When I purchased the Nintendo Switch on launch day I honestly only did it as a way to try to boost views to my YouTube channel. Back when I thought I could ride through the turmoil on YouTube I was looking ways to talk about more pop culture type technology and the Switch seemed like a decent product. Even on launch day I hadn’t woken up planning to buy one. I saw a video done by Boogie2988 as a drank my morning coffee, and then decided, “what the hell”. I literally went to the closest Target and was back home by 9:30am with a Switch and Zelda Breath of the Wild. I figured I’d do the review videos, play with it for a few days, and then throw it on a shelf to collect dust. I’m not a “gamer” by almost anyone’s definition so I had little thought I’d end up liking the Switch or Zelda.
To my surprise I really like the Switch in the hand held form factor, and ended up taking 2 months to beat Zelda. I really enjoyed the game, and it only started to get a little boring at the end of the 2 months. After beating Zelda sadly there was nothing else that looked good to buy. When Mario Cart came out I bought that and enjoy it fairly well. I’m not a huge racing game fan, but it was fun enough. Past that things started to get concerning. I bought Cave Story+ and became bored very quickly. Sonic Mania was OK, but I habven’t bothered to getting to the end yet. So I was starting to get concerned. As I shot in the dark I decided to buy Mario + Rabbids when it came out, and am happy to say that after a month I finished it last night! It’s a very good game for someone like me.
Basically Mario + Rabbids is a turn based strategy game that works better than it sounds. You get 3 characters on your team with different weapons and abilities and then you go to “battle”. Sometimes you have to defeat all enemies on a screen. Others you simply have to beat a specific number of enemies. Still yet are levels where you have to get characters to a safe area, and of course there are boss stages.
What I really like about the game is that at anytime I can hit the power button and put it down. Since its turn based you’re never in the middle of something important, and since essentially the game is battle scenario after battle scenario there’s not a lot you have to remember if you put the game down. Some levels are very easy, but there were a number that took me 10 tries to figure out. If you lose you simply start the battle over again.
The only wonky thing for me was that they added a convoluted story line, and force you to wander through the Rabbids world. Beyond the battles you can also collect treasures, and do a few time trials. There’s also this Princes Peach area with buildings you can go in… I’ll be honest… I couldn’t make heads or tails of the story, and there were a few times I was wandering the world completely lost as to where to go next. In all seriousness most of the time I was just following the trail of gold coins and had no idea where I was going or why. This sometimes sucked when I only had ten to twenty minutes to play and felt frustrated pointlessly running around the screen.
Overall the video game was very good though, and I happily played it to the end. I have seen some reviewers complain that it gets “repetitive”, and this may be a reasonable argument if you play for hours at a time. For me I’d do one to three battles per sitting so I never felt bored by the scenarios. There were generally always new types of enemies that kept things interesting. I do really appreciate the “Mario” feel of the game. I’m one of the people that left gaming when it went hyper violent first person shooter. Enemies disappearing in a prism of color, and your team being knocked out with stars circling their heads something I appreciate over the “headshot” dynamics of so many games now.
For $60 I’d say the game is worth it. I can fully believe I’ll play it end to end again some time in the future. Even if it’s not as interesting as the first time it would be fine for on the airplane, or being stuck in the hotel room.
Take a look: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/mario-rabbids-kingdom-battle-switch
I recently got a Switch for my brother and he seems to be really enjoying it. My time is pretty limited as of late so I’ve been holding off on buying one. However, this game and the recently released Mario Odessy I think are enough to make consider getting one in the near future. I’m a huge Zelda fan so there are at least 3 games worth playing on the console now from my point of view.