Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle Hands-On

Four hours of public transport and the suffocating heat of this scorching summer separated me from the Ubisoft headquarters, but the thrill of being able to visit a real development center where dozens of young guys program what will be the video games of tomorrow was priceless. The right occasion was the demonstration, with demos in an advanced state of development, of Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle to Nintendo Switch, the game shown for the first time at the last E3 and which was developed in those studios.

Putting aside the thrill of having visited such a fascinating place for those who work in this sector and the excellent buffet that gave me back the right energy after hours of travel, I dedicate myself to a full-bodied gameplay session of the Ubisoft game: as the guys who welcomed us explained to us, it was possible to play three levels, of which the first very simple, a sort of tutorial, the second level taken directly from the third world of the game (in all we will have four worlds) and the third level in which you had to beat a boss. The first impact is to be confronted a truly tactical game: being deceived by the graphic aspect typical of Nintendo games, colorful and very “playful”, is the most wrong thing to do; between each character's abilities, special attacks, bonuses, long-range main weapons and melee secondary weapons, skill tree and supports, it is already possible to understand how to choose the characters of your team for sympathy or the weapons for beauty will make us lose at the first difficulty.

The team, as explained by the helpful Ubisoft guys, is made up of three members: one of them, the leader is necessarily Mario, while the other two must be a Rabbids of your choice and another character among those remaining, without restrictions. During the various phases of the game we will be able to explore the levels which, to tell the truth, leave very little freedom as they are only wider corridors and with some small puzzles to solve to get bonuses in preparation for the battles, the real heart of the game. Arrived in the arenas we will find ourselves in classic chess stage typical of strategists: we will be able to move our heroes a certain number of steps, give them orders to attack or use the powers, but the really fundamental thing will always be to try not to discover our team too much, exploiting the numerous covers scattered around the field.

The order in which to perform the various actions is totally at our discretion, with the possibility of being able to move the team members and then have them attack all together, or maybe move two characters so that the remaining member can exploit their skills or use them. as a springboard to reach large portions of the map with just one turn. The approach to the game is truly personalized: everyone can face enemies or complete the objective (sometimes it will be just reaching the end of the map) as they see fit, using long-range weapons and cover, or maybe encircle an enemy and destroy it with melee blows , but it's not as simple as it might seem.

THEEnemy AIIn fact, it is really advanced, with the CPU that will hardly allow itself to be set a trap or that will remain at the mercy of our attacks but which, on the contrary, will use its powers in a strategic way to put us in difficulty as much as possible. If the first level went smoothly, the second saw two of my three team members die, with a fight that lasted more than twenty minutes and with a uncertain outcome until the end of reaching the goal: a second level with a huge map, with a much more complex level design than the first, which offered lots of covers, warp-pipes and the very nice Boos who teleporting from one point to another on the map nullified that minimum of strategy that, with so much effort , I had managed to carry on for a few shifts. When I reached the third level, all my inexperience with the tactical genre revealed itself: I'm not kidding by saying that in two rounds the attacks of the boss (a ghost-clown a little primadonna) and his henchmen knocked me out almost without me noticed, between critical attacks and devastating combos.

Difficulty too high then? No, we are simply faced with a title in which it is not enough to throw yourself headlong into the enemies to automatically obtain victory. A good dose of tactics both in real time during the fighting and preparatory with the choice of the right characters, weapons and skills are the basis for the advancement of the adventure. The same "easy mode" will not change the difficulty of the game, but will simply increase the maximum health of our team: so if you thought you could complete Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle in moments of boredom, change the objective.

Il technical side, limited to the levels that I have been able to try, it's very respectable, with really well made polygonal models (perhaps the Nintendo characters slightly too "plasticky") and beautiful levels to look at, which exude the typical goodness and lightness of the games of the great N; some textures could be improved, such as some details of the boss when the latter was framed in the foreground during a very nice cut-scene. High levels also with regard to the soundtrack, which is enriched with tools as the level of the game progresses and as the various phases and turns of the fights are overcome.

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle could really surprise many, especially those who thought of an accessible title given the sympathy and lightness that the title gives at first impact, with quotes from various Nintendo and Ubisoft games and with some really appreciable appearances (of which obviously I will not say anything). Some doubts about the repetitiveness of the game: having to explore the "great corridors" to reach the battlefield up to the boss could in the long run lead to boredom if you are not a lover of the genre and if everything is not supported by an appreciable storyline and that holds up the gameplay, but I want to ask trust in the guys of Ubisoft, trust that I hope will be rewarded in the review with another excellent exclusive for Nintendo Switch.