Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is much more Super Mario Odyssey + XCOM than I expected

gamesradar.com:

I didn't expect my time with Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope to start with finding Rabbid Mario's trousers while he was hiding in a bush, but that's just the sort of humor we expect from this bizarrely wonderful crossover. A little juvenile, yes, but oddly endearing. And yet, it's one of the only things that has carried over from the original title, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, because everything else has had quite the update. Going hands-on with a duo of the game's early levels, it's immediately apparent that this is much more of a Super Mario game than I'd expected.

Okay, so it's still a tactical battler, that much is true, but a lot of Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope evolution comes from the fact that this is a much less linear game than Kingdom Battle. We're going on an intergalactic journey this time, with the goal of defeating Cursa, a new enemy infecting numerous planets with dark, inky, tentacles. Each planet you land on unfurls like a little explorable hub akin to something you'd find in Super Mario Odyssey or the more recent Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury. 

It's not quite an open world, but these planetary hubs are filled with plenty to do to distract you from your main quest. There are side quests to complete, puzzles to solve, new routes to uncover, and characters to interact with. One such side quest on the second planet I got to explore – a snowy place that was home to The Winter Palace – asks me to help a mad scientist whose lab has been invaded by that dark inky stuff I was talking about earlier, known as 'Darkmess'. The brilliant final battle of the quest involved pushing buttons as I moved through the arena to start up wind machines. Eventually, these would push Bob-ombs through the area too,