One of the many surprising showings to come from E3 2021 was the reveal of Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. The unique Nintendo Switch game is getting a sequel that looks to be a sizable leap forward for the series. Not only is Ubisoft innovating on the tactical genre gameplay, but it's taking Mario and his Rabbid friends to the stars to fight a new threat known as Cursa.
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope will still be a tactical turn-based RPG, but there's an increased focus on freedom so players aren't locked in place or restricted to a grid. It looks to really open up the game, making it far more engaging and accessible to players who were maybe turned off by the genre initially. Even with some of these gameplay details for Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, the game has other lingering mysteries, but luckily, some light has been shed on those.
Screen Rant sat down with Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope lead producer Xavier Manzanares and associate producer Cristina Nava regarding the sequel. The two were quite forthcoming regarding details about the sequel's origins, the inclusions of some characters, and how they've innovated on gameplay in Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope.
The first game was a big surprise and a very big success. What was the discussion like when it came time for a sequel, and how long after the first game did that start to happen?
Xavier Manzanares: We started to work on Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle in 2014 and we shipped the game in 2017, then we took a year to do the Donkey Kong Adventure DLC that shipped in 2018.
So, I would say that the work really started mid-2018 on Mario + Rabbids: Sparks Of Hope. But it started before, because when we did the previous game, we had so many ideas that we couldn't put in the game - we didn't have the time to, or we wanted to focus on different kinds of elements. But to go into space, for instance, or to change the combat system to test and see how it could be done with more action and fluidity, that came in really early on in 2017 and 2018.
We didn't know at first the result and how people would react. We saw that they were super surprised in 2017, and since then, so many players are playing and are having fun. And obviously, this is really important for us when we started to think about Sparks of Hope.
Maybe one last thing I could say about that is that we didn't want to go for the typical sequel. Even though people loved the first one, we wanted to make sure that we came back with surprises and not go for the granted way. We think it's important that every new game in the Mario + Rabbids franchise is really bringing this down and putting that on the table, so that's why we've made so many changes to the combat - and even the way we worked with the exploration. That was really our intention since the very beginning.
Were there any other genres you considered for the first game, or even the sequel?
Xavier Manzanares: Obviously, there's so many genres. But since the very beginning, we wanted to focus on the tactical genre, because we were big fans and are still big fans of tactical games. But we felt that maybe we could add this accessibility focus to the mix and be very different from any other game, potentially.
There's so much to say still on the tactical aspect, so this is really truly the focus right now.
Building off that, how is the gameplay and combat being innovated in this game? Because it's a very unique idea, Mario and Rabbids together with tactical turn-based RPG.
Cristina Nava: First of all, when we started back in Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, we wanted to do something with Mario and the Rabbids that no one had done before. After many brainstorming [sessions], we came out with 13 ideas. And then we went through them until it became a turn-based tactical adventure. This was so new for the Mario IP, and that's what Mr. Miyamoto would like - something really, really unique.
And that's what we did again, with Mario + Rabbids: Sparks Of Hope. Of course, it's still a tactical adventure; a single player one. And we wanted to go even further in not only making the gameplay easily accessible - so, our motto is easy to grasp and hard to master, because it's meant to be for everyone - but those hardcore people who really are deep into the tactical genre will find many layers of challenge there. We wanted to innovate again. So, as you might have seen, we decided to add some real time action this time to the gameplay.
What does it mean? It means that it is still turn-based, but within your turn with your hero, you will be able to freely move within your area of movement. That's the innovative part that we wanted to add this time; the really core innovation. Of course, you will find out more later on. But the big focus there was to give even more freedom and more accessibility to the tactical genre for our players.
The first game had a little robot friend, but I didn't see him in the trailer. Maybe I just missed it. Is he still there, or is he gone?
Xavier Manzanares: Yeah, he's still there. Beep-0 in the first game was your cursor in combat, so if we only talk about combat, it's true that right now if you look at the footage, he's not there when you move. Basically, you can direct the characters. But as soon as you do some team jumps, for instance, he's coming back to help you overview the battlefield.
And also, if you want to get more information about the battle, he will be useful as well. We'll talk about that in future, but he will be there to give you more information about the enemies and what is happening in the battle. So, he's really this little element that is giving you information about what is surrounding you.
That's what we call freedom: basically, direct control of characters. When you want a dash, you will see button A; you press A and dash. And as soon as you finish dashing and the animation is done, you continue with your full control of the hero, so you go wherever you want within the zone.
Before you had to click with the cursor and give information of where you want the hero to go. Now it's direct control, so it's really focused on the action. Which means that you can do a lot of synergies between the techniques and the weapons and the heroes as well. For instance, you could take a Bob-omb, but a few seconds after it's gonna explode - so you really need to throw it before it explodes in your hand. When we say real time, this is what we're talking about.
Cristina Nava: As you might have seen in the gameplay trailer, there is no grid and no cells anymore, where you move the cursor meaning Beep-o. There is no grid design.
I was just making sure he's not gone, because I liked him so much in the first game. He added a lot of heart to a game that already has a lot of heart.
Xavier Manzanares: Yes. And if you look in of his presence, in exploration, for example, he's still there. He's giving you hints; he's explaining stuff, or trying to explain stuff, because each planet is really weird. But he's there. People loved this little character, and for us, it was a no brainer to bring him back. So, Beep-0 is still there.
