Ubisoft's 2017 E3 press conference was home to many announcements, and while most were fairly run-of-the-mill affairs, one game stood out massively. With Ubisoft's Davide Soliani taking the stage alongside Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto, the two announced Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, a turn-based tactics game joining the two franchises together. While the game had leaked a while ago, seeing both publishers join forces with the iconic image of Miyamoto wielding one of the game's blasters quickly spread across the internet, and the game grabbed a lot of attention. Flash forward five years and a sequel called Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is heading to the Nintendo Switch.
Though it was announced a year ago at E3 2021, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope has only had a handful of trailers released so far. The vast majority of footage for the game has come from Nintendo's June Direct, where a cinematic trailer was shown, which was followed by a seven-minute deep-dive into the game's new mechanics. One of the biggest reveals of the cinematic trailer was that Bowser was joining the playable roster this time round, and now thanks to the gameplay deep-dive, fans have a better idea of just how he'll play in the sequel.
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope - How Bowser Plays
The first Mario + Rabbids game followed the conventions of the turn-based tactics genre pretty closely. The game used a grid-based movement system, whereby players could move their heroes a certain number of tiles per turn and could use a set number of actions before or after moving. Once all the player's characters had moved, attacked, and used any special abilities, it was the AI opponent's turn, where they'd use the same conventional turn-based tactics rules.
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope keeps some of this system, but completely reworks how turn-based movement works. Rather than a grid system, players will now control their heroes in real-time. While the space the character can move in is still restricted to a certain size, players can now move their hero anywhere within that space, giving them much more freedom over how their character acts and where they can end their turn. During the movement phase, players will be encouraged to dash behind their opponents to gain the advantage, or use Sparks of Hope's more dynamic combat mechanics, such as hopping on an enemy's head, hovering over to another enemy, and stringing a combo together.
Based on the limited footage available right now, it seems as though Bowser will follow the same general movement system, being able to dart around the arena freely during his turn and having the ability to string together a series of movement-based attacks. While each character will likely be able to swap out their weapons, as was the case in Kingdom Battle, it seems as though Bowser's main weapon type will be explosives, with the trailer showing him launch a powerful blast from his rocket launcher. Though it hasn't been confirmed, it seems likely that these attacks will deal AoE damage, just like the explosive weapons in the previous game.
Each character in Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope will also have a range of special abilities. For instance, in the trailer, Mario is shown to rain down a storm of stars, while Rabbid Peach is shown to heal her allies. Bowser's special abilities are currently unknown, but it seems likely that his moves may be more tank/offensive-based. This should lend well to Sparks of Hope's new combat system, which emphasizes the use of combos. For instance, at the end of the trailer Rabbid Mario shoots an enemy into the air, who is then shot out of the arena by regular Mario. It seems pretty likely that Bowser's heavy weapons and possible special abilities will make him a great set-up for devastating combos.
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope will release on October 20, 2022 for Nintendo Switch.