Mario + Rabbids is a shockingly good Nintendo Switch strategy game

When images of Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle first leaked ahead of E3 this year, it felt

like a joke. Here was Nintendo’s most important character paired with… a Minion-like rabbit taking selfies in Princess Peach cosplay? Things got even stranger as more details emerged. Not only was the mash-up real, it was a turn-based strategy game in the XCOM mold, complete with Mario, Luigi, and crew wielding laser-spewing guns. But the biggest surprise is that Mario + Rabbids isn’t just some strange cocktail of seemingly disparate characters and worlds. It’s actually a pretty great strategy game, and one of the best experiences to grace the Nintendo Switch so far. The game starts out with a wonderful opening cinematic that feels a bit like an animated DreamWorks short. In it, a child genius and Nintendo fangirl is building a new device that can mash together any two objects. After a series of mishaps, her Nintendo memorabilia collection is merged with some invading Rabbids, smashing the two universes together in a strange new version of the Mushroom Kingdom. I’ve always found Ubisoft’s Rabbids to be a slightly more obnoxious version of the ubiquitous Minions, but somehow, their partnership with Mario is actually pretty charming. It reminds me a bit of the similarly hilarious Mario & Luigi role-playing series, a clever but strange take on Nintendo’s world. There’s some genuinely funny writing in Mario + Rabbids, and plenty of visual gags. My favorite might be the way Luigi’s meme-ified death stare has been turned into a combat skill.                                                                                                    https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/28/16214482/mario-rabbids-kingdom-battle-nintendo-switch-review