Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Enemy hits six 50% shots in a row, I miss all mine. Yep, it’s XCOM alright… ;)

Big issue though… if playing with a Pro Controller docked, then pick the Switch up for a bit of seamless portable play - the joycon controls don’t work. :(

I had to go into the Switch controls menu and stuff about with ‘change grip/order’, to kill the Pro and re-bind the joycons.

Weird. You’d think that sort of thing would be hardwired at the system level, or at the very least in Nintendo’s cert requirements. Only had time to watch the intro on the way into work. My commute is messed up thanks to all the engineering works on south London trains, so I should have time to play a few missions on the way home.

Supposedly it has an easy mode for those who are new to this type of game.

It doesn’t have an overall difficulty setting, but the game does ask you on a mission-by-mission bases what difficulty you want to try for that level.

My understanding is you can make any individual mission easy if you really get stuck. It was delivered! Hoping to try it tonight.

I expect to love the heck outta this one so I’m probably going to get the season pass digitally as it is rumored to include the pre-order “Pixel Pack” as a bundled bonus which was previously not an option for digitial (I just prefer everything on th Switch for portability).

Can anyone confirm:

  1. Buying the season pass from the eShop gives the Pixel Pack
  2. The Pixel Pack weapons are not just skins/stats but are different in some tangible way (which is of value since playing cooperative you can switch load outs and skills on each play)

For those that are curious, the season pass also gets you a set of steampunk themed weapons now, more co-op and solo missions this fall, and some extra story levels in 2018.

Apparently for Amazon preorders they actually ship on day one, don’t arrive on release day? Mine hasn’t actually shipped yet but the order status page says it will today…

Mine shipped 2 days ago but it says USPS had a delay so it won’t come till tomorrow :(. I think I"m going to change to GCU for preorders from now on.

I pre-ordered mine a few months back and it arrived today. I think it depends on when you pre-order. If you only ordered it over the weekend, for example, I don’t think you qualify for the free bump to release day delivery.

That could be it, I ordered last week.

It’s fun so far, but I don’t love it either. That’s only an hour or so of gameplay.

Overland map: can’t say I enjoy trying to make sure I find all the secrets. I also want a map. Maybe there is one but I haven’t discovered it?

Interface: I don’t quite get it yet. I could have sworn I found a new weapon for instance, but I don’t see a place in the weapon selection screen that shows it. I can buy weapons, but don’t see an inventory of the stuff I have found. I see the library of stuff that shows collectibles though. For collectibles, I don’t care about finding all the music tracks, etc, so I am not seeing the charm there.

Battles: they are fun so far. I have to think about them and plan ahead, but, they feel puzzley. There is a grading system that goes by turns taken and deaths (I think). It doesn’t look like you can chose placement or anything else. It feels like Advance Wars in this way, there is a right way to do a mission and a wrong way, you need to figure it out.

I am very early yet, and definitely feel like I need to play it more, but as someone who doesn’t like puzzle strategy games, I am not sure if I would have bought it. It’s more Advance Wars than Xcom so far. (And I did not like Advance Wars.)

Played some more tonight, upgraded some weapons and skills. It is very fun and addicting. I am getting the hang of it now so it’s less frustrating. Still not very clear on how everything works though.

The game is all about cover. Behind full cover an enemy can’t hit you unless they flank you. Behind half cover it’s a 50% shot. It looks like that changes with weapon upgrades though.

So far it’s not difficult, but you can’t just charge in either. You’ll die quickly if you do, even in the early levels. Always have to make sure you’re covered and ensure the rabbids can’t flank you with one of the many tubes or a using a jump.

So, with the addition of tubes or jumps there is an added dimension to the tactics.

Is there a randomizer at work (like in xcom)?

I don’t completely follow the question. There is a chance to hit and miss when you take a shot, with cover being a huge factor, is that what you are asking?

I got through 1-3 last night (I think that was it…) and while the gameplay is cool and just starting to ramp up, I really love the setting, the creativity and the humor! Rabbids have been a fun favorite for us since they first appeared years ago in Rayman Raving Rabbids on the Wii. Their crazy hijinks create a great backdrop for this ridiculous mash up of worlds.

The thing that I dig the most so far is that it’s just ultra-accessible. The between levels exploration is a nice break from the tactical action and there’s a lot of fun stuff in the backgrounds to gander at. Once you’re in the tactics though, it really is a more hardcore experience with planning and calculation required. It reminds me most of how Square took Mario and turned it into an RPG with Super Mario RPG years ago. They had a core game style they wanted to make and instead of just shoehorning Mario in, they really mashed him up with their own stuff to make something new. That’s exactly how this succeeds for me so far.

Rabbids are stupid fun, too. Mario plays the straight man in this one. Good times.

Just finished the Ancient Gardens. I did lose one battle, but that was just pure stupidity on my part being too cocky with the rabbids that charge when you hit them. Nothing too taxing yet. The mid-stage boss was more difficult than the end-stage boss, who was quite easy.

I am playing on easy, but don’t see how to change that. Maybe when you go back to past stages you can increase it?

I take back my initial thought that it is too puzzley, once you open up weapons and skills, it doesn’t feel like there is a certain way you have to do the battle. It’s not quite Xcom either because the maps often force you in a certain direction.

I feel like I am missing something obvious on the end of battle screen. It shows a flag with a number on it, turns taken, crew who made it, and your rating. What is the number on the flag mean? Why does it sometimes show multiple flags, which look like they are from previous battles, and other times only the flag for the last battle?

And don’t go to the multiplayer thing unless you want to play multiplayer. There doesn’t seem to be a way to exit without adding controllers short of exiting the game.

I thought it’s just a thing you can activate at the start of each stage, to heal and give you extra health for that battle? It’s not actually a persistent setting, the game is always set to the same difficulty.

Ahh ok, that makes sense, thank you. When it said Y “Easy” I thought that was supposed to be to change the difficulty.

As for my flag question above. It was a stupid question. Each stage has 1-3 fights (so far), that are in order and you can’t heal in between them. It isn’t always obvious that is what is going on, at least for me. So stage 1-4 might be 3 fights in a row that you get a trophy for. At the end of the last battle you are healed completely.

Get a package from Amazon in the mail, get excited, then realize it’s an audio cable I ordered Tuesday and not M&R that I preordered a month ago…