The Nintendo Switch already had a packed 2022 schedule before the Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase, which confirmed that Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is launching on October 20. Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is the sequel to 2017's Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, which combined the worlds of Super Mario Bros. and the Raving Rabbids franchises. This mixture might seem like an ideal fit for a platformer, but the Mario + Rabbids series actually consists of turn-based battles, not too dissimilar from the XCOM series.
Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle took place within a warped version of the Mushroom Kingdom, while Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is taking the series to outer space. The Mario + Rabbids universe is under threat from a dark entity known as Cursa, who wishes the drain the energy from the galaxy. Cursa has sent her armies out across the reaches of space, in search of beings known as Sparks, which are Rabbidified versions of the Luma from Super Mario Galaxy. It's up to Mario and the Rabbids to save the Sparks, and this time, they are joined by the likes of Bowser and Rabbid Rosalina, as they battle Cursa's troops on each world.
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is launching in 2022 and Ubisoft gave members of the press the chance to preview the game ahead of the Nintendo Direct Mini. Screen Rant recently sat down with Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope lead producer Xavier Manzanares to talk about the upcoming sequel. He discussed the removal of the Versus mode (introduced in Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle), the changes made to the gameplay, and how Bowser plays, now that's a member of the roster.
The trailers for Sparks of Hope have shown the characters already traveling through outer space. What event kicks off the story?
Xavier Manzanares: As you have guessed from the videos that we show, it's all about this space opera. Basically, there's a big new threat in the universe; a new entity that is trying to grab all the energy from the Mario + Rabbids universe. And among those new creatures that we have in the game, we have the Sparks. The Sparks have tons of energy, so the entity Cursa is trying to grab them as well.
It's up to Mario and friends, and the Rabbids, to save them and to avoid having the world crumble because of that.
How has the combat gameplay changed since the original Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle?
Xavier Manzanares: We did a lot of changes. Combat is a very important element of the game, and it was already in Kingdom Battle. I guess we could have gone in the same direction as we did in the past, with the grid and the cursor. We started to test things in Donkey Kong Adventure in 2018, but we decided to change quite a lot and test new things.
I guess it's in the DNA of Mario + Rabbids to surprise, so we decided to go down this new road, which is the real time movement and the fact that we remove the cursor. Obviously, the way the combat feels is completely different, because we change the three Cs. Now, instead of a cursor, you control Mario directly. If you're next to a cover, it can even cover vault. You can also dash in a directional way; depending on where you come from, you can dash the enemies in different ways, and maybe dash multiple enemies in one dash. It has an impact on everything.
And then, on top of that, we added a lot of strategy layers. We changed the archetypes of the heroes, and we added new heroes as well. For example, Bowser has a new archetype within the game. Then also the Sparks that I spoke about add a lot of active and passive bonuses to game. I could get in more details, but I would say that those are the high-level things that we changed to the combat.
And by the same token, how much has the overworld exploration gameplay changed from the original game?
Xavier Manzanares: We really wanted to listen to what the players told us on that part in the past. For the exploration, they wanted to see more of the worlds that we created. We started to do that a little bit more in Donkey Kong Adventure. Again, Donkey Kong Adventure was almost like a direct sequel - at least to us as a dev team. We tested things already in 2018, and one of them was giving more autonomy and more possibilities to the players to visit the world and see what they have.
In Sparks of Hope, went even further. You arrive on the planet, you have quests to do - whether they're main quests or side quests. You start to meet new NPCs that will give you new quests, but also roaming enemies within the planet. It's up to the player to decide where to go and the way they want to do the adventure. This is very new compared to what we did in the past, so we're very happy about that.
A major part of the game are the Sparks, which the player has to seek out and save. How do they actually function in battle? Are they a super move that the characters call on, or are they actual characters who fight alongside the player's team?
Xavier Manzanares: When we started to think about the Sparks at the very beginning of the project, we wanted to create cool sidekicks. But not just for the storyline - because they're quite important in the story, without giving any spoilers - but for the gameplay. We wanted something that has an impact, for sure.
At first we decided you can equip one Spark per hero. That Spark is going to give you active bonuses, which are things that you need to trigger yourself in battle, and passive bonuses, such as having the possibility to be very good against fire thanks to a fire Spark. It was super cool, and we started to mix and match Sparks and heroes together in battle.
But then we decided to go even further and add a second Spark per hero, and equipping that second Spark means even more possibilities to mix things together. The Sparks are in categories or families, so you could have attack Sparks; those also add elements to your dash. There's defense Sparks or support Sparks, etc, etc. Then it's up to the player to decide - for Mario, for instance, as a gunslinger - to decide which part could fit well his gameplay. This is up to the players to do so.
The Sparks truly have a lot of impact in every turn that you do, because they really add up a lot of stats and bonuses.
One of the new things revealed during the trailer is that Bowser is playable. How does he work compared to the characters?
Xavier Manzanares: Every time we brought a new character onto the crew, and Bowser is a new one, we had to discuss first with Nintendo and get the approval. Because obviously, having Bowser is not just Bowser in battle. It's also Bowser the character, and the relationship with Mario is important to define. You don't see Bowser much with Mario together in an adventure, so this was a big part of the work.