Can you talk about Bowser's role in this game? Is he more of an antagonist, like we would expect, or is he switching sides? Or can you not say?
Cristina Nava: As you might have seen, he's on the cover. But his role as of now remains a bit in the shadows. His role is unknown, so why spoil in it? You will find more later, but it's there. We know that you saw him.
Who exactly is Cursa, and what are the Sparks? If you can say that too.
Cristina Nava: Of course, you saw Cursa in the trailer. Cursa is the archenemy. A little premise: we wanted to go cosmic with Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, so we wanted to focus very much on the story. Not only the story - of course, gameplay is king - but we wanted an even greater and more universal and dramatic and romantic story.
Every big story has a big, evil enemy. And Cursa is the archenemy, in the sense that you will see heroes going from planet to planet in Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope because Cursa is an evil entity who is menacing the entire galaxy and wanting to absorb all the energy. Not only from the universe, but also from those tiny little creatures that you might have seen, the Sparks, who are a merge of Rabbids and Lumas, and are made of pure energy.
Cursa badly wants that energy to gain more and more power over the Mario + Rabbids universe. Heroes will fight Cursa, and they will team up with the Sparks, which heroes will not only have to save but also will be helped by them. Because the Sparks have unique powers, and they will have to help the heroes during combat, lending them their powers and helping them to outwit not only Cursa's minions - because of course, Cursa has minions. But also, the final goal is to go against Cursa itself.
I'm sensing a bit of a Mario Galaxy vibe here, in some sense. Was that a source of inspiration?
Xavier Manzanares: Yes, in of the details, we're big fans of Mario games in general. It's true that when we look at the Mario Galaxy game, a lot of elements that people love, and that we love as well, are really cool. But since the very beginning, we created this unique universe - the fusion between Kingdom Battle and our own universe with the Rabbids - and we're still in the same universe.
We're using elements from those games; things that we love, could be characters, could be elements or ingredients, rather than saying that this is the Mario Galaxy world. It's really cool, because we have this possibility to be very creative, in of what we want to put there and the use ingredients and special guests. That's the way we thought when we expanded the universe itself.
I noticed some space related stuff behind you, Cristina. There's Star Wars, and I even saw David Bowie. Did you draw inspiration from anything like that?
Cristina Nava: Well, I'm working from home. So, this is just my studio. No, it's not related. But I asked permission to use my real background. Anyway, the Star Wars IP is in a way inspiring Ubisoft. It's a coincidence, but not the Rabbids stuff *points to Rabbids memorabilia*.
Is there a challenge in finding a balance between the Nintendo characters and the Rabbids themselves? I know if I was making Rabbids games, and I got a chance to play in the Mario sandbox, I might be tempted to go overboard.
Cristina Nava: Well, we are very respectful of the IP. And of course, we develop the game at Ubisoft. But the creator Mario, Mr. Miyamoto, has worked in a in an advisory role to oversee the development. We are very honored, but respectful of the IP.
It's true that we have the Rabbids, and they have a unique personality. And the Rabbids that took reference from Nintendo characters took, as you might have seen, costumes and some personality traits. But then they developed their unique [traits] and their own. So, what is the challenge is to mix this very neat and polite world, which is Mario's, with the Rabbids irreverence. At the beginning, we were tiptoeing around this fact, but then we found out that it was an immense source of inspiration. And we think that what might have seemed at the beginning like a really odd mix resulted in something really, really fresh and new.
It's been a challenge, but when we found the right tone of voice, I guess that everything clicked. We created a new universe, and this is the Mario + Rabbids universe, which is inspired by the Nintendo word, but is a world of its own. It's mixing the two: the Nintendo world of Mario and the Rabbids universe.
If you could put the Rabbids in any other non-Ubisoft franchise, do you have any picks for that?
Xavier Manzanares: Whoa. I think we have so many already in the Mario universe. And, of course, we cannot talk about what we have planned for the future. But we have so many IPs in mind that are linked to Mario that I would say that, right now, I will not be able to answer aside from that.
But when you look at what we did in the past, and what we're doing right now, it's fine because we have so much to still do and surprises to make - and people will react like, "What? They did this?" But obviously, it's all linked to Mario, and it's a franchise.
Aside from that, [there were] discussions we had within the team that were just funny, over mixes. Because the Rabbids were used in the past to fuse with a lot of IPs, which could be Ubisoft, or sometimes fans were creating a lot of fusion with other IPs. It's funny and all, but in of very serious discussions and stuff, it's all about Mario right now.
I was watching Loki the other night, and I came up with this idea of the Rabbids traveling through the multiverse or something.
Xavier Manzanares: In the past, I we did the Sam Fisher Rabbid. We also worked on a game, Raving Rabbids: Travel in Time, that was traveling in time and trying to go back to different periods of time. It was not mixed with a specific character or franchise, but it was just the theme, like the Time Washing Machine in Kingdom Battle.
It's really funny, and it comes down to what we did with the Sparks - or even Spawny in Kingdom Battle. When you fuse a Rabbid with something else, it's all becoming weird but cute at the same time. And then after a few hours, you get used to it and it's awesome.
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope will release sometime in 2022 for Nintendo Switch.