E3 2017
ended nearly one month ago now, giving us plenty of time to reminisce and think
on all the great games that we saw there. I have often thought about how
incredibly fun and open Super Mario Odyssey looks, how satisfyingly epic the
new God of War will be on PS4, and how I can’t wait for Sea of Thieves on Xbox
One. However, there is still one game that is standing out to me as by far the
biggest surprise of E3, and that game is Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. This
game was not a surprise in the normal sense. The game was long rumored and
leaked as far back as the end of 2016, so seeing it show up at Ubisoft’s
conference was no big shocker. The surprise from this game came in the form of
just how darn good it actually looks! Kingdom Battle looks like it could show
itself as the dark horse hit of 2017.
From the
moment Mario + Rabbids was rumored, and especially when art from the game got
leaked, people began to hate on it and prematurely judged it as a goofy,
childish spinoff. I am proud to say that I was not one of those people, as
anytime Nintendo is involved with something new, I am going to give it a fair
shot. Despite not hating the idea of the game, I still won’t pretend like I was
exactly excited for this game either. I just assumed that it would be something
I would pick up a couple months after its launch for half price and play with
my nephews when they visit. After seeing the game at E3, however, I almost
immediately preordered it and will picking it up for myself on launch day.
My path from
curiosity to genuine excitement with Mario + Rabbids was an interesting one
with many waves of emotions that all happened in the course of about 15 minutes
during Ubisoft’s E3 conference. It started with the initial reel of a pair of
rabbids messing around with an iconic question block from the Mario series.
This is when, along with everyone else, I realized the game was being
officially revealed, so my interest was naturally peaked. Next came the reveal
of Shigeru Miyamoto on stage. Even though he may have not developed the game,
seeing that Mr. Miyamoto was fully supporting this game gave me my first glance
of hope that it may be better than any of us had initially thought. The moment
that took me from indifferent to excited was when the game’s developer gave a
walkthrough of the gameplay and mechanics. Seeing just how deep and complex
Mario + Rabbids has the potential to be proved that it likely won’t be just
another forgettable spinoff. The announcement trailer was the final big step. Seeing
Mario interact with the rabbids was both quirky and charming, perfectly
capturing what I love about Nintendo. Two moments stood out to me in the
trailer that made me realize we were in for something totally unique. First of
all was seeing Mario run toward Peach to save her, as it looked like she was in
immediate danger. Instead of Mario saving her, however, Peach whipped out a
blaster and fired at two rabbids, thus actually saving herself! The next big
moment for me was pretty straight forward. Rabbid Donkey Kong is all that needs
to be said for that.
There is no
doubt that the reveal of Kingdom Battle’s gameplay and mechanics was likely the
biggest surprise of this game to almost everyone, as it certainly was for me.
Mario + Rabbids was revealed to be a turn-based strategy adventure game that has
commonly been referred to as a mixture of XCOM and a Mario RPG. I’m not sure
what, exactly, I was expecting this game to be. Perhaps a Mario & Luigi
series style RPG with Rabbids shoehorned in, but not an XCOM/Mario RPG hybrid! The
game’s main story operates in two modes. There is adventure mode, where players
will travel around the nightmarish, rabbid invaded Mushroom Kingdom in between
battles. Then there is the battle mode, where players will enter their party into
a battle area and strategically maneuver their characters through the battle environment
to take out enemy rabbids. While still an RPG, this game definitely seems to be
a twist on the genre that is entirely unique for Mario!
Not only was
the genre Ubisoft chose a pleasant surprise, but so is the game’s apparent depth.
It seems as if Kingdom battle is going to have some seriously deep RPG mechanics,
complete with: interchangeable characters for your party, a weapons upgrade
system, and a full-fledged skill tree for each character. Every character has
their own unique abilities and specialties, thus adding another layer of depth
to the game. Players will have to learn the unique characteristics of each of
their characters and learn how to appropriately use them in battle in order to
ensure victory. Knowing every characters strengths and weaknesses will provide
a tactical advantage that players who don’t get into the depth of the game
simply will not have. The amount of deep RPG mechanics that seem to be coming
to Mario + Rabbids should have any RPG and Nintendo fan excited!
There really
is no denying that the reveal of Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle’s gameplay at
E3 2017 was a pleasant surprise that has gotten the attention of many gamers,
even outside of the typical Nintendo fan base. There is a lot more excitement
within the Switch community for this game now, as it seems to be one of the
most anticipated games of 2017. For example, I recently put up a poll on a
popular online Switch community (shout out to Switch Amino!), asking people if
they would be purchasing Kingdom Battle or not. The results I got honestly did
surprise me. I received 160 responses to the poll, and out of 160 people, 58.8%
of them said they would definitely be purchasing the game (21.3% on launch
day). Almost 60% of the people polled are planning on picking up the game!
28.8% of the people polled are still undecided, while only 12.5% said they
would never buy Mario + Rabbids. Unfortunately, I have no poll from before E3
to compare these numbers to, but I feel very confident in saying that there is
no way they would have been this positive.
Mario +
Rabbids: Kingdom battle is looking better and better and has built itself a
community of fans genuinely excited for its release. The new found excitement
for this game is great news for Nintendo, and Ubisoft alike, as the game’s
success could create more opportunities for unique 3rd party support
on the Switch. I know we will all be patiently waiting to see how Kingdom Battle
performs when it is released on August 29th. Until then, keep your
eyes peeled for more news on Mario + Rabbids!
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