PREVIEW: Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope takes everything I loved about Kingdom Battle, the unique turn-based tactical gameplay and witty slapstick humor, and cranks it all the way up to an eleven. Although the early version I played was a little rough around the edges, it has already proven itself to be more than competent enough to justify a day-one purchase. The three-hour preview session left me impressed and itching to play more, but I’ll need to get my hands on the full version of the game before giving my final thoughts. Regardless, Ubisoft has once again shown that they are more than capable of handling the highly-valuable Super Mario IP with the same amount of utmost care and passion as Nintendo does, and the development team should give themselves a massive round-of-applause for what they’ve achieved. Here’s hoping that Mario and the Rabbids go on many more outlandish adventures in the future, as their unlikely alliance has surely been a spark of pure excellence.