Video Game / Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Mario, his friends, and the Raving Rabbids in a crossover for the ages.

Mario's been host to a lot of strange crossovers over the years. The plucky plumber has gone to the Olympics with former rival Sonic the Hedgehog, played basketball with NBA all-stars (and the Beastie Boys) in NBA Street V3, hit the slopes in SSX, dabbled in a bit of Puzzle & Dragons, busted a move in Dance Dance Revolution, played some sports with the some Final Fantasy characters (and a Slime), brokered stocks and made real estate deals with Dragon Quest characters, saw his villains make a visit to the world of Skylanders, fought the entire Nintendo pantheon (and then some), and even teamed up with a paper version of himself!

So what happens when you put Mario and the Rabbids in one game? Well, not exactly what you would expect..

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is a Nintendo Switch-exclusive Turn-Based Tactics adventure game by Ubisoft Milan. Released on August 29, 2017, it's a crossover between Mario and Raving Rabbids (obviously).

During one of their time-traveling escapades (a hobby previously established in Raving Rabbids Travel in Time), the Rabbids find themselves in the basement laboratory of a Super Mario fangirl and get their hands on her newest invention: a Merging Machine known as the Supa-Merge. Accidentally using it on their time machine and a bunch of Mario memorabilia, the Rabbids open up a dimensional rift from their universe to the Mushroom Kingdom that causes the latter world to become unstable. Furthermore, the Supa-Merge has gone haywire in the process, and is corrupting all but a handful of Rabbids to villainy. Now Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Peach have to save the Mushroom Kingdom from both the invading twisted Rabbids and Bowser Jr., who wants to claim the Supa-Merge while his father is on vacation, alongside a few Rabbids who haven't turned evil.

Donkey Kong Adventure, a new original story featuring Donkey Kong was released as Downloadable Content in June 2018. Taking place sometime after the events of the main campaign's first world, it's a sidestory that pits Donkey Kong, Rabbid Peach, and Rabbid Cranky against Rabbid Kong in brand new levels.

On June 12, 2021, a sequel to the game was announced. Titled Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, it sees Mario and the Rabbids journeying through outer space to defeat a malevolent entity. It was released on October 20, 2022.

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Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle and Donkey Kong Adventure contain examples of:

Both Modes

• 100% Completion: For the main game, doing all Story Mode stages, finding all treasures, and completing all Challenges eventually turns the chosen game file with all done gold. The Donkey Kong Adventure DLC adds in finding the 20 Puzzle Pieces.
• Action Initiative: Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, and Rabbid Cranky each have a primary technique (Hero Sight, Steely Stare, Royal Gaze, Egg Beater, Hairy Eye, and Stinky Eye respectively) that allows them to instantly blast any enemy that runs into their range of fire. The enemy Rabbids also have a version of this technique that the game calls "Villain Sight".
• Added Alliterative Appeal:
  • Dozens of the weapons, including the Piranha Pelter, Piston Panic, Luigi Longshot, Denim Destroyer, Luau Launcher, Bullion Blaster, Maki Marauder, and Mushroom Marauder.
  • Most of the Steampunk weapons have this in their names, including the Calamitous Coupe, the Jeopardous Jalopy, the Defalcating Dandy, and the Exalted Entropic Eggs.
  • Most of the Pixel Pack weapons have this in their names, including the Boom Broom, and Cartridge Commander.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Power Orbs/Power Runes are earned as a party, but every character gets to spend the same total individually, and can re-spec anytime you can access the upgrade screen. All of this encourages experimentation with what skills you unlock when and removes the worry of screwing a later character out of viability.
• Art Shift: While everyone looks on-model, the art design itself is even brighter and more cartoony than mainline Mario games.
• Barrier Warrior:
  • The Rabbid protagonists (except Rabbid Cranky) have shield abilities with varying purposes and levels of effectiveness, contrasting with the action abilities of the Mushroom Kingdom characters.
    • Rabbid Peach's Shield is a general-purpose barrier that reduces damage from movement-based and weapon-based attacks.
    • Rabbid Luigi's Super Barrier stops all Super Effects and slightly reduces movement-based and weapon-based damage, but can be upgraded to block more of both.
    • Rabbid Mario's Bodyguard allows him to almost entirely negate movement-based damage (and upgrades let him fully negate it) and slightly reduce weapon-based damage.
    • Rabbid Yoshi's Outer Shell lets him almost entirely negate movement-based and weapon-based damage (and can be upgraded to completely shut down both), with the catch that unlike the other shields, which last for a whole turn from use, his is a Single-Use Shield (which can be upgraded to a Double-Use Shield).
  • Princess Peach also has the Protection ability, which protects nearby teammates by letting them transfer a portion of damage taken from an attack to Peach. Upgrades allow a greater percentage of damage to be absorbed by Peach, which works together with her high HP and healing abilities.
• Batman Grabs a Gun: Mario and his Mushroom Kingdom cohorts have no choice but to pack heat to stop the Rabbid invasion.
• Call-Back: The Rabbids still have their Time Travelling Washing Machine.
• Cast Speciation: Enforced Trope. The game does not allow a team compositon of all Mario or all Rabbid characters, and Mario is mandatory meaning that you'll never be able to have three characters with Overwatch or Shield specials on a team at once.
• Combos: You can hit enemies several times in a turn, such as doing a Dash into them, hitting them with a weapon that makes them move, such as Mario and Luigi's Bounce-effect weapons, then having another teammate use their Action Initiative to attack them in midair (not unlike Resonance of Fate).
• Continuity Nod:
  • The World 3 boss, Phantom, begins his operetta by insulting Mario's mustache, just like bosses in previous games, like Chief Chilly. The rest of the song continues to make nods and direct references to various aspects of the Super Mario Bros. franchise.
