" We really wanted to be true to the best aspects of the franchise - plenty of action, trippy and amazing worlds, great graphics, engaging gameplay and wacky characters! "
As a sequel it may not be a strict improvement in absolutely all areas, but there is so much to love here!
Kingdom Battle did not resolve and undo the Rabbid crossover by its end, and Sparks of Hope picks up in a newly harmonious Mushroom Kingdom with generic Rabbids frolicking and the Rabbid hybrid characters coexisting with their counterparts. But a visitor from space leads to a very Mario Galaxy-inspired new adventure where the heroes must battle new foe Cursa who clearly has nothing to do with Rosalina, surely??
The Time Washing Machine has been retooled as a spaceship and in it you visit a series of… floating chunks of land in space, in the Galaxy vein (only without nauseating gravity shenanigans). These worlds are patterned after the seasons, a rather plain theme but they manage to make the locations feel charismatic and alive despite this. The late game does eventually break from this theme with a mechanical/wasteland planet, followed by DLC adventures set in a musical jungle and a run-down TV station.
A great strength of Sparks of Hope is its characters; the heroes from the first game return, with the exception of Yoshi and Rabbid Yoshi, and all retain their personalities, be it the Mario cast's bland archetypes or the Rabbid hybrids' subversive silliness (aside from Rabbid Luigi who has lost some of his fun goofiness in a redesign). Most of them now talk in written text boxes which is a nice change, and almost all characters have partial voice lines or quips accompanying these. Beep-0 the stuck-up robot puck even has full voice lines as does the new polyhedral Jeanie, the ship's computer! I do have to wonder why everyone didn't get this treatment, though.
Added to the main cast are the aptly named Edge, a cool, tough, and mysterious Rabbid OC, along with the apathetic and dozy Rabbid Rosalina, plus Bowser who is in fine form as a reluctant ally in keeping with his appearances in the other [good] Mario RPGs where he's allowed to speak. Facing off against you (sometimes) are the Spark Hunters, a villain team of elite minions of Cursa created in a second merge event; oddly, some planets don't really have a boss battle and I would have liked more interaction with these femme fatales. Each planet has one or two major NPCs, Rabbids with nice distinctive designs and personalities, as well as personal backstories that are explored partially through murals in creatively different styles. It's a little confusing how they can have such complex histories when the merge that created this crossover was so recent, but I'm willing to gloss over inconsistencies like that because the cast of side characters and their stories are so fun and engaging.
Exploring the planetoids in the story is a much more free and open prospect compared to the first game's smaller spaces and locked-in camera. The hub zones are expansive with many side objectives and secrets, as well as optional battles. There are even respawning enemy encounters, in generic and repeating battlefields. This means being completionist like me will take a long time (my completed file was approaching 60 hours including all DLCs!!) and may become a little tedious, but the large cast lets you experiment even early on with your party loadout; thankfully, without any restrictions—like having to always have Mario or prescribing a Rabbid character—this time. I liked to avoid using healing items to force myself into more of an endurance mode, swapping out characters as they became injured and thus trying new combinations.
Every character seems to have been buffed in fun ways; they all have unique weapons now, which have their own powerful properties in battle. While it's a little stricter in turn order, as you can no longer move after shooting, in most other ways there's a lot of freedom to the tactical gameplay. You have direct control over characters, and can move as you please within their range. Gone is the grid (except for the purposes of cover), so the open feeling of the overworld carries over into the battles as well. Skill trees offer significant benefits and can be adjusted on the fly between battles, and with the eponymous Sparks (a species of Rabbid/Luma hybrids who serve both as MacGuffins and as gameplay-modifying collectibles) you can add two new active and passive abilities and swap them between characters.
Many Sparks tie into the revamped elemental/effect system, with enemy types having strengths and weaknesses for certain effects. This means a lot of bloat in the Spark roster, with various slots given over to fire/water/ice/ooze/electric/etc. variants of "add effect to weapon", "add effect to dash", and "do elemental damage in a wave/with meteor projectiles". This leaves a scarce few that have broader or more creative powers, which seems a shame. I relied heavily on the one that pulls enemies towards you and late-game ones that summon enemy types on your side, which were equal parts powerful and chaotic.
