There’s no shortage of fun to be had in Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope. It’s a delightful experience to see the Mario characters interact with a Rabbid universe that’s full of goofiness, silly antics, and comedic moments. As you play the game, it’s easy to get sucked into the joy and humor of it.
From character selection to weapon skin customization options, there are plenty of ways to put your own unique spin on how you play the game. But there are also a lot of things that all of us have done while playing the game.
7/7 Try Out Every New Hero And Spark Immediately
Sparks of Hope features nine Heroes, each with their distinct set of weapons and abilities. It’s only natural to begin your play through by testing out which characters you prefer. You start out with six—Mario, Luigi, Peach, and their Rabbid versions—and unlock Edge, Rabbid Rosalina, and Bowser along the way. The game forces you to include the unlockable characters in battle right after meeting them, but experimenting with the new additions to the team is exciting.
The same thing goes for Sparks, the Luma-Rabbid hybrids you rescue during your journey. Each Spark has its own unique set of powers or abilities to help the Heroes out, ranging from shielding to elemental damage to attack power boosts. Once unlocked, the first thing you might do is equip the Spark to try them out in the next battle you come across. Just like with the Heroes, you’ve got to find out which Spark works best with your team and strategy.
6/7 Create Teams Based On Characters, Not Strategy
You start the game with two players in your party, but eventually gain a third slot. Most battles and quests don’t require a specific Hero, so you can build the team you want. While team strategy comes down to picking a good blend of long-range and short-range attack characters, it’s also fun to think about the relationships between characters and build a team that way.
For example, maybe you want Mario, Luigi, and Bowser on a team, or you want to pair up Mario with his Rabbid version. Maybe build a team of all Rabbids. While not entirely based on Hero traits and weapons, this method of team-building is still fun to think about. After all, how often do you get to team up Peach and Bowser? Or Luigi with his doppelganger? We all enjoy playing with the relationship dynamics of a party.
5/7 Search For All The Funny Rabbid NPCs
Mario and Rabbids are an unusual combination, but a very welcome one, with humor and random moments that are reminiscent of the Paper Mario series. The highlight of each world are the Rabbid NPCs doing and saying funny things. From the very first moment in the game, as you wander around the courtyard of Peach’s Castle, there are Rabbids everywhere, hiding in hedges, getting into mischief, and just living their best lives.
Searching for all these goofball Rabbids is part of the fun of each new world, just to see what antics they're up to. They add life and color to the game and to its humorous tone. It’s only natural to get distracted laughing at the Rabbids’ silliness.
4/7 Battle Goofs
Sparks of Hope uses a turn-based, tactical battle system that’s engaging and challenging. Each turn, your Heroes are limited in how far they can move and the number of attacks or power-ups they can use. With so much to keep track of, it’s easy to forget some of the basics.
Maybe you used an Item and forgot it counts as one of your actions. Or maybe you try to fire a weapon at an enemy you had a 0% chance of hitting. Or it could be that you fired your weapon, but forgot to take cover first (No? Just me?). There’s so much that can go wrong during combat, so it’s only natural near the beginning of the game that you forget an aspect or two of the battle system. We’ve all been there.
3/7 Immediately Turn Fast Forward Enemies On
One of the mildly annoying aspects of turn-based combat systems is waiting through enemies to take their turns. Sure, it’s fair to let the bad guys have a chance to take the Heroes down, but when you have a ton of enemies on the board, it can take a bit of time to sit through. Thankfully, Sparks of Hope lets you fast-forward enemies’ turns.
And, without a doubt, fast-forward is turned on during the first battle, and never turned off again. It helps so much in improving the pacing of battle.
2/7 Regret Not Stocking Up On Mushrooms
One surprising aspect of Sparks of Hope is the relative lack of Item availability and healing abilities. There are a couple of shops along the path of the main quests in each world where you can buy a bunch of Mushrooms to restore health in battle. However, it’s rare to find a Mushroom lying around to discover or earn through winning a battle, and only one of the Heroes, Rabbid Peach, has the ability to heal other characters.
If you’re grinding through battle after battle, eventually, you’ll be running low on health and realize you forgot to restock on Mushrooms. Sometimes, you can pull through, but other times, the lack of healing costs you the battle. Keeping up with your Mushroom count is easy to overlook, so make sure you buy them in bulk when you can.
1/7 Get Sidetracked By Side Quests
The main quests of Sparks of Hope are relatively straightforward, leading you on a path through each world as you tackle various enemies and a couple of bosses. But each world is also populated with numerous side quests, which range from solving additional puzzles to taking down enemies of a particular type.
You naturally run into side quests as you progress through the main story, but you can also see where each one is on your map. It’s very easy to get distracted by helping out Rabbids and the occasional Toad with their problems. They’re just so cute, after all!
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