Nintendo Switch Mario Spin-Off Game With an 86 Critic Rating is Just $5.99 for a Limited Time

The well-reviewed Mario spin-off Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is available for $6.99 for a limited time. This year marks the fourth anniversary of the release of this tactical RPG, which is a crossover between Nintendo’s Mario and Ubisoft’s Rabbids franchises. However, the connection between these two series goes even further, as Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is a sequel to Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, which debuted in 2017. The newer game is described as a spiritual successor to the first, offering a fresh take on tactical gameplay by expanding it beyond the Mushroom Kingdom and enriching it with galactic locations.

A year after its release, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope has received three expansion packs, with the latest DLC featuring Rayman. The game was seen as an improvement over Kingdom Battle, receiving positive reviews from critics and even winning the Best Sim/Strategy Game category at The Game Awards in 2022. Reviews praised the game primarily for its graphics, soundtrack, and enhancements to the battle system, which resulted in a score of 86 on OpenCritic. Despite its positive reception, Ubisoft admitted that Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope did not meet its sales expectations, stating that the game significantly underperformed commercially, which also had an impact on the company’s other projects.

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Mario Spin-Off Game On Sale for a Limited Time

Although it has been several years since the game’s release, players now have a good opportunity to show their interest in it once again. A discount on Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope has appeared on the Nintendo eShop, reducing its price from $59.99 to $5.99. Thanks to this special offer, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 users in North America can purchase the game at a price 90% lower than the original, but they only have until March 16 to do so. Although this tactical role-playing video game is exclusive to the Nintendo Switch, players who own the Switch 2 can also play it thanks to backward compatibility.

A discount of this magnitude on Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is highly unusual, as no other game available exclusively on the Nintendo Switch has ever been this cheap. And considering that this game can take anywhere from 20 to about 35 hours to complete, players will be getting serious bang for their buck. Although Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is playable on both of the aforementioned consoles, fans hoping for its a native release on Nintendo’s latest device will likely be disappointed, as the title does not appear on the lists of titles launching on Switch 2, and there are no rumors about it either. The release of a third game in this crossover series also seems unlikely, given that its director, David Soliani, left Ubisoft in 2024, although he has recently expressed his desire to collaborate with Nintendo again.

Although Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is merely a spin-off of the main Mario franchise games, the gaming community has continued to show interest in the title, leading to a sales resurgence in 2024 that resulted in Ubisoft reaching a total of 3 million copies sold worldwide. Initiatives like this limited-time promotion help draw the gaming community’s attention, although it remains to be seen how much it will help boost sales of Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope in such a short period of time.