Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

That artwork looks hideous, what's going on with Mario's head?

I don't see anything particularly offensive about the game, it looks like just another spin-off Mario game with Rabbids inserted into it because marketing. Maybe this is their way of filling up the gap Mario Party left behind, which I'm assuming is probably a dead franchise by now. I'm at least mildly interested to see what it looks like.

I found more stuff:

oh brother

I remember seeing 'badass' used to describe Betilla in the Rayman Origins manual so either Ubisoft has some weird fondness for the word or its not as bad as you think.

I can't take games that use terms like "badass", "sassy" and "macho" to describe their characters seriously. Some people love that the characters become caricatures of themselves but it makes the whole game feel less honest and more like a bad joke, and that's part of the reason why some people here thought UbiArt Rayman sucked. When will they learn that humor can ruin whole games for the people who don't like that style of humor...

Uhhuh, but neither game is trying to be taken seriously. Mario characters are all caricatures in the first place, and Betilla had practically no personality in Rayman 1 either, no? I've noticed you feel like Origins had like a slight "hip with the kidz" thing going which I've never felt about the game, the slapstick humour is all fitting and doesn't come across shallow to me like the Rabbids.

Drolpiraat said:

When will they learn that humor can ruin whole games for the people who don't like that style of humor...

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This reminds me of when I ordered bangers n mash and they forgot the gravy so I asked for a cup and the waiter went "oh well you see not everyone likes gravy so I left it off."

The gravy analogy is pretty dumb because gravy is fine on some things that it normally goes with, but will you be happy if you want to order ice cream, only to find out they only serve it with gravy now? That would ruin ice cream forever.
I don't mind the Rabbids getting the "hip with the kidz" treatment since they've always had that - it's part of that series' identity - but Rayman (and Mario) is a different story.

Rayman didn't get that treatment before, at least not visually. Rayman 3 had bad humor injected into its dialogue and that was the main complaint from the fanbase. With Rayman Origins, I know my niece didn't buy it because of the character designs - "they all looked stupid". If it wasn't for the Rayman name I wouldn't have considered buying it (which is what I mean by "taking it seriously". I'm obviously not such an idiot that I would try to see Rabbids as a serious attempt to create a work of art).

UbiArt Rayman has a different kind of humor that's less obnoxious than in the Rabbids games, sure, but they've really gone from a charming French comic book style in R1 and R2 to a caricature style similar to a lot of current American cartoons. Before you start saying they were already caricatures, perhaps go look up the definition of that word. They never were before RO, nor are the Mario characters for that matter. As for Betilla having no personality, I think her sprite was charming enough and that's definitely better than the personality of a crackhead that literally everyone had in RO.

Drolpiraat said:

The gravy analogy is pretty dumb because gravy is fine on some things that it normally goes with, but will you be happy if you want to order ice cream, only to find out they only serve it with gravy now? That would ruin ice cream forever.

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My point was more that it's a different product altogether, and that I don't think we can really fault the new games for not appealing to the audience of the previous ones. The series had a clear shift in focus when deciding who to appeal to, and while I would much rather be playing another game in the vein of the trilogy, people who want an entirely different vision for the games are irrelevant to all that. I think it's more like if the ice cream parlour decided to stop serving flavours you liked, or the parlour shuts down and reopens as a gravy store and you come in asking for a sorbet. The new flavours or the gravy aren't necessarily bad, we just wanted the fucking pistachio ice cream and not something else.

Drolpiraat said:

UbiArt Rayman has a different kind of humor that's less obnoxious than in the Rabbids games, sure, but they've really gone from a charming French comic book style in R1 and R2 to a caricature style similar to a lot of current American cartoons.

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I mean that's subjective of course and I'm also not getting a hard on from the new direction but I do think there's a lot of charm to the new games and it's a solid direction. Shitty cartoons opt for overly simplified artstyles and rely on Randumb xD humour mostly because it's cheap and easy, neither of which is true about Raymang.

Drolpiraat said:

Before you start saying they were already caricatures, perhaps go look up the definition of that word. They never were before RO, nor are the Mario characters for that matter.

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Well you're right, Peach has too little personality to really be anything. Knowing Nintendo's guidelines on representing el Mario though I'm sure she'll be the usual character in the game itself.

Drolpiraat said:

As for Betilla having no personality, I think her sprite was charming enough and that's definitely better than the personality of a crackhead that literally everyone had in RO.

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Achually the fairies just kind of smile.

Keane said:

I think it's more like if the ice cream parlour decided to stop serving flavours you liked, or the parlour shuts down and reopens as a gravy store and you come in asking for a sorbet. The new flavours or the gravy aren't necessarily bad, we just wanted the fucking pistachio ice cream and not something else.

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Haha, good point. Except that it's quite aggrevating that the store shut down and reopened as a gravy store under the same name, selling gravy under the name "ice cream"

Keane said:

Achually the fairies just kind of smile.

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It's the way their faces look that gives them that personality.
They all also kinda flirt with Rayman immediately after he rescues them, at least that's what I get when they take on a pose that's probably meant to be seductive, look at him from an angle, raise their eyebrows and wiggle their hips: For some reason, the animators also felt the need to animate their boobs even when they're trapped inside the Darktoons.
I don't really mind all that personally since they don't appear much and it would actually be funny if the whole game didn't have that kind of humor, but it really destroys the "sweet and innocent" image Betilla had in R1 and its spinoffs.
What I do mind are the faces, which admittedly aren't that bad on the fairies but are on the other characters like Globox and in promotional material:

They did that to pretty much all of the characters that looked too "pure" before, making even Rayman look like an idiot (and making him act like one, if you saw the backstory about his hair or the first trailer) and giving a completely different vibe to the game.

Well it's starting to look rather interesting, definitely not my kind of game but Mario and the Rabbids seem to go well together.

I've gotta say, I really like the way the Mario characters look. It kind of looks like it's based off of the Mario Odyssey redesign, which I loved the instant I saw it.

Drolpiraat said:

As for Betilla having no personality, I think her sprite was charming enough and that's definitely better than the personality of a crackhead that literally everyone had in RO.

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The thing is, pretty much everyone in Origins is the exact same character. Rayman, Globox, Betilla, even the Bubble Dreamer - basically zero difference in personality.

Apparently more info:

I will leave the pondering to you guys.

Fascinating, I'm still not so keen on the whole relevant edginess that seems to permeate through the project, but gameplay wise, it sounds interesting.

DK invented the dab.

Has anyone seen the new Amiibos that have been leaked? It almost seems like Ubisoft doesn't give a shit about this game

now THIS is the sequel to Super Mario RPG ive waited for

I haven't seen much of the footage, but looking at the reactions, people are actually sounding rather impressed with what they're showing of this crossover.

Anyways, I think it's time the OP was modified, since it's official.

The game is really impressive and looks like it plays really well. Given rabbids humour i'd doubt it'd be a game i'd pick up personally but provided it plays the same as it did on stage I wouldn't argue against it being a good game

It actually looked good, not great but not bad either. I think the reason why I like it better than I expected is because the gameplay demo didn't focus on rabbids humour at all. And that's the best thing for them to do right now.

I am actually very surprised how fun this looks, and the release date is much sooner than I thought.
I love Ubisoft's take on the mushroom kingdom, and also the Mario characters feel like they have some type of personality to them.