  • In World 3, when you first find the Gold Gramophone, you can see a portrait of King Boo underneath it.
  • Donkey Kong Adventure's range of unlockable weapons include five weapons modeled after the original five Animal Buddies from Donkey Kong Country. In addition, Rabbid Cranky can unlock a Barrel Bolt modeled after the oil kegs from the original Donkey Kong.
• Crossover: Between Super Mario Bros. and Raving Rabbids, naturally.
• Denser and Wackier: The insanity of the Rabbids combined with the already weird world of Mario creates one of the most bizarre games in either franchise.
• Evolving Title Screen:
  • When you start a fresh copy of the game, you will see a shot of a perfectly normal Peach's Castle. Once you've started a game, the title screen changes to show the Rabbids trashing it. In addition, the Peach's Castle hub level (which the title screen pans through) gains background detritus from each world once you complete that world.
  • The title screen will change depending on the last mode you played: Peach's Castle for the main story, a fountain of Rabbid Kong for Donkey Kong Adventure, and an arcade machine playing the versus mode menu song for Versus Mode.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: The firearms wielded by Mario and the gang, and their Rabbid counterparts, are all colorful and toy-like, and they fire energy blasts or beams instead of ammo. Donkey Kong wields various silly boomerang-shaped items, while Rabbid Cranky has a crossbow that can take many forms, including airplanes and clotheslines.
• Fastball Special:
  • In the main game, when the Sunflower is stingy with his reward Rabbid Peach throws a bunch of rocks and Rabbid Luigi at him.
  • In the Donkey Kong Adventure DLC, Donkey Kong can throw his teammates. Downplayed as he can't throw them specifically at enemies, although Rabbid Cranky can perform his Grump Jump out of a Donkey Kong throw.
• Fixed Damage Attack: Several attacks will always do the same amount of damage, and can be upgraded to do a higher, but still consistent amount of damage. Additionally, weapons and moves that have damage dropoff will still do lower damage if you hit with the outermost part of the move. Fixed damage moves include:
  • Dashing through an enemy (can be upgraded). Rabbid Mario's Boom Dash has dropoff.
  • Mario's Stomp Jump (can be upgraded).
  • A Critical Hit with any weapon (the damage value changes with the weapon). Boomshots, Hammers, Rockets, Grenaducks, and Donkey Kong's ground pound have dropoff.
  • Yoshi's Ground Pound (has dropoff, can be upgraded).
  • Donkey Kong throwing cover or Super Effect balls (does a flat 30 plus the ball's effect, if applicable) or enemies (does set damage that can be upgraded in Donkey Kong's skill tree).
  • Rabbid Cranky's Grump Jump (can be upgraded).
  • Being knocked out of bounds (does a flat 30).
• Foil: The Rabbid counterparts of the Mario characters are often drastically different from the originals. For instance, while Peach is a kind, sociable ruler, Rabbid Peach is rude and spends most of her time glued to her smartphone.
• Friendly Fireproof: Zig-zagged. For both your team and the enemies, anybody on the team of an attacker will duck out of the way of a friendly point-to-point attack, such as Blasters (Mario, Ziggies) or Precision weapons (Luigi, Peek-a-Boos), but any moves that have splash damage or otherwise have an area-of-effect, like the Boomshot (Rabbid Mario, Peach, Bucklers) or Melee weapons (Mario, Rabbid Mario, Smashers), will hurt combatants regardless of whose side they're on, including the possibility of critical hits and their accompanying Super Effects.
• The Goomba: Ziggies. Rabbids fused with paintbrushes, resulting in a blonde mohawk. The fusing process seems to have made them malicious.
• Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: There's no jump in the overworld, even though ol' Jumpman is the protagonist. For stuff that is out of the way, no matter how tiny the jump would be, you need to find a way around it.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The four original playable Rabbids can deploy shields, while Peach can use her "Protection" technique to divert a portion of damage inflicted against her teammates back to her.
• Mascot Mook: Rabbid Kong is heavily shown off in the pre-release marketing, and is even on the game's cover art.
• Missing Secret: No matter how you spec your characters, there simply aren't enough Power Orbs in the main game or Power Runes in the Donkey Kong Adventure DLC to fully upgrade all of your character's stats.
• Musical Nod:
  • Naturally, Rabbid Kong's boss theme remixes Jungle Japes. Also, while it's a sound effect, Rabbid Kong's bananas make the same sound effect the banana collectibles did in Donkey Kong Country.
  • Peach's Castle theme reuses the traditional Peach's Castle theme from Super Mario 64.
  • Naturally, Donkey Kong Adventure has several remixes of themes from the Donkey Kong games:
    • The Banana Lagoon theme is a remix of the DK Island theme from Donkey Kong 64.
    • The song "Jungle Joust" is primarily a remix of the Jungle Japes theme from Donkey Kong 64, but it also uses parts of "DK Island Swing" from Donkey Kong Country.
    • The title theme from Donkey Kong Country is remixed several times. It's contained in the tune that plays before a battle, part of the mid boss theme and the game makes you play the tune on an organ to progress.
    • "Jungle Jabber", which is the song that plays in the bonus rooms, is a remix of "Bonus Room Blitz" from Donkey Kong Country.
    • The music that plays at the beginning of the results screen upon clearing a battle is a remix of the music that plays upon completing a level in Donkey Kong Country.
    • And lastly, when failing a battle, a remix of the death jingle from Donkey Kong Country plays.
• Not So Above It All:
  • Mario seems to think the Rabbids' antics are pretty funny, as seen by his amused reaction to Rabbid Mario singing the Super Mario Bros. theme and joining in on a group selfie Rabbid Peach and the other Rabbids are taking.
