Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is a tactical RPG developed and published by Ubisoft. The game improves upon the original Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle in every way, with more dynamic battles, interesting stages to explore, a fantastic soundtrack, and expanded character options that give the player lots of different ways to approach combat.
Sparks of Hope starts with the Mario and Rabbid cast from the original game already acquainted, though Yoshi and Rabbid Yoshi are no longer playable. The story kicks off with the arrival of a Spark: the Rabbid equivalent to Lumas from Super Mario Galaxy. The Sparks are being hunted by a cosmic threat, known as Cursa, who has dispatched her elite team of Spark Hunters, as well as an army of corrupted Super Mario Bros. monsters, to capture all of the Sparks in the galaxy. Mario and the Rabbids must head into outer space, save the Sparks, and stop Cursa's diabolical plan. They will be joined by new allies on their journey, including the now-deposed Bowser, the unenthusiastic Rabbid Rosalina, and the mysterious sword-wielding Edge.
The gameplay and structure of Sparks of Hope is similar to Mario Galaxy, with the player traveling to different worlds and saving the Sparks as they go. In Kingdom Battle, the stages were linear affairs that were essentially chains of battles, with some light puzzles and backtracking involved. In Sparks of Hope, the worlds are fully realized and explorable, acting as their own stages with sidequests and random encounters that can be tackled at the player's leisure. Each world has Planet Coins that can be acquired through completing quests and these can be spent on rare items, while some of the Sparks can only be acquired through tackling their own special missions. There is a lot to do in each world, and the gradual unlocking of new exploration powers means that there are reasons to return throughout the game and search for more treasure.
The biggest improvement in Sparks of Hope is the combat system, as it has taken a lot of elements from the Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle Donkey Kong Adventure DLC. In Sparks of Hope, each character can take two actions per turn and the player is free to move them around the field until the actions are spent. If a character attacks, then they cannot move for the rest of the turn, but they can spend the rest of their actions. Like Kingdom Battle, the characters can perform a Team Jump by leaping off one of their allies, allowing them to glide for a short period of time and move further across the field. All of these elements combined mean that there are lots of actions and tactics that the player can use with their three characters, with characters bouncing off each to gain an advantageous position.
The enemies in Sparks of Hope are no slouch, however, and the game is extremely challenging on the regular difficulty setting. This is because enemies hit like a truck, have access to their own special abilities, and many battles involve enemy forces teleporting in and being able to act on their first turn. The battles in Sparks of Hope are incredibly dynamic, with the balance of power constantly shifting between the player and the enemy team. This means the player is forced to use every power and trick to win, so there's never any feeling of playing on autopilot when going through the campaign, as there are with random encounters in many RPGs. There are easier and harder difficulty modes available for players looking for different kinds of experience, but the regular difficulty offers the perfect blend of challenge and reward.
Like Kingdom Battle, each character has specific weapons and character abilities, all of which can be improved by leveling up and assigning skill points. Each character feels unique, including ones returning from the first game, such as Mario now dual-wielding pistols that can fire at two enemies at the same time, or Luigi being able to snipe enemies through walls by upgrading his overwatch ability. There are two major additions to the player's arsenal this time around: items and Sparks. Players can now buy items from a traveling merchant, as well as find items during quests, which can be used by everyone in battle. These items can do everything from heal a character, reset ability cooldowns, or act as grenades. Items open up the possibilities for each character, unlike the previous game, where they were all locked into specific archetypes. The coins used to buy items are incredibly valuable, as they can also be used to auto-heal the party after a battle, but this isn't cheap, and should be used sparingly.
The Sparks are Sparks of Hope's best addition. Each character can equip two of them and they provide abilities that can be used in combat, as well as granting powerful passive buffs, such as granting resistance to specific damage types. All of the character abilities in Sparks of Hope have a multi-turn cooldown, so the addition of the Sparks moves means that the party is never left with "empty turns", where they're just waiting for the enemy to come to them. The Spark powers include things like adding elemental effects to character attacks, performing AoE strikes, or even moving enemy positions. Each character now has an abundance of options on their turn, and the fast-paced nature of combat, coupled with the highly aggressive enemy units, means that the turn-based RPG often feels more like an action game.
One thing that might have kept away Super Mario Bros. fans from the original game is the presence of the Rabbids. In Sparks of Hope, the story is darker and less goofy than the original game, even though it has plenty of comedy moments. In Sparks of Hope, Beep-0 (the robot from the first game) takes on more of a guiding role in the narrative, with the Mario and Rabbids cast being dragged along for the ride. Sparks of Hope is more about exploring its gorgeous worlds and taking part in battles than experiencing the story, which relies a little too much on painting exposition, where characters are old the backstory of a world through paintings they find in dungeons.
The merging of the Raving Rabbids and Super Mario Bros. franchise was also a strange one and turning the finished product into a tactical RPG was stranger still. Sparks of Hope manages to bypass the oddness of its concept. Its bizarre worlds and weird characters help lay the foundation for a fantastic tactical RPG that is on par with the likes of XCOM 2's excellent gameplay depth. Sparks of Hope has completely surpassed Kingdom Battle and has taken an idea that was once seen as an oddball crossover and turned it into a Nintendo franchise with a genuinely exciting future.
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope will be released for Nintendo Switch on October 20, 2022, Screen Rant was provided with a digital code for the purposes of this review.