time here can be the difference between landing safely or falling off a cliff and taking damage, so you have to be careful about where you plan to land. There’s also an extremely handy line that shows you the movement range of your other characters, which is invaluable for figuring out where to position them for jumps as you switch between teammates.<\/p>\n

The big new idea, though, is the Sparks. As you play you unlock dozens of these cute little guys with names like Pyrogeddon and Toxiquake; when equipped they grant abilities from straightforward elementally charged shots, dashes, and area-of-effect weapons (they also come with passive resistances to those elements) to more interesting abilities like attracting or repelling enemies, resurrecting fallen teammates, and invisibility. Being able to mix and match two Sparks onto each hero opens up all kinds of opportunities, such as equipping Rabbid Luigi’s ricochetting frisbee weapon with a freeze effect to immobilize a long chain of enemies, or giving Bowser a reflection ability that bounces enemy attacks back at them after he absorbs a bunch of hits. <\/p>\n

Being able to mix and match two Sparks onto each hero opens up all kinds of opportunities.<\/p>\n\n

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A lot of Sparks are similar to the special effects of Kingdom Battle’s weapons, but with one important difference: those usually only have a ~30% chance of occurring when you hit an enemy, which means you can’t really plan on a target catching fire or being stuck in place. Here, if you spend one of a character’s two action points to activate a Spark ability, such as an electric shot, it’s guaranteed to shock a target if it hits them. There’s still a fair amount of dice rolling, in that enemies in half cover only have a 50% chance of being hit (and of course there’s always a possibility of a critical hit,) but I feel much more in control of the outcome of a move than I did in the original. <\/p>\n