Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is one of the strangest premises for a crossover game that I've seen in recent memory. Take Super Mario Bros, the Raving Rabbids, and XCOM, mix em' all together, and you've got Kingdom Battle.

Easy to understand gameplay with surprising depth; Excellent skill and progression system; Smooth and satisfying combat mechanics; Shooting Rabbids never gets old

The Rabbid humor can be too much at times

There's a number of people who see evil when they look in a Rabbid's eyes. They don't see the playful nature of a mischievous scamp, they see a Bugs Bunny that's befriended Trainspotting's Sick Boy.

Looks like a mainline Mario game; Linking up to cause damage is joy when it comes off; Rabbid Peach

Some battles go on a bit longer than wanted

Despite owing so much to XCOM, this is a fantastically imaginative and enjoyable strategy game that's as accessible as the genre has ever been on consoles.

The core gameplay is simple to learn but surprisingly deep, with the ability to constantly surprise you with new features and enemies; Excellent controls and presentation; Fun co-op mode

Uneven difficulty curve can be frustrating; There's not quite enough to do outside of battles, and it lacks the same depth of options as its obvious inspiration

Ubisoft wheeled out some of the industry's biggest hitters to unveil Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle at this year's E3 Show – Nintendo's Mr Mario himself, Shigeru Miyamoto, along with the French publisher's genial CEO, Yves Guillemot. And why not?

Something strange is about to happen to the Mushroom Kingdom. No Princess Peach hasn't been kidnapped by Bowser. Instead the Rabbids have arrived and well, something has happened to corrupt a whole bunch of them. It is time for the plumbers and crew to arm themselves and shoot them bad guys.

Captures the essence of both Mario and XCOM perfectly; Well designed puzzles; Puns

Multiple phase boss fights; Tactical camera could zoom out a bit more; Later levels lack in enemy variety; Takes really long to unlock all the heroes

Nothing about Mario Rabbids should work. It's enough of a shock that Ubisoft Milan managed to bring together these two worlds so well, then it successfully makes its cast the stars of a genre none of them has ever been near.

There are video games that when I first hear about them I think they have potential. Then I play them, and they are epic. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle on the Nintendo Switch is one such video game. Have you ever had that feeling before

Videogame cross overs are nothing new in gaming but it is seldom that Nintendo opts in for an entire game built from the ground up revolving around two completely different franchises. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle stars two very unlikely worlds that have collided into one awesome Switch game.

It's easy to imagine the surprise of people when it was announced back in the early 1990s that Mario would star in a game about racing on go-karts, or even that Mario would star in his very own RPG developed by none other than SquareSoft, then an absolute king of JRPG.

When Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was formally announced by Ubisoft at E3 earlier this year, the natural first reaction for many – including us – was: what are Rabbids? While most people on this planet have heard of Nintendo's red-and-blue jumper-wearing mascot, Ubisoft's two-legged rabbits – a...

Great art design; Well-explained basics; Infectious charm; Quite dense and complex; Playful animations; Specially designed co-op levels

Music lacks variety; Campaign restricted to single-player; Sudden rise in difficulty