Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope Review

In 2017, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle shook the world by merging the inhabitants of the iconic Mushroom Kingdom with Ubisoft’s crazed Rabbids and throwing them into a turn-based strategy game. Surprisingly, it worked. The non-Nintendo developed Mario spin-off was positively received by fans and critics alike, praising its take on an approachable grid-based strategy game with two tonally different IPs. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope continues the trend of Ubisoft working its magic with Mario, as the sequel is a major improvement over its predecessor.
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This time around, the battles are much more dynamic, allowing players the opportunity to move their characters wherever they would like on the map. In the first game, players had to play by the rules of the grid system, following a similar format to Fire Emblem or XCOM. Players get to choose the actions of their characters, and once they have made their moves, the enemies will get the chance to go for the attack. The goal for most battles is to simply take out all enemies (or at least a couple of them).

What’s neat about Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is the addition of Sparks. Instead of the playable characters having their own unique abilities to use on the field, like in the first game, Sparks of Hope has over 30 Sparks to collect, and these can be equipped on any character. They all have different abilities, with some having the power to raise the team’s attack or push enemies away. There are also Sparks that cause heavy Fire damage by dropping meteors on the monsters, or one that can cause shock damage when players slide into an enemy. The Sparks can be mixed and matched and even upgraded to provide further benefits to characters. It’s a big step up from Kingdom Battle, giving players plenty of options during battle scenarios.

Most of the Sparks can be obtained during the main story, but some of them…

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