Mario Kart partially influenced Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Ubisoft on Rayman’s absense
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle takes inspiration from all sorts of games and sources. Among these was actually Mario Kart. Although the two are in completely different genres, creative director Davide Soliani mentioned to Game Informer that the team wanted to translate that action into the Switch game.
Davide said the following when asked how Mario + Rabbids sets itself apart from other strategy titles:
“Since the very beginning, when we started to brainstorm this game, we wanted to come up with something that was totally new. If we were going to propose to Nintendo, we knew we had to have something that they were not used to or that they weren’t already doing. So, we started with the intention of saying we should renew the genre a little bit. We thought that tactical games are known to be slow paced and they tend to be a little niche, so why not try to have something very dynamic and colorful and fast paced. That’s why our first reference was Mario Kart. How cool would it be to try to translate that kind of action into the combat of our game? Compared to a lot of other tactical games, you see enemies taking cover and the heroes are doing the same, and they’re both shooting at each other, but they’re not moving much. In our game, the A.I. is coming towards you, so you must react to the situation, and the action is focused on moving around the battlefield.”
Soliani was also asked by Game Informer if Rayman was ever considered for the game. It was “discussed,” though ultimately the team believed “that the strength of the Rabbids is that they are a white canvas, so you can do pretty much whatever you want.”
As Soliani explained:
“We discussed it, but honestly, we thought that the strength of the Rabbids is that they are a white canvas, so you can do pretty much whatever you want. You can come up with crazy ideas and they work. We tried to bring the same spirit into this game. Mr. Miyamoto kept saying, ‘Show me your colors. Show me your Rabbid’s humor even more. Show me how crazy you can be.’ Of course, Rayman was part of the Rabbids games in the past, but now those are two separate universes.”