Actually getting more powerful requires levelling up with experience gained from battles and main quests, with many rewards being simply cosmetic. So the game does approach the infamous Ubisoft open world/bloated/grindy tendencies but doesn't go too far. The difficulty is also adjustable now, but the one time I failed a battle (in a DLC zone) I chose to come back later after getting stronger, only to find a totally different and much easier battlefield layout, so there's some kind of randomisation going on; good for replays maybe but it made me feel that the arenas were not designed and tailored with as much careful thought as I had expected.
I had two other moderately-sized complaints. Firstly, I was feeling the limitations of the underpowered Switch 1 much more so than the first game; the occasional slowdown wasn't too bad but the load times are as egregious as in Animal Crossing New Horizons, exacerbated by how much you go in and out of spaces in the overworld and have to load in and out of battles. Secondly, I felt that the musical identity wasn't as strong despite enlisting the legendary Yoko Shimamura (and Gareth Coker who seems formidable in his own right although I'm not familiar with his work) in addition to the returning Grant Kirkhope. It just felt more blandly orchestral, not as memorable by half as the jaunty melodies in the first game.
To address the added content, the first DLC pack has rogeulike elements as you do a series of battles to rescue Spawny the put-upon Rabbid from the first game (he barely appears). This has potential for diehards to have a lot of fun but I'd had quite enough repetition in the main game once I'd got to this point so only cleared it once. The second pack is a whole huge new planet, set at the endgame but with a separate file that boosts the level cap and adds new Sparks and enemy types. It felt odd that it wasn't slotted into the main game progression but maybe they didn't want to unbalance the final fight, whatever. There's a new threatening Spark Hunter who gets decent screentime as antagonist, and another planet story just as great as any in the base game.
The final pack is more Donkey Kong Adventure-style, with a set party, abbreviated skill trees, and a guest party member. Yes, Rayman is back for another clash with the Rabbids for the first time since TV Party in 2008! (Not counting their appearance in events in Adventure.) There's a lot of fun, if minor, references to Rayman's friends and adventures to be found, and Rayman's moveset is complex and cool much like Donkey Kong's, making use of plungers and costumes just like in the various Rayman Raving Rabbids games. The Phantom from the first game reprises his larger-than-life role complete with vocal songs (translated into multiple languages this time!), and it even ends with Rayman staying at the TV studio, which you could see as a link to his next appearance as a TV host in the Captain Laserhawk show… if you really wanted to. I was especially tickled by the soundtrack which reuses Rayman Origins-isms like the kazoo, whistling, and jaw harp, and indeed Christophe Héral was brought back to contribute to composition for this DLC! Needless to say I thoroughly enjoyed this little love letter to Rayman and the Rabbids' shared history and as the final word on the Mario + Rabbids series it was very sweet.
While Sparks of Hope has some minor steps back or lateral moves coming from Kingdom Battle, it also makes a lot of smart choices expanding on the fun and dynamic gameplay of the original. While you may prefer either SoH's maximalism or KB's purity, I think this excels at actually being a crossover; where the Mario elements in Kingdom Battle felt superfluous at times, that universe is better integrated here. At the same time, Sparks of Hope leans way further into doing its own weird thing with Rabbid OCs and sci-fi silliness, which I adored… all the more impressive that it was able to do both! The advancements and rough edges do make one wonder what might have been in a hypothetical third instalment, but with Davide Soliani leaving and Ubisoft's continuing gradual implosion, that day may never come. So we must cherish what we got because these two games and their expansions are flippin' fantastic, in fact!
Prince of Persia The Sands of Time - Teaser Trailer | Ubisoft Forward
The remake of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time will launch in 2026. It is now simply titled Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, rather than Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, and specific platforms have not been announced.
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The remake of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time confirmed the targeted year of release, through a poetic vision of a flame reignited. In 2026, players will get to reconnect with their beloved Prince, in an adventure rebuilt from the ground up, which captures the magic of the original game. The game successfully completed its pre-production phase and is now entering full production, with Ubisoft Toronto, Ubisoft Bucharest, Ubisoft Pune, and E-Studio joining forces with Ubisoft Montreal.
In order to address a desire for participation from a larger number of players, the Just Dance 2017 introduced the ability for players to use their smart device as a controller for the game. In addition to addressing a major need, it also lowers the bar of entry in terms of cost for the party game by using a device that many people own at this point.
I swear the rebels in Ghost Recon Wildlands should never ever bring in Helicopters, ever...They always spawn them in the worst places that either glitch them into objects or spawn them in an area that will get them blown up if used.
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