On top of that, the relationship with the Rabbids is really funny, in this game. And then for the battle, we need to make sure that it's not just Bowser. It's also an archetype that makes sense; that is logical in the system. Bowser is this commander-type of archetype with a bazooka, and he shoots area-of-effect bullets which destroy covers, for instance. He can also summon Magikoopas, and they each have their own AI, so they start to move away and attack the enemies and explode.
Those are just a few examples of what Bowser is able to do, and he's mixing very well as a long range character with other archetypes. It's a really cool addition to the group.
The initial trailer for Sparks of Hope briefly shows the sword-wielding Rabbid fighting groups of foes, who we now know is called Edge. Is this character intended to be a parody of JRPG heroes, and what role does she play in the story?
Xavier Manzanares: I won't be able to give more details about the background of Edge yet, because we want to keep some surprises. She's really important in terms of the link she has to the story and to Cursa. When we created that character, we knew that it was important to link it to the story in some way. Her design, the way she behaves and her personality is linked to the story.
When it comes down to how she behaves in battle, she's really a close quarter fighter. She's taking hints from those characters with swords - obviously samurais, etc. She's really a highlight when it comes down to close quarter combat, so that's why one strategy is really to add arcs to her equipment that can really be good in additional damage or push damage or bounce damage. Because this means that she can really go up against other heroes - for example, Luigi, that is waiting from afar. Plus, Edge and Mario can react as well during the enemy turn.
All of those characters together are mixing super well. That's what we were searching for when we created Edge, to be able to have this character that is really good with the sword.
The main characters also have some new weapons. We see Mario has two pistols that he can use to perform different actions. What other features do the new weapons have?
Xavier Manzanares: We decided to review the weapons and the archetypes of each hero completely. Even if Mario is back, like you said, he's not back with the same weapon. Instead of giving new weapons like we did in Kingdom Battle, we decided to go more with the Sparks, but also the techniques of each hero and the skill tree that they have to manage. The weapon is truly focused on what does the best for the archetypes.
Mario, for instance, is a gunslinger. He has dual slinger weapons, so he can shoot another target as the player sees fit. It's not automatic aiming, so it's up to the player to decide if he wants to double shoot or maybe divide his shooting. As you can add super effects to each of them, that means that you can fire at two enemies and scatter those enemies together. It was a big focus for us.
When you use the skill tree well, you can even unlock an element that we call the Jump Shot. Mario is able to even shoot in the air now. That means that he can double shoot as well in the air, so it's really adding to this character that has an archetype that is mid-range; that can really work well to make sure that he shoots all the enemies around him in some ways and uses his Hero Sight during enemy turn to do the same. He's a really complete character.
Then we have eight other heroes, and they each have their own weapon and specificities. For example: Rabbid Mario, with his gauntlets that we see in the trailer, is all about melee attack. And also a weapon that we call the Dukes has a really fun usage as well, with a lot of combo elements. Peach has this umbrella that we call the Boom-brella, so it's like a really cool shotgun.
We reviewed completely all the weapons for each hero to really fit the new combat system and the fact that it's now real time and control. It's really nice.
Will the Kingdom Battle PvP Versus mode be making a comeback in Sparks of Hope?
Xavier Manzanares: No. In Sparks of Hope, the focus was on the solo experience. We have so much going on, and so many things that we decided to change, that we decided to really focus the attention for four years on the solo experience.
Also, we added RPG elements like side quests and levels for the heroes and the Sparks. All of that requires a lot of attention, in terms of polish and balancing, so we didn't want to take for granted that we can do it easily. We decided then to really focus this time around on the solo experience.
How many different worlds and locations can fans expect to visit in Sparks of Hope?
Xavier Manzanares: We're going to talk about more details in the future, but we have multiple planets. Basically, we decided to make sure that each planet - the ones you saw in the trailer, for example - each have their own zones. It's up to four zones in some planets. We wanted to make sure that, even on one planet, you have multiple environments.
And this doesn't take into account the change you have when you start to do the main quest, because each planet has tons of Darkmess because of Cursa, and things are not doing well. The warden of the planet wants you to help them, and when you finish some main quests, you start to see the impact and the change to the planet. In Beacon Beach, for example, it's super rainy everywhere. When you finish some quests, it starts to open up and be very sunny. Because of that new quests, new NPCs pop up. A lot happens on each planet, and that was the objective we set when we started to work on those planets.
Sparks of Hope seems to have a lot of nods to Super Mario Galaxy, with that game's theme briefly playing during the original trailer and Rabbid Rosalina being a character as well as the overall theme of traveling through outer space. Will there be more references or gameplay elements relating to Super Mario Galaxy?
Xavier Manzanares: Mario + Rabbids is a very specific universe, and it was key that this was the case. It's a discussion we had early on with Nintendo during Kingdom Battle. Kingdom Battle introduced this universe; it's our universe, and it's a new universe that's not canon to anything else. That helped us to bring in whatever we wanted that we thought was cool, or link to some other parts of the story.
The Galaxy universe is a universe that we love. We're big fans of Mario Galaxy. As we were going in space, and we started to create a story that was a space opera, we felt that it was interesting to grab some elements here and there. We do have Easter eggs and elements coming from that universe, because we thought it was really well-fitting to the story of the game.
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope will be released for Nintendo Switch on October 20, 2022.