  • Beep-0 will sometimes tell you what Rabbids are doing by getting really in-character as if he's playing along with them, such as acting like an excited racing commentator when viewing the "horse-racing" Rabbids near the World 1 cannon, or shouting at the "cowboy" Rabbids riding a banana in the Donkey Kong Adventure hub to avoid the oncoming banana stampede.
• Original Generation:
  • Beep-0, the game's Exposition Fairy who also functions as the cursor.
  • Spawny, a Rabbid that can fuse other Rabbids with characters from the Mario universe.
  • The Genius Girl seen in the intro.
• Out-of-Turn Interaction: The primary techniques mentioned in Action Initiative lets characters attack outside of their turn, by setting the characters to a mode where they automatically attack any enemy that moves into their line of sight.
• Palette Swap: Several weapons are swaps of each other, particularly the ones that are used by two different heroes.
  • The Lightning Shark and Fuchsia Fury, Mario and Rabbid Peach's starting Blasters, are a more obvious example, with one being blue and gray and the other being pink and gray. A few other Blasters share the shape of this but have more unique designs, such as Mario's Viscera Vaporizer (blue and orange with gold) and Spider Ignitor (purple-spotted with white), and Rabbid Peach's Ballistic Mystic (blue with stars and moons on it).
  • Luigi's late-game Sentry, Gold Rush, is a gold-colored version of his starting Sentry, Top Gear.
  • Similarly, Rabbid Peach's Camo Whammo Sentry is a camo-painted reskin of her starting Sentry, the Excavator.
  • Rabbid Luigi has the midgame Rocket, Bullenator, as well as the late-game Golden Rocket, another golden revamp.
  • Yoshi also has a golden variation of a Rocket, with the Supa Bwahzooka being his starter and the Golden Tongue being a later version. There's also Rabbid Luigi's Rocket with the same base, Might of the Kite, which is pastel-colored.
• Phoneaholic Teenager: While probably not actually a teen, Rabbid Peach gives the impression of one, since most of the time if she's not doting on Mario, she's usually taking selfies or group selfies on her phone.
• Punny Name:
  • Several weapons have these, from the Fat Cat and No Pity Kitty (Blasters based on Cat Mario and Cat Toad) to the Top Gear (a Sentry made with clock parts that has gears for wheels).
  • Mario's second ability that he unlocks allows him to increase the attack power of him and his teammates. It's named "M-Power", referencing both Mario's signature M and the fact that he empowers his allies. Smashers have the same ability, and it's similarly named "NME Empowerment".
  • One of the bosses, a ghost Rabbid dressed in fancy attire with a phonograph stuck in his stomach, is named, fittingly enough Phantom Of The Bwahpera.
• Random Number God:
  • The enemy Rabbids seem to have little problem in hitting your teammates when they're behind half-cover.
  • Your team and the enemy Rabbids have Special Effects on their weapons which will only activate on a critical hit.
• Reality Is Out to Lunch: The Rabbids' arrival has this effect on the Mushroom Kingdom, causing the already-peculiar landscape to become even more bizarre.
• Robot Buddy: Beep-0, a Roomba-like disk with an LED display with eyes on it that it uses to express itself, was one to the unnamed inventor in the intro. After being transported to Mario's world, it now serves as one to the Mario characters and the heroic Rabbids. It sprouts ears after being transported to Mario's World for some reason, probably due to the influence of the Rabbids.
• Rump Roast: One of the many status effects, burn causes your character's butt to catch fire, causing them to then run around the field at full speed until they finish putting out the flames. This can also cause a chain reaction, as touching an enemy while you're burning will set them burning as well, offering an effective strategy to continually ignite one enemy's butt off of another's back and forth.
• Shout-Out:
  • Quite a lot of weapons are references to past Nintendo and Ubisoft games, as well as other things in general:
    • Mario has blasters called the "Yellow Submarine" and "Sons of Bwahnarchy".
    • The description for Mario's "Rainbow Runner" references the classic song "Somewhere over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz.
    • One of Rabbid Yoshi's "Grenaducks" wears stealth gear. Its name? Sam Kingfisher.
    • Peach's "Nasty Yella Fella" weapon is a double doozy. In the English version, its description mentions that enemies turned yellow when they were introduced to your "little friend", an obvious reference to the classic quote from Scarface (1983). Its French description instead borrows a line from the French opening to the Pac-Man cartoon, of all things!
    • The description for Rabbid Mario's "Matrix Mashup" references exactly the franchise you'd expect.
    • The description of Rabbid Luigi's Gemcutter asks if you want to hear something outrageous. Truly, truly, TRULY outrageous.
    • Rabbid Luigi has the Rocket "Louis Harmstrong", whose description parodies "What a Wonderful World" ("I see bruises of green, red noses too...").
    • Among Luigi's Sentries are the "Killer Extinct", the "Fatal Frame", and the "Attack From the Future II".
  • According to Davide Soliani, the Supa-Merge headset when worn by Spawny is a reference to the Laputan robots from Castle in the Sky.
  • The first enemies you encounter are "Ziggies", named after David Bowie's stage persona "Ziggy Stardust".
  • The start of the song "Cold Start, Hot Finish" uses a small part of Freezeezy Peak. Being the same composer, it makes sense.
  • Rabbid Mario's victory animation has him playing the banjo, referencing Shigeru Miyamoto's own banjo-and-guitar playing skills.
  • After defeating the Icicle Golem in Sherbet Desert, a Rabbid teammate will pick up his head and mimic the iconic "Alas, poor Yorick" scene from Hamlet with it.
  • The Valkyries shooting bullets from their breastplates is very similar to the Fembots from Austin Powers.
  • A rabbid can be seen sleeping on top of a dog house. "He'll catch the Red Baron one of these days."
