Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope delivers a delightful free-form battle experience – Review

gamepur.com:

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is one of the most freeing video game experiences I’ve had in ages. There are infinite ways to win a battle, thanks to both the new free-form tactical system and the lovable Sparks. There are tons of quests to complete and secrets to uncover across each planet’s open world. These two halves combine for a whole experience that takes everything that was good about the original Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle and pushes it to the next level, in ways that any player ought to love.

The adventure begins in the Mushroom Kingdom, the perfect place to get acquainted with the game’s overworld controls and how missions work. The idyllic scene is soon interrupted by the evil Cursa, whose identity has sparked a lot of fan theories. The initial scuffle kicks off a quest to reach Cursa’s home planet and stop evil at the source.  

This can’t be done without visiting other planets along the way, and each one has its own delightful design. The initial Beacon Beach is a typical island paradise, but with a series of catacombs hidden beneath the sand. Even Palette Prime, which appears to be a basic town next to a forest, has some surprising decorations like a Chinese dragon hanging out the river. These colliding ideas make each planet feel exciting, spicing up what would otherwise be basic ‘ice’ or ‘castle’ levels. 

Of course, the planets are also littered with Darkmess (not a typo) — these are piles of goopy tentacles and eyes that ruin the scenery and block your progress. It brings rain to the beach, drains the color from the forest, and creates obstacles along the path to your main objective. These planets feel so much more fleshed out than the basic overworlds found in the previous game.