The Rabbids in a weird way, were the videogame-precursor/equivalent to Despicable Me’s Minions, outshining their Rayman origins and becoming arguably more recognisable than the armless, legless character ever was in his heyday, not dissimilar to how those loud yellow bastards became vastly more recognised than protagonist Gru. The spinoff minigame series Rayman Raving Rabbids became popular enough to spawn several Rabbid-centric titles. Many of them kept to the minigame formula like TV Party and Travel in Time, while others embraced their silly nature even further like with Rabbids Go Home, a highly enjoyable shopping-cart-based adventure on the Wii. What’s been proven time and time again, specifically in the Wii’s prime was that these crazy fuckers adapt to whatever genre-bending environment they were thrown at. Nowhere is that highlighted more than in 2017’s Ubisoft/Nintendo crossover Mario and Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, where somehow even next to the most iconic gaming icon of all time, the Rabbids didn’t feel out of place. What’s more, the game itself was, surprisingly, really well put together, and even warranted a space-based sequel, which I’m happy to report, outshines the original in almost every way.

Sparks of Hope brings the unlikely but fantastic pairing of Nintendo and Ubisoft characters together once more, continuing the uniquely creative take on the Mushroom Kingdom and beyond, this time inspired by one the greatest videogames of all time, Super Mario Galaxy. Borrowing Lumas, Rosalina, and of course, the space setting, Sparks of Hope sends the gang of Mario, Luigi, Peach and their Rabbid counterparts into the vast unknown to stop the menacing and mysterious Cursa. Through destroying the ominous Darkmess puddles, defeating Spark Hunters, and exploring several sprawling planets, you’ll find that there’s a lot more to this game than in the previous entry.

This is the kind of sequel which takes everything that worked from the previous game, builds upon them, and then flies into the sun. Gone are the more linear world progressions, in favour of open hub-worlds filled with substantial side quests, fights and challenges, characters and locations that expand upon a universe nobody knew they wanted, and crafty puzzles and secrets that are rewarding to solve and uncover. The last games’ side content was primarily just the Toad-Rabbid challenges that would be scattered across a previously completed world, however here, the side content is seamlessly interwoven into the steadily progressing main questline.

The core turn-based gameplay appears mostly unchanged, with the major new addition being the hideously adorable Rabbid-Luma crossbreeds. These li’l guys all have unique upgradable abilities and passive effects, utilised by whichever hero is wielding them. There are a metric shit-ton of these things, seriously, if you’re doing side quests you’ll be unlocking them left and right, which at first felt a bit overwhelming but once you’ve figured out some nice pairings, it’s just a case of focusing on which Sparks you want to level up. With some that apply bonuses to characters’ attacks, some having their own area of effect abilities, and others that heal, grant invisibility or even summon minions, you’ll never run out of useful options to try out. You’ll find that certain Sparks shine when paired with particular heroes, like giving invisibility to Rabbid Mario, allowing him to get up close and personal without being noticed or applying freeze to Rabbid Luigi’s disc attack, halting a large group of enemies in one move.

On the topic of options, the variation in how the characters all play creates numerous exciting team compositions. Gone are shared primary and secondary weapons, with each hero having a single unique weapon (alongside an ability) that excels in either long, mid, or close-range combat. Characters from the last game like Luigi have similar attributes, he, for instance, utilises a long-range weapon that deals more damage the further away he is, while newer playable heroes like Edge and Bowser have attacks that are uniquely their own, like a spinning blade or an army of exploding Mechakoopas. I mainly stuck to my boys Luigi, Rabbid Mario and Rabbid Luigi, to get a good mix of attack methods, but arrived at that composition after giving all the characters their time to shine. Some fights benefit from having a healer to survive, some, a character that can reach the other side of the map as quickly as possible, and sometimes a multi-targeting attack is best, to take out Darkmess Eyes most efficiently. The craziest thing about the nine playable characters is that none of them feel sidelined, all of them are viable and fun to use in their own way. This is often showcased in challenges that force you to use two specific characters, which also gives you an excuse to try out yet another team combo. A quality of life change that’s worth noting too is that now weapons skins are purely cosmetic, with the monotonous task of buying the slightly better weapon each time one’s unlocked being removed entirely, just another sign of how polished the game is when compared to the previous title.

With the huge amount of side content, the plethora of fights could have easily become repetitive but thanks to the variation in each encounter, they never do. The Darkmess puddles that each hub world is covered in send your team to an entirely new arena to fight in, meaning you’ll never know what situation you’ll be entering. Exciting enemy encounters get progressively harder and are accompanied by a recommended level, which in the modern era of games seems to be missing a lot of the time (*Cough* Pokemon Shield *Cough*). Hulking goliath Rabbids that’ll respond to your attacks with a swift rebuttal bring your close-range attacks into question, whilst Pig-Rabbid-hybrid-abominations wield an iconic Thwomp as a weapon and can jump to higher platforms to slam heroes. Sometimes to win a fight all you’ll need to do is dash into some Goombas, and other times you’ll end an encounter with two of your three heroes down for the count. Whatever the case,  it’s consistently entertaining.

Before getting into my strange, primary gripe, let’s talk about the best feature borrowed from Galaxy, that being the sweeping orchestral soundtrack. While hub-worlds have blindingly beautiful themes that prevent me from leaving them post-completing, It’s the cinematic backing track of each battle that got people around me thinking I was watching a film scored by Danny Elfman. I cannot describe how grandiose the soundtrack is, and I know I’m a bit of a sucker for a good soundtrack, but the weightiness of this one is magnificent. 

Alright. Which one of you fuckers at Ubisoft thought it would be a good idea to have Rabbids speak English. I was caught off guard when Beep-O could suddenly speak in this entry and hated how instantly ruined my view of the character was (he now has an over-the-top British Accent, which was not what I was expecting at all). I wasn’t oblivious to the Rabbid-counterpart’s “personalities’ in Kingdom Battle, but thanks to Jeanie, the Rabbidese Translator, we now get even more stereotypical portrayals from the main cast of Rabbids, to an infuriating degree. Hearing Rabbid Peach’s spoken hashtags meant I didn’t want her to be in my team often, and while the fake Italian-New-Yorker impression that Rabbid Mario does is sometimes quite funny, I’m wondering how much it borders on offensive, especially when shouting pepperoni as he beats enemies up. It’s strange how the decision to have spoken dialogue makes me want to dock this game an entire point, especially considering it’s not usually an imperative feature in a game featuring the titular plumber and the only time I wanna hear a Rabbid speaking English is if I’m listening to their beautiful rendition of The Rolling Stone’s classic ‘Satisfaction’ in Raving Rabbids 2.

That might be the one downside to trying to infuse more personality into the world of Mario + Rabbids, the marks might not all hit, so it’s quite impressive that the voice lines seem to be the only ones that don’t. The story has a pretty basic progression, often adding new characters to your party like the lethargic Rabbid Rosalina or knockoff anime character Edge but it’s the interactions with the Wardens of each world, as well as its inhabitants that draw you into the wacky universe further than anyone thought possible. With tapestries that tell the story of each aforementioned Warden available to study if you’re so inclined, random Rabbid shenanigans to behold, as well as recoverable codex pages to peruse, there’s plenty to marvel at across the combined planetary visits, and all in the Rabbid-style of humour you’d expect, just with more words than usual.

I’ve still not experienced all the game has to offer, but after returning to the game over the last few months, and never being bored, I actively want to pick up the additional DLC, one of which finally brings the Rabbids back into contact with Rayman himself. But of the base game I’ll say this, It’s probably the best Ubisoft-developed product I can think of in a while, at least since the 2D Rayman entries in the early 2010s. They probably thought if Nintendo let ‘em come back and do the crossover again, that they wouldn’t half-ass it like certain entries in Far Cry and Assassin’s Creed. I wasn’t expecting this to be one of the best games I’ve played this year, but it sure as hell is.