• Smitten Teenage Girl: Going along with the Phoneaholic Teenager trope and how Rabbid Peach fits a lot of stereotypes associated with teenagers in general, her crush on Mario is a dead ringer for this.
• Social Media Before Reason: Rabbid Peach often prioritizes taking selfies over other more pressing concerns, like her own personal safety.
• Status Effects: In a sense, as the nature of status effects in this game differs from the manner used in most other titles. Bosses and Mecha.Jr are immune to all of these effects.
  • Bounce: Causes target to fly away from shooting direction. Unlike Push, it can knock target upward.
  • Burning: Forces target to run randomly, it can inflict to other target upon collision.
  • Push: Causes target to roll away from shooting direction. Unlike Bounce, target also bounce off walls and push off other targets.
  • Ink: Prevent target from using their weapon, this includes any action that require weapon (Hero Sight, Villain Sight, etc).
  • Freeze: Prevent target from using their abilities, this also pauses the cooldown if it's on cooldown.
  • Honey: Prevent target from moving. This effect can be override by Bounce, Burning and Push.
  • Stone: Prevent target from doing any actions, essentially a combination of the Ink, Honey, and Freeze effects.
  • Vampire: Heals attacker by half of their damage dealt from the target, this also applies to other attackers.
• Tech Points: Power Orbs (and in Donkey Kong Adventure, Power Runes) are used to unlock new abilities and upgrade existing ones. Should the player end up with a build they don't like, they can reset them whenever they please.
• Underground Monkey: The standard enemies encountered through the game have two (Peek-a-Boos and Valkyries), three (Bucklers and Supporters) or four (Ziggies, Hoppers, and Smashers) variants. Donkey Kong Adventure adds an extra variant for the Ziggy, Hopper, Smasher, Buckler, and Supporter enemies.
• Video Game Sliding: In a rare non-action-game example, characters can slide into enemies and certain obstacles during movement by selecting an enemy before selecting your destination. Sliding deals damage to opponents, but it also is the only way to pass through enemies if they're completely blocking a path.
• Voice Grunting: As is the norm for both series, the characters make noises rather than speak dialogue. The Phantom of the Bwahpera starts out in singing Rabbid-"bwahs", he then unexpectedly starts belting out an operetta in subtitled English.
• Weird Crossover: Leaving aside the fact that the Rabbids had been somewhat dormant at the time, seeing them show up alongside Mario of all things is entirely out of left field. And that's without getting into the X-COM-esque gameplay system.
• World Gone Mad: The Rabbids have this effect on the Mushroom Kingdom, making the place even more bizarre than usual.
• Zerg Rush: The "Ziggy" class of enemies specializes in this (they explicitly call it "Zerging").

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

• Accidental Misnaming: As per usual in the spin-off games, Beep-0 has trouble recalling Luigi's name, guessing Louis, Lyle, and Llewellyn. And yet he always gets Rabbid Luigi's name perfectly right. Beep-0 DOES get Luigi's name right in Sparks of Hope though.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Once the Megabug captures his father, Bowser Jr. begs Mario to help the Koopa King and admits that everything is his fault.
• Anti-Climax Boss: In-Universe. The Battle Royal challenge has the last enemy be a normal Garden Ziggy, at a point in the game when you're able to sneeze and cream Garden-type enemies with a single Dash move and right after you've dealt with 29 other enemies that were increasingly harder to beat than the last. Said challenge also starts with a Garden Ziggy.
• Ascended Meme: The name of Luigi's Action Initiative skill, "Steely Stare", alludes to Luigi's infamous "Death Stare" from Mario Kart 8.
• Attention Whore: Weaponized against The Phantom of the Bwahpera. He's invulnerable as long as the spotlight is on him. Destroying the lights, thus depriving him of his 'stage' is key to defeating him.
• Ax-Crazy: Something about Rabbid Yoshi is... off. Constant eye-twitching, manic facial expressions and having a scream as one of it's attacks. It's clearly meant to give the impression of being insane....(or just really, really, REALLY stupid, many times more than usual even for a Rabbid, as most of the Rabbids seem kind of..."challenged upstairs".)
• Badass Adorable: In the game's first trailer, Peach is surrounded by enemies and can't get help from the others, until she picks up a gun, thinks it over, and blasts them all into oblivion. The studio's own internal documents even use the term "badass" to describe the Mushroom Kingdom heiress. The game itself lacks this scene and instead has her make an entry through a Big Damn Heroes moment, which is equally as badass.
• The Battle Didn't Count: After defeating Bwario and Bwaluigi at the end of Chapter 4-7, they evaporate in a technological aura, just like all the other Rabbids you defeat. Despite this fact, the cutscene that follows the battle shows the two alive and well, and they run off and join another unique Rabbid before battling you again in Chapter 4-8.
• Big Bad: Surprisingly, Bowser Jr. is filling out this role, as his father is out on vacation. Though he doesn't get to be the Final Boss. That honor goes to the Megabug, which goes on to possess Bowser, who came back from vacation early.
• Big Damn Heroes: There are a few instances:
  • Peach's introduction to the party — When the World 2 Boss freezes the entire party, Peach floats in, carrying her own weapon, and fires at the ice to free Mario & Co. Then, she joins the fight after the Boss takes the third party member captive.
  • Yoshi's introduction to the party — After defeating the World 4 Midboss, Bowser Jr. and Spawny go flying. While Jr. is able to escape, Spawny falls off an edge... after which Yoshi saves him thanks to his signature Flutter Jump.
• Boring Insult: The Phantom of the Bwahpera, a boss who sings an opera that tears down Mario, has an unused second act that taunts him about how little he and his companions hurt him, with two of the verses specifically stating that the boring plumber's blows are sleep-inducing.
  Mario, you're such a bore...
  Your blows just make me snore!
