There are many things that impress me about Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle.
Most notable is how it evolves the XCOM formula, with flexible movement options such as dash attacks that hit enemies at no movement penalty, warp pipes that crisscross the battlefield in the blink of an eye, and team jumps that extend your range and allow you to reach high ground, leap over cover, cross chasms, or even stomp enemies. You can also re-spec your characters at any time, at no penalty, reallocating skill points as you see fit. This allows for (optional) challenges that are literal puzzles you must solve with specific builds.
There's also the gorgeous art direction, the Pixar-esque animation, the Grant Kirkhope soundtrack, the exploration phases with their puzzle-solving and secrets, and the wealth of content including hidden levels, bonus rooms, challenge maps, easter eggs, co-op campaigns and more. The game is also disarmingly charming!
But what makes a great game something truly special? The answer is in the details — those small touches that subtly enhance the experience.
For example, Peach's Castle, the hub area, changes over time. In many games this space would be static, but here it feels alive because it evolves alongside your progress. As you complete each world, elements from that world will appear in the hub.
Peach's Castle starts out looking like this:
And a few worlds in, it now looks like this:
Note the kite, the marbles, the hot air balloon, the popsicles, the toy blocks, the palm trees, the banana bunch, the honey tube, the spider webs, the Goomba stuck to the wall, and the giant toilet balancing a Goomba on a bidet. You can even see a bit of a jack-o-lantern. And this is just one view of the castle — you can circle around it exploring the grounds where you'll find even more elements that weren't there before, reminding you of where you've been and how far you've come.
Speaking of how far you've come, another detail I appreciate is how each world appears to have a moment that drives home the scale of everything, and how it's all connected. Similar to Dark Souls, where you can see one area from another, there are moments such as this one descending from the clocktower in Spooky Trails, where you can see Spooky Square off in the distance, and Slime Swamp down below:
Or this moment near the penultimate chapter of Sherbet Desert, where you reach the summit of a mountain and survey a panoramic view of the canyons you climbed, the ruins you explored and the (even taller) frozen mountains ahead:
Moments such as these allow you to reflect on the distance you've traveled and all the good times along the way. They also allow you to see how these different areas, which feel so intricately designed at the micro level, fit together on the macro level. Design like this gives the game a strong sense of place that was lacking from the more abstract "floating levels" of Super Mario 3D World. It creates a sense of thematic cohesion.
It's not only when you're approaching the end of each world, either. Ancient Gardens, for example, gives you a fixed point toward which you're progressing — a tower of toy blocks, looming in the distance, which you see again and again as you navigate the lush jungles and sandy shoals, sometimes closer and sometimes farther away:
There are many other small details I appreciate. For example, the way the music's melody stays the same but the instrumentation changes depending on the situation, including differences during the enemy and player phases of battle, or how the music changes from "hot" to "cold" as you move from the desert area into the snow area, changing seamlessly. It's a technique Grant Kirkhope first used in Banjo-Kazooie, and it works just as well here. There are also background elements that move in sync to the music, such as the thumping flowers in Ancient Gardens, the jumping beans on the bongo drums in Sherbet Desert, or the harp-playing vines in Spooky Trails:
Or how about the way each character has a unique "duck and cover" animation when a teammate fires across their grid space; or how the Bucklers (shield enemies) stick their hands up in the air when you position yourself behind them; or how Rabbid Peach, ever the diva, casually leans against half-cover and gives her enemies side-eye; or how Rabbid Luigi runs around on fire before doing the stop, drop and roll. The list goes on. The characters also each have their own expressions of joy, suspicion, shock and fear that I find adorable:
I even like how each of the game's 250+ weapons has its own unique name, model and description, despite the fact you only use each of them for a short period of time before they become obsolete and you buy a new one with stronger stats and better attributes. It's like an elaborate visualization of the leveling system — unnecessary, but appreciated in how much personality it adds to a game already bursting at the seams with it:
The game also features a huge variety of collectibles that I feel should be in pretty much every RPG-like game: 2D concept art, 3D models, and music tracks (also tarot cards, although I wouldn't expect every game to have those). The gallery feature is a welcome extra that allows you to further appreciate the art and music of the game, and that rewards you for thoroughly exploring the world.
So these are just some of the small details and thoughtful touches that elevate the gameplay experience for me, making the world feel more immersive and complete. How about you? Are there any small touches you appreciate in this game?
