Mario & Rabbids Quick Thoughts
Since we’re working on a turn-based grid-based squad-based game, and are fans of the genre in general, I was excited to spend some time w Mario & Rabbids. It’s pretty good so far, but I wanted to note some particular bits before I forget em. All y’all’s at PAX so probably nobody will read this but me but!!
Spatial Tactics: This is the most obvious place where Mario & Rabbids absolutely kills it. Movement is just a range and can be done in any order. The ranges are marked off in really clear and easy to understand ways. They made a cursor into a character even! The simplified cover-percentage system is great. Slide tackles feel amazing. Team jumps help solve a lot of grouping / flanking problems and are super satisfying. Upgrading into multi-bounces and head-stomps just feels soooo good.
Legibility: Destructible cover versus non-destructible, fast-travel tiles, character positions and status (exposed, half-cover, full-cover, HP, etc), special ability effects, all this stuff is like extremely pro-tier and much more reminiscent of an internal Nintendo title than an Ubisoft title (sorry Ubi <3 ) The enemy designs so far do a great job of communicating their behaviors and abilities too.
Fluff: There’s just an enormous amount of fluff in this game. Like 300 guns that are pretty hard to differentiate, super flaky small percentages in the tech tree and in the weapon statuses, weird travel time and “exploration” segments between battles, 6000 collectible something or others. Some of this fluff I think does add to the experience (especially the super juicy animations) but a lot of it feels more like a F2P mobile game, there’s just so many popups and obscure resources. All the chunky legible stuff in combat doesn’t really apply to the rest of the experience in a lot of ways.
Part of me can’t help but compare and contrast it to another extremely good X-COM lite, Steamworld Heist ($14.99 to M&R’s $59.99) by a medium-size Swedish indie studio. It’s 2D instead of 3D, but it’s got almost no fluff, superior controls, equal degree of accessibility, and so far comparable depth. What sets M&R apart from Heist? Number of menu items? Amount of background meshes? A Nintendo license? All of the above to some degree probably.
Go back in time a few years wait no decades and check out a AAA strategy title like Front Mission 3, and it’s structured a lot more like Heist than like M&R. FM3 is mostly mech battles, with some upgrade and config in between, navigation and choices happening on maps and through dialog boxes. M&R’s contiguous 3D spaces and relentless cutscenes are a distinctly different approach that makes it harder to play at your own pace and also creates a kind of presentation standard that is hyper-unrealistic for smaller teams who are executing on gameplay and experience at the same level otherwise.
This isn’t gonna blow anyone’s mind but the current standard for scope for a $59.99 game feels super messed up to me. Like the line between the game that’s there and all the stuff that’s been glommed on to it to justify this arbitrary price point isn’t really doing anybody any favors.
I do like those juicy animations though.
UPDATE: yes they totally jacked our spawn animations and yes I was salty about it for like 11 minutes. I do think it’s a weird choice from a scenario perspective still - i think drop pods or teleportation or something would suit the setting better!