• Brick Joke: After being absent from the Lava Pit because they were fooling around the Spooky Trails, Toad and Toadette get out of there on their own and show up in front of Peach's Castle to give the heroes a message of gratitude (by people named "them") for reaching 100% Completion.
• Brutal Bonus Level: The game has ten challenge levels for each of the four worlds that vary in difficulty from "Easy" to "Supa Hard", but it is the four appropriately-titled Ultimate Challenges that can be unlocked after completing the game that qualify for this trope. For example, the first one places you in a room with every single miniboss (some even duplicated), Chain Chomps, and every piece of cover is an explosive box that can give any status ailment from burning to petrification. Beating the Ultimate Challenges unlocks the most powerful equipment in the game for all your characters. Also the Ultra Challenge Pack DLC adds eight Challenges with a new difficulty level, Ultra Hard.
• Character Select Forcing: You will need to construct your party to always include Mario and at least one of the four Rabbids.
• Cheerful Child: Rabbid Luigi acts like and gives the impression of one, generally having a pleasant, happy attitude and wearing an oversized sweater and hat, making him look like a child trying to wear adult clothes.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Probably the main reason for Rabbid Peach's hostility torward Regular Peach, considering the Implied Love Interest thing Peach and Mario have and Rabbid Peach's obvious crush on Mario.
• Comic Books Are Real: Implied, considering all of the Mario merchandise the Supa-Merge inventor possesses.
• Competitive Balance: The eight playable characters each have their strengths and weaknesses.
  • Mario is a Jack of All Stats along with Rabbid Peach and Rabbid Yoshi. They have decent but not great stats and abilities.
  • Luigi is a Fragile Speedster and Glass Cannon with excellent mobility and strong weapons, but terrible health.
  • Yoshi and Rabbid Mario are Lightning Bruisers. They both possess great power, mobility, and health, with Yoshi having great long-range ability while Rabbid Mario is a Close-Range Combatant.
  • Peach is a Mighty Glacier with a strong weapon, a lot of health, and proficiency in healing, but poor mobility.
  • Rabbid Luigi is a Squishy Wizard who specializes in inflicting status effects and weakening the enemy.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: None of the bosses' techniques or secondary weapons have recharge rates. For Rabbid Kong, this does make sense since his techniques are his only way of attacking.
• Damsel out of Distress: The first trailer has Mario rushing in to save Peach from being harassed by Rabbids, but then Peach realizes that she has a gun and blows them away herself. Even she's in awe of herself.
• Darker and Edgier: While it's not this at first, once the Megabug appears, it becomes the second-darkest Mario game, only beaten by Super Paper Mario, as the plot shifts to focus on preventing an Eldritch Abomination from destroying two universes. Needless to say, the game starts to take itself seriously.
• Degraded Boss: Most of the difficulty of the bosses and mid-bosses when you first encounter them comes from lack of certain abilities and/or characters, usually the very ones you get for beating them. When they reappear later in some of the challenge stages and you have upgraded gear/skills, they're a lot less of a hassle.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Bowser, of all characters. He's on vacation during the events of the game, only being heard through two phone calls to Junior and alluded to via the weapon descriptions. He does show up at the end of the game, but...
  • The regular Mario enemies such as Goombas, Boos, Banzai Bills, Bloopers, etc. only appear in the backgrounds of stages as victims to the Rabbid's antics rather than actual enemies. The Rabbid enemies take their place on the battlefield.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • If you bring Rabbid Peach to the World 2 boss fight, you'll see a longer cutscene after Peach saves the party showcasing her Clingy Jealous Girl side.
  • Speaking of the World 2 boss fight, Princess Peach is forced into the party. The game's Character Select Forcing formula dictates that because of this, if you try to bring Luigi, he will always be ejected from the party for this fight. This is on purpose. As you can see on a re-fight where the Peach isn't forced in, Luigi's sniper rifle completely trivializes the Icicle Golem.
  • The World 3 mid-boss, which uses Rabbid Yoshi to perform attacks, will (bugs notwithstanding) instead kidnap a regular Rabbid if you already have Rabbid Yoshi in your party.
  • Similarly, if you replay the levels where you save a frozen Rabbid Mario, the ice block will instead contain another regular Rabbid.
• Diabolus ex Machina: The Rabbids literally come out of nowhere (in their Time Washing Machine) to mess with the Genius Girl's stuff, thus kickstarting the Merged Reality plot.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Given the game ranks Bowser Jr. as a mid-boss, it's clear that the game isn't quite done after defeating him.
• Easy Level Trick: Rabbid Kong's boss fight can be thoroughly defanged if you figure out the trick. Have Luigi or Rabbid Peach deploy a sentinel aimed at Rabbid Kong. It's immune to 90% of his damage and frees up the characters to move much more safely.
• Escort Mission: Some chapters require you to escort Toad, Toadettte or Spawny to the safety zone. They have limited movement, cannot fight on their own and cannot boost a teammate or be boosted themselves. They make up for this by being controllable by the player, so they can find a safe place so that they aren't much of a hassle.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Shown in Sherbet Desert when Bowser calls Jr. on his cell phone, asking him if he did his chores.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: When Mario and co. finally reach Spawny in the Ancient Gardens, Bowser Jr. shows up and orders them to stay back, automatically assuming that they want to exploit his powers for their own purposes simply because that's what he wants to do.
• Eviler than Thou: Not that either of them are particularly threatening, but two Ziggy Rabbids can be seen sticking two Goombas together, feet-first, using honey and rolling them away. It's likely they're the ones sticking Goombas to random objects throughout the environment, as well.
• Evil Counterpart: Bwario and Bwaluigi. Unfortunately, the Wario Bros. themselves don't show up...