Most notable is how it evolves the XCOM formula, with flexible movement options such as dash attacks that hit enemies at no movement penalty, warp pipes that crisscross the battlefield in the blink of an eye, and team jumps that extend your range and allow you to reach high ground, leap over cover, cross chasms, or even stomp enemies. You can also re-spec your characters at any time, at no penalty, reallocating skill points as you see fit. This allows for (optional) challenges that are literal puzzles you must solve with specific builds.
There's also the gorgeous art direction, the Pixar-esque animation, the Grant Kirkhope soundtrack, the exploration phases with their puzzle-solving and secrets, and the wealth of content including hidden levels, bonus rooms, challenge maps, easter eggs, co-op campaigns and more. The game is also disarmingly charming!
But what makes a great game something truly special? The answer is in the details — those small touches that subtly enhance the experience.
For example, Peach's Castle, the hub area, changes over time. In many games this space would be static, but here it feels alive because it evolves alongside your progress. As you complete each world, elements from that world will appear in the hub.
Peach's Castle starts out looking like this:
And a few worlds in, it now looks like this:
Note the kite, the marbles, the hot air balloon, the popsicles, the toy blocks, the palm trees, the banana bunch, the honey tube, the spider webs, the Goomba stuck to the wall, and the giant toilet balancing a Goomba on a bidet. You can even see a bit of a jack-o-lantern. And this is just one view of the castle — you can circle around it exploring the grounds where you'll find even more elements that weren't there before, reminding you of where you've been and how far you've come.
Speaking of how far you've come, another detail I appreciate is how each world appears to have a moment that drives home the scale of everything, and how it's all connected. Similar to Dark Souls, where you can see one area from another, there are moments such as this one descending from the clocktower in Spooky Trails, where you can see Spooky Square off in the distance, and Slime Swamp down below:
Or this moment near the penultimate chapter of Sherbet Desert, where you reach the summit of a mountain and survey a panoramic view of the canyons you climbed, the ruins you explored and the (even taller) frozen mountains ahead:
Moments such as these allow you to reflect on the distance you've traveled and all the good times along the way. They also allow you to see how these different areas, which feel so intricately designed at the micro level, fit together on the macro level. Design like this gives the game a strong sense of place that was lacking from the more abstract "floating levels" of Super Mario 3D World. It creates a sense of thematic cohesion.
It's not only when you're approaching the end of each world, either. Ancient Gardens, for example, gives you a fixed point toward which you're progressing — a tower of toy blocks, looming in the distance, which you see again and again as you navigate the lush jungles and sandy shoals, sometimes closer and sometimes farther away:
There are many other small details I appreciate. For example, the way the music's melody stays the same but the instrumentation changes depending on the situation, including differences during the enemy and player phases of battle, or how the music changes from "hot" to "cold" as you move from the desert area into the snow area, changing seamlessly. It's a technique Grant Kirkhope first used in Banjo-Kazooie, and it works just as well here. There are also background elements that move in sync to the music, such as the thumping flowers in Ancient Gardens, the jumping beans on the bongo drums in Sherbet Desert, or the harp-playing vines in Spooky Trails:
Or how about the way each character has a unique "duck and cover" animation when a teammate fires across their grid space; or how the Bucklers (shield enemies) stick their hands up in the air when you position yourself behind them; or how Rabbid Peach, ever the diva, casually leans against half-cover and gives her enemies side-eye; or how Rabbid Luigi runs around on fire before doing the stop, drop and roll. The list goes on. The characters also each have their own expressions of joy, suspicion, shock and fear that I find adorable:
I even like how each of the game's 250+ weapons has its own unique name, model and description, despite the fact you only use each of them for a short period of time before they become obsolete and you buy a new one with stronger stats and better attributes. It's like an elaborate visualization of the leveling system — unnecessary, but appreciated in how much personality it adds to a game already bursting at the seams with it:
The game also features a huge variety of collectibles that I feel should be in pretty much every RPG-like game: 2D concept art, 3D models, and music tracks (also tarot cards, although I wouldn't expect every game to have those). The gallery feature is a welcome extra that allows you to further appreciate the art and music of the game, and that rewards you for thoroughly exploring the world.
So these are just some of the small details and thoughtful touches that elevate the gameplay experience for me, making the world feel more immersive and complete. How about you? Are there any small touches you appreciate in this game?
