You freely move your team members around open combat areas rather than sticking to a strict grid, taking cover and lining up attacks before ending your turn. Techno abilities let characters boost or heal each other between fights, and exploring each planet's hub area turns up side quests and collectibles. It softens some of the earlier game's rules to keep things moving, which longtime strategy fans may notice as easier overall.
Gameplay video
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Screenshots & review notes
Overall
The sequel trades the original's grid-locked combat for freeform movement, and while it loses some of that game's puzzle-box precision, it gains a looser, more expressive rhythm.
Moment to moment
Free movement across the battlefield opens up flanking options the first game never had, making fights feel more like scrappy skirmishes than chess problems.
Art and atmosphere
Each planet has its own distinct visual identity and a surprisingly earnest emotional arc, wrapped in colors so vivid they practically glow on the Switch screen.
Worth your time?
A satisfying pick for anyone who liked the first game and wanted more room to experiment. It's a big adventure, maybe a touch too big by the final stretch.
Frames captured from the gameplay video above; notes are our own take on the game.
What it's like to play
You control a squad of Mario and Rabbid characters across open areas, moving freely within a highlighted range rather than snapping to a strict grid like the first game, which makes positioning feel looser and faster from your very first battle. Combat still comes down to choosing between movement, cover, and attacks each turn, but now each character can equip two Sparks, small star-shaped creatures that grant abilities like elemental damage or automatic healing, and mixing and matching these is a large part of building an effective team. The cast has grown too, adding characters like Rabbid Rosalina and eventually Bowser himself, each with a distinct role in a fight. Outside of battles, you explore small open planets on foot, talking to characters and picking up side quests at your own pace.
Each planet mixes light puzzle solving, optional objectives, and hidden Sparks to collect with the actual tactical battles that make up the core of the game, so a chunk of your time is spent simply wandering and poking around before you even reach the next fight. As you progress, fights grow tougher and ask you to think carefully about which two Sparks to pair on each character, and difficulty settings let you adjust the challenge if a fight feels unfair. A single planet with its side content can take a few hours to fully explore, and the whole adventure runs comfortably over twenty hours for players who explore thoroughly. Boss encounters remain a highlight, including another elaborate musical sequence.
Session to session, the freer movement makes individual turns feel quicker and less fussy than strict grid tactics games, though players who loved the precision of the original may find positioning slightly less exact. What might frustrate you is some repetitive collectible hunting scattered across the open planet areas, along with occasional slowdown when a planet gets busy. It suits both newcomers to tactics games thanks to its friendlier pace and returning fans who enjoyed the original's core combat ideas.