“We haven’t stopped working with Nintendo since 2014. It’s been like eight straight years in a row,” Ubisoft Milan’s creative director Davide Soliani tells GLHF. He still can’t believe that he gets to work with Nintendo on Super Mario. “I feel honored and I feel lucky. I use every day of our relationship to learn more about the Mario universe, the way they’re working. All those exchanges have enriched us as developers.”
June 28’s Nintendo Direct Mini showed us a bit more of what we can expect from Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, including the release date of October 20. But we got a longer look at the game in a separate presentation and it’s shaping up nicely. The game sees Mario and his Rabbid pals blasting through space in order to save Sparks, strange creatures that are combinations of Rabbids and beloved Lumas from the Mario series.
“Sparks are important in the game because they have powers that can be used by the player,” Soliani explains. “There are various types of powers that can be used, such as pulling enemies to a space, and then you could use an area of effect weapon to hit them all at once. There is a reason in-game for their existence, but it’s a spoiler. But I can tell you I love the original Lumas, they are so cute and tender.”
Despite being a family-friendly game, Mario + Rabbids is packing firepower and is inspired by other tactics titles, such as XCOM. This isn’t known as a family-friendly genre by any means, and that’s exactly where Mario + Rabbids manages to break new ground. “After Kingdom Battle I was receiving messages from players telling me ‘I never play tactical games, I thought they were not for me, then I played Mario + Rabbids and I loved it. Because of that, I’m going to try XCOM.’ To me, that’s everything,” Soliani says. “Now we try to push those boundaries even more, by trying different approaches to exploring the planet, and controlling combat.
“There are even more surprises with the Sparks powers that players will find. The story reasons for combating the enemies will also create some incredible surprises. We are a turn-based game and proud of it, but we have our own identity compared to other tactical games.”
That identity is distinctly whimsical in a genre that is otherwise overbearingly serious. As amazing as titles like XCOM and Gears Tactics are, lighthearted isn’t how anyone would describe them. That tone is reflected in the music, with Kingdom Battle’s Grant Kirkhope returning in Sparks of Hope, alongside industry veterans Gareth Coker, known for his work on the Ori series, and Yoko Shimomura of Street Fighter II and Kingdom Hearts fame.
From what we’ve seen thus far, Sparks of Hope looks set to be a more dramatic and cinematic experience than Kingdom Battle. “I believe our animation and cinematic teams grew up a lot in terms of expertise when animating the Rabbid and Nintendo characters. The story has a more epic vibe to it compared to Kingdom Battle,” Soliani tells us. “We spent a lot of effort on making the game more dynamic overall – not just in the combat system, but in the animations, in exploration, in combat, the way players will experience the story through the cinematics. I think there are some rewarding moments, and I hope people will love it.”
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope looks like a vast improvement on the original game, and you’ll get to play the sequel yourself when it launches on October 20. We just wish it was Mario VS. Rabbids and we could beat up the creepy invaders as the Mushroom Kingdom crew. Now that’s DLC we’d play.
Written by Dave Aubrey on behalf of GLHF.