• Fangirl: The inventor in the intro is a massive one for the Mario series. Her workshop is absolutely covered with various figurines, posters, and memorabilia related to the franchise. She even wears Mario-styled gloves, blue overalls, and a red shirt with a Mario star on it.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Early on in Spooky Trails, the team comes across some suits of armor on display, which Beep-0 mentions as being "foreboding". Later on in the level, the team gets introduced to the Valkyries, Rabbids fused with said suits of armor.
    Beep-0: Good thing these foreboding suits of armor aren't possessed by any evil spirits! THAT would be stressful.
  • At the beginning of World 2, when you talk to Peach at the castle, she asks why she can't join in on "all the fun" they're having. She eventually does join in at the end of World 2.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • The inventor's room, along with the prominent bits of Mario memorabilia, also has figurines of Wario and Waluigi hidden within it. A pair of Nintendo 64 controllers are also visible, hanging from a shelf.
  • Rabbid Peach's phone has several accessories and stickers relating to Nintendo franchises. Along with a Mario keychain, a Kirby one is also attached, while her phone has a sticker of a Super Star on the back.
  • When the Rabbids' Time Washing Machine goes haywire, the Back to the Future-style display shows sprites of Mushrooms, ? Blocks, and Mario from Super Mario Bros. 3. Prior to that (and during the game proper), the display showcases the founding dates of Nintendo^note September 23, 1889, Ubisoft^note March 12, 1986, and the Ubisoft Milan studio^note September 24, 1998.
• Fusion Dance: With one of the central plot devices being a Merging Machine, this pops up a lot.
  • The premise is that the female engineer intends to exploit this For Science!^note the idea being to solve a global energy crisis. Then the Rabbids come along, and all hell breaks loose.
  • The heroic Rabbids are the result of the Supa-Merge fusing Rabbids with objects they were interacting with in the engineer's room. For instance, Rabbid Peach is a Rabbid fused with a pink shirt, wig, and a cellphone it was playing with, while Rabbid Mario is a Rabbid fused with a Mario hat it was wearing.
  • Ziggies are the result of Rabbids being fused with paintbrushes, which is why they have blonde mohawks.
  • The Phantom is notable for being a fusion of a Rabbid, a balloon Boo, and a gramophone.
• Gadgeteer Genius: The girl in the intro who invented the Supa-Merge that kicked off the whole plot. She was still working on the overheating problem it had and left to take a break when the Rabbids came in their Washing/Time Machine and, well...
• Game-Breaking Bug: If you have Rabbid Mario without Rabbid Peach in the party, the cutscene for the world 2 boss will fail to load, and not bring you into the mission, forcing you to reset. Strangely, this only happens with Rabbid Mario.
• Gatling Good: The Rumblebang resembles a gatling gun. Compared to the other weapons, the Rumblebang has a wider range of damage, meaning they can have much higher and lower bounds for damage. This makes them especially powerful if they land a critical hit.
• Guide Dang It!: Each world has a specific moving block puzzle in which the puzzle is solved by duplicating the arrangement of a nearby set of blocks. However, these puzzles are not explained and can be easily missed by anyone who fails to make the proper intuitive leap. The only clue as to their true purpose is that the invisible switches marking the right positions beep when stepped on.
• Hailfire Peaks: Presumably to make up for there only being 4 worlds, the worlds in Mario + Rabbids combine level tropes.
  • The Ancient Gardens has the usual plains combined with a jungle. Later, it turns into a large tower of toy blocks.
  • Sherbet Desert, a desert that's been frozen over. Midway through the world, shades of Gusty Glade and Temple of Doom also make an appearance, and towards the end, it becomes a full-on ice level with giant food containers, making it a minor Level Ate as well.
  • Spooky Trails combines the standard haunted theme with an abandoned town, a castle, a swamp, an abandoned carnival, and a graveyard.
  • Lava Pits begins with a Remilitarized Zone filled with lava and volcanic blasts, moves into Eternal Engine and Clockworks Area, intersperses that with an old mine that also occasionally has lava, and ends on more traditional lava outside of Bowser's more gothic flavor of Big Fancy Castle.
• "The Hero Sucks" Song: The Phantom delivers one of these aimed at Mario and laced with Take Thats and references to other Mario titles. The first verse plays when he appears, and the final verse (lyrics below) can be heard in the Combat Trailer as well as his final phase. Unfortunately, the second verse isn't used in the game.
  Who do you think you are? You should kneel, I'm the STAR!
  You are nothing but a parody. I'll find you a good role in a TRAGEDY.
  Ha ha ha ha.
  "It's-a me, let's-a go!" The only words you know!
  My art will touch your Princess' HEART, and you will be pulled APAAAART!
  You think you'll win this tournament? I'll send you to retirement!
  You're so NOT worth the hassle! Your Princess is in another castle!
  Mushrooms won't end the pain. Time for the Phantom to start his reiiiiiign!
• Hub Level: Like in Super Mario 64, Peach's Castle appears as the hub level in this game. Unlike in Mario 64, however, the inside of the castle cannot be visited and the entrances to the various worlds are in the castle's surrounding area.
• Hybrid Monster: One of the first bosses is the Pirabbid Plant, the result of Spawny accidentally fusing a Rabbid with a Piranha Plant.
• Incoming Ham:
  • Madame Bwahstrella makes a heck of a first impression.
  "You're all doomed! DOOMED! Doomed to inferior fortune-telling and outrageous prices if you see someone besides Madame Bwahstrella!"
  • And of course, there's the Phantom, whose boss fight is prefaced with a hammy "The Hero Sucks" Song.
• Infinity +1 Sword: Beating all four Ultimate Challenge will unlock the most powerful weapon for all 8 heroes.
• Ironic Echo: Beep-0 initially tells Spawny "Well, I hope you’re happy!" as he blames his use of the Supa-Merge headset for causing the Rabbids and Mario worlds to fuse. Towards the end of the game, Bowser Jr. says the exact same thing to Mario and Beep-0 as he blames them for allowing Spawny to be kidnapped and empower the Megabug.
• Lazy Backup: If your three team members fall in battle, it's game over. Even in the endgame, where you'll have five people waiting in the wings that you can put on your team at any point outside of battle.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Bowser's out on vacation for the majority of the game, and has no clue about the Rabbids or the Megabug. Things don't end well for him when he cuts his vacation short.
• Madame Fortune: The animatronic Rabbid Fortune Teller encountered in Spooky Trails is named Madame Bwahstrella.
• Merging Machine: The Supa-Merge. A piece of headgear that targets two objects in close proximity and fuses them, resulting in something new. One unfortunate Rabbid ends up fused with it and can't control its ability to fuse things, which results in a lot of the enemies you fight in the game.
• Mutually Exclusive Party Members: Single-player restricts the 3-character party with the following criteria: 1. Mario must be in the party and 2. you must have at least 1 Rabbid in your party. As a result, Luigi, Peach and Yoshi fall into this.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Four Rabbids dressed up as Mario and co. assist in stopping their brethren's invasion.
• Mythology Gag: Mario using a gun was also considered in the original Super Mario Bros..
• Negative Space Wedgie: The Megabug is a particle vortex in the sky that is responsible for dropping the Rabbids into the Mushroom Kingdom and causing them to go on a rampage.
• No Cutscene Inventory Inertia: During the final cutscene of the main story, Mario and the other seven heroes all unleash a volley of shots on the physical form of the Megabug... using their default weapons.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Spawny, the Rabbid that causes most of the chaos in the game, isn't actually evil. He has reality warping powers that activate whenever he gets stressed, which happens a lot.
• Power Incontinence: Spawny has no control over when the Supa-Merge activates, only that it goes off whenever he becomes stressed or freaked out.
• Precision F-Strike: The leaked promos and in-game descriptions contain some mild language (just "ass" and "hell", but still) you'd never imagine seeing in a game with Mario's name in the title.
• Psychoactive Powers: Spawny's powers activate whenever he's stressed out.
• Puzzle Boss: Rabbid Kong is a very straightforward one. As long as his bananas are in front of him, he'll keep topping off his HP every turn. So what do you do? Take away his bananas, of course! The downside is that the character that does this is forced to take 50 damage. Unless you use a Sentry to press the button or get lucky and have a Push or Bounce critical knock an enemy onto it.
• Required Party Member: Princess Peach is introduced in the World 2 boss fight and is forced into your party at the cost of either Luigi or (if you have two) a Rabbid, who is abducted pre-fight. Due to how the Character Select Forcing works, this functionally locks Luigi out of the fight.
• Ret-Canon: MegaDragonBowser uses the Whirling Fortress as an attack during the final boss fight.
• The Reveal: A scene after the credits reveals that Beep-0 from the future was the one sending the emails to the player throughout the game.
• The Scream: One of Rabbid Yoshi's unique moves is to scare enemies away by screaming at them.
• Sequential Boss: Every chapter boss is one:
  • Rabbid Kong will move to two new spots with more health-restoring bananas when his health is depleted.
  • The Icicle Golem loses his shield after his first health bar is depleted, but gains a melee attack in exchange, and he summons enemies to flank him while he moves around the map. He loses his legs after his second health bar is emptied, and moves to sit at the top of the arena with his two Supporters. After his final health bar is emptied, he loses his head, which can be dashed into to end the fight.
  • The Phantom moves to new spots with spotlights that need more fuses to be broken when his first two health bars are emptied.
  • MegaDragonBowser starts by moving around the map and shooting fire from his hands while using Villain Sight. His next phase has him flying around the map summoning enemies and shooting fire from his mouth in a fashion similar to the Pyroclasts from earlier maps. The third phase sees him continuing to summon enemies as well as shielding during your turn, and doing the Whirling Fortress towards your heroes during his turn.
• Shipper on Deck: While it was backhanded, being part of his "The Hero Sucks" Song, The Phantom asks "What Does She See in Him?" when talking about Peach and Mario.
• Ship Tease: After her Big Damn Heroes moment, Peach and Mario have a cute moment together... much to the chagrin of Rabbid Peach.
• Skewed Priorities: As a Piranha Plant grabs her and starts slamming her around with its vines, Rabbid Peach is still concerned about taking selfies.
• Stable Time Loop: At the end of the game, Beep-0 sends the email messages received throughout the game to the past, to help his past self solve the plot more easily. He uses the pseudonym F.B., short for "Future Beep-0," to avoid spoilers.
• Status Buff: Mario's "M-Power" increases the damage you deal for a turn, Luigi's "Itchy Feet" increases your area of movement, and Yoshi's "Super Chance" guarantees all attacks during that turn will be a Critical Hit. Using them in tandem is a very good way to wipe everything off the map in a hurry. Which is probably why you don't get to play as Yoshi until the endgame. This can also be done by enemy Smashers and Bucklers, which have the same respective skills, and while the AI might not use them as smartly, they can still be a run-ender when it gets it right.
• Stock Sound Effects: It seems Ubisoft didn't have either the time, the budget, and/or the opportunity to have the usual Mario actors record for this game, as it mostly if not entirely reuses voice assets from New Super Mario Bros. Wii, sometimes in pretty jarring ways like Mario nonsensically exclaiming, "Let's-a play!" when helping a teammate Team Jump, or Luigi enthusiastically shouting, "Okay!" in response to being flattened by a Smasher.
• Symbol Swearing: Beep-0 does this on multiple occasions, primarily during the third stage.
• Terrible Trio: The Lava Queen, Bwario, and Bwaluigi, collectively known as the "Bwaaah Trio".
• Toilet Humor: Not that Mario games have been shy to the occasional toilet humor in the past, but it's definitely in play with the Rabbids present.
  • An actual giant toilet is part of the game's Rabbid-fied landscape.
  • Midway through World 1, you come across a statue of a Rabbid sitting on a warp pipe, reading a magazine, with a roll of toilet paper beside him. Beep-0 says the description on the plaque reads "Rabbid Building a Log Cabin." He doesn't get it.
  • One part of the game requires you to visit the temple of Bwahmanweewee, which contains a statue of a Rabbid facing the other way, and a waterfall right in front of it that the whole party must cross under. Turns out the waterfall's just coming from his drink spilling out the bottom.
• Towering Flower: Yup, the Sunflower is one very tall blossom: it seems at least four times as big as the rest of the main cast!
• Torpedo Tits: The Valkyries keep a pair of gatlings in the cups of their breastplate.
• Trampoline Tummy: The Team Jump mechanic allows a character to throw or bounce a teammate into the air, extending the distance they can travel in a single move. Rabbid characters do it by lying down and letting their teammate jump on their tummy.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Mario is only mildly confused upon seeing a vortex over the castle, rabbits wearing his friends' clothing falling out of the sky, and guns appearing out of thin air. Of course, this is Mario we're talking about; he's probably Seen It All at this point.
• Variable Mix: Sherbet Desert, as part desert world and part ice world, seamlessly swaps between two tracks that have the same base, but use different instruments, based on whether the area you're in is primarily sandy desert or snowy wonderland.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The game is loaded with goofy moments and is colourful and whimsical. Until the Megabug shows up, and it is one of the darkest villains in the Mario franchise: it is an Eldritch Abomination that tries to destroy both Mario's and the Rabbids' worlds. It is also the only thing the game takes (very) seriously.
• Villain Has a Point: Bowser Jr. isn’t exactly wrong that Mario and friends let Spawny get kidnapped bewilderingly quickly after they rescued him, and in an embarrassingly inattentive manner at that. Also, as Beep-0 points out, the reason the Megabug gains so much power is because of them defeating Spawny’s creations, so there’s a small grain of truth to Bowser Jr's hypocritical accusation that everything is their fault.
• Villains Out Shopping: Bowser spends most of the game on vacation.
• Villain Respect: Bowser Jr. is honestly grateful to Mario and co. for saving his father and Spawny, telling them he owes them a debt of gratitude and even promising to try to be a better person in the future.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: After you've likely been conditioned to use cover whenever possible, the very first mini-boss of the game packs a rocket launcher that destroys cover instantly, does splash damage to hit the party member behind it, and sets them on fire. It also outranges your starting weapons and has a whopping 50 base damage (not including the fire). Players expecting a simple Warm-Up Boss are in for a very rude awakening.
• Wham Line: Though it's not exactly a huge revelation, it can still serve as a massive Oh, Crap! as the player and Junior realize what's about to happen.
  Bowser Jr.: (reading a text from Bowser) "Decided to come home early, son. See you soon! - Papa."
• Your Costume Needs Work: Rabbid Peach's opinion on the original's dress.

Donkey Kong Adventure

• Abnormal Ammo:
  • Donkey Kong's "Bwananarang" has several forms that don't look like a banana or a boomerang. These range from chili peppers (Habanero Caballero) to hot dogs (Wiener Whacker) to a piece of wood modeled after Squawks (Law of the Macaw) to the receiver of a rotary telephone (Curtain Call).
  • Rabbid Cranky has several silly forms of ammo for his Barrel Bolt, including a football (Hail Mary), a watermelon (Shellin' Melon), a pineapple (Painapple), a hamburger (Harmburger), and a cup of instant ramen (Bombin' Ramen).
• Ascended Extra: Donkey Kong Adventure turns the two "construction supervisor" Rabbids from the first Peach's Castle cutscene into these. They end up getting merged with shark-shaped pool toys to become Side Eye and Finn, the two mid-bosses of the DLC.
• Badass Cape: Rabbid Kong wears a tattered red one, which seems to be an extension of his DK tie.
• The Cameo: All five of Donkey Kong's Animal Friends from the first Donkey Kong Country are referenced as officially licensed weapons; Law of the Macaw for Squawks, Horn-Nosed Needler for Rambi, Expresso Atomizer for Expresso, Trophy Fish Terror for Enguarde, and Croaker Disposer for Winky.
• Catching Some Z's: This DLC introduces a new "asleep" status effect that Rabbid Cranky can inflict on enemy Rabbids with his Long Story technique. Characters subjected to it will emit some Z's.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Rabbid Kong is shown mercy by Rabbid Peach after he (as the final boss) is defeated, and he proceeds to befriend the group afterwards.
• Demoted to Extra: The Donkey Kong Adventure DLC is about Donkey Kong's adventure of course, and this adventure is set on a group of tropical islands far away from the events of the main game. Thus, the only characters from the primary story with notable roles are Beep-0, Rabbid Peach, and Rabbid Kong, who were all near the Washing Machine when it warped to the island. Mario, Rabbid Luigi, Luigi, Bowser Jr., and Spawny only appear in the opening cutscene.
• Disc-One Final Boss: You "fight" Rabbid Kong in a temple in the jungle, but he escapes as the temple collapses after the destruction of the Washing Machine-powered pool.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: One mission starts with a cutscene where Rabbid Kong punches Rabbid Peach straight into the ground. When it transitions into gameplay, Rabbid Peach is in critical HP.
• A Good Name for a Rock Band: When Beep-0 is telling the trio that they need to destroy Rabbid Kong's stockpiles of Bad Bananas, he notes that "Bad Bananas" sounds like the name of an indie band.
• Hub Level: The Atoