Mario + Rabbids Producer Leaves Ubisoft Milan After "16 Incredible Years"

Question : Would you like to see the Mario + Rabbids series make a return in the future?

Me : Yes, of course. But.... without the shady business practice from Ubisoft (require Ubisoft account to play Rabbids Party of Legends, DLC in codes for Golden / Ultimate Edition Mario + Rabbids, code in box for Just Dance games, etc)

These games are so fascinating to me. Like, they're a bit of a weird crossover and the gameplay looks fun and not like a usual Mario game, but I can honestly say the Rabbids are one of the most visually repulsive designs I've ever seen in gaming and I can't bring myself to try the games based on that.

@World
You're missing out then. The Rabbids' mannerisms are actually completely toned down to the point where they act almost like regular people in the shape of rabbits. The gameplay is honestly so much fun and immersive that you almost forget what you're playing.

Doubly so in Sparks of Hope which features voice acting for the Rabbids characters as well as Edge who doesn't even feel like one. It's absolutely worth playing.

I hope there are more Mario XCOM-style games but without the goddamned rabbids. I hate them so much.

@Anti-Matter The fact the first thing that was thrown in my way after the title screen of Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is a prompt to connect the game to a Ubisoft account honestly pulled me away a bit from it when I tried the NSO trial.

I'm guessing that was an executive mandate and not intended by the devs of this particular game, as Kingdom Battle didn't have it.
I tolerated it in Starlink: Battle for Atlas as Fox and co. were more like guests and not really the stars of the game.

Anyway, I'm probably derailing the topic.
One day I'll give Sparks of Hope and the devs (not the Ubisoft execs) a proper chance.
Wish her the best on whatever it is she'll do from here on now.

With both of them leaving, I really wonder if Nintendo offered them jobs. Not likely, I know, but all the mystery around their departures makes me feel like something is up. It probably is unrelated, but if this ended with the spinoff series being done in-house, man would that be a happy ending.

It's a shame that Sparks of Hope seemingly underperformed, I hope we see another colaboration between Nintendo and Ubisoft in the future.

Makes sense, games like sparks of hope clearly aren’t the direction Ubisoft wants to go. Not generic enough

Yeeeaahhhh.... We're not getting M + R 3... 😭

@World You should try to look past, errr, past depictions of the Rabbids, and focus on the Mario characters and the tactical gameplay of this series. They're two of the best strategy games I've played in years. ❤ Plus for me, the Rabbids are actually amusing and make the game better.

If SoH is the last collab between Ubisoft and Nintendo (for now atleast, plus we might still get Rayman in the next Smash game) then atleast it arguably ends in a good note as the M+R games have been a blast to play.

Anyway, hoping for all the best to Nava moving forward.

@World I agree so much they look amazing but I would never play them because of the rabbids, I even think if they choose any western cartoon characters would have been better.

If they just hadnt included those ugly rabbids. Not everyone gets french humor ig.

@World @Ruthchild
I in principle think Rabbids and their yellow mainstream descendents are a blight.
That said these games are great and Sparks of Hope at least is an easy recommendation. It has a surprising amount of N64 Rare DNA outside of combat and the combat does a a great job of making you really utilise everything at your disposal. The second game doesn't force you to use Rabbids either (I reached the final boss before the game made me use Rabbid Luigi) and they are in general so toned down from the first one that they honestly could just be toads or eccentric Banjo characters.
I still think these games would be better without Rabbids but I was one other by the personalities of Rabbid Peach and Rosalina seeing as the core Mario cast can be emotionally vanilla.

@JR150 Everyone hating on the rabbids blows my mind, sure they derailed the Rayman franchise for a decade, I understand that, but they're pretty funny in the first Mario game.

As a Rayman fan who felt a bit betrayed by the rabbids replacing the proper Rayman 3D platfomers and not giving them a chance... I actually ended up liking the rabbids enough to want to check out a few of the rabbids games after playing Kingdom Battle and Sparks of Hope.

I do hope that the next Switch gets a third entry, as the first two were really good.

I really enjoyed the first game. Haven't really dug my way into the sequel... really wasn't interested in a sequel until at least the next gen, but hey, Ubi got greedy, so here we are.

I was playing Sparks this morning - and I keep struggling, it is incredibly uneven.

There are good moments (maybe a great moment or two?)
...and so many stupid things (not stupid in a funny "I love the silly rabbids" way, but just stupid bad design!)

• The boxes around objects often lead you to being stuck walking the path you picked, b/c the invisible hit box of an object is just huge
• The battles are sometimes wildly tedious, two battles at the same level will give you one, walk in the park done in 2 minutes, and one, what were they thinking, this isn't fun 15 minute slog-fest of tedium. I don't remember thinking the battles in the first game were so different from each other to make me wonder if they were made by different companies.

Overall - Spark is a big let down imo versus the first game. It should be fun, but it has needless complexity and frustrating unevenness that makes it little better than filler.

@JR150 Thanks for sharing your experience with it! That makes me feel a bit better about it because as I said I think the games look great! I just hate those Rabbid designs.

@EVIL-C Ahhh yeah, the gameplay looks great! I know I'd enjoy it, but I don't know what it is about the Rabbids but they put me off.

@AJWolfTill Heh, they are a bit like the Yellow Guys, huh?

Okay, "N64 Rare" is definitely a +1 for this game in my book. I had not really considered that you even did stuff outside of battle? I really like the sound of that! Thanks for the extra info!

@World
Just to temper expectations, there is no jump button, it is in no way a platformer. It's more the side quests, environmental puzzles and general vibes were way closer to Rare games I grew up on than I expected. Also helps that Grant Kirkhope is on soundtrack duty (along with Yoko Shimomura and Gareth Coker)

I loved Kingdom but couldn’t get into Sparks of Hope. The challenge was off in the sequel with reliance on reinforcement portals instead of strategic vision. Rabbids and story are beyond awful.

@AJWolfTill Okay thanks, good to know! That's still pretty cool though!

Ooh, those are some real names; I might have to at least give the soundtrack a listen then!