E3 2021: Mario+Rabbids Sparks of Hope Announced

Mario and the Rabbids are back in the newly announced Mario+Rabbids Sparks of Hope. Coming to the Switch in 2022, the sequel to 2017’s Mario+Rabbids Kingdom Battle takes the characters out of the Mushroom Kingdom and on an interplanetary journey.

This time around, Mario and his companions are up against an evil being known as Cursa who plans to consume creatures called Sparks, a merging of Lumas and Rabbids. Mario’s joined by returning allies Peach, Luigi, and their Rabbid counterparts, as well as new characters like Rabbid Rosalina. There will be a total of nine characters to choose your team from, though not all of them were revealed.

We got a brief look at early gameplay that showed off some of the different planets and characters that Mario and his crew will come across during the game. It also teased the game’s battle system. Aside from the unexpected franchise crossover, what made Kingdom Battle so unique was the fact that it was a tactical strategy game. The battle system returns in Sparks of Hope, but has seen some changes that “combines freedom of movement and strategic turn-based decision making.” The colorful Sparks play a part in battles too by giving your characters different abilities and powers to use during combat.

The first game was well received when it first released, so it’s great to see Mario+Rabbids Sparks of Hope finally be announced after so long. Switch owners have an exciting new exclusive game to look forward to next year. Ubisoft made some other big announcements during their Ubisoft Forward event today. We finally got our first look at gameplay for Rainbow Six Extraction and Massive Entertainment also got to reveal their long in development title Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora which is set to release at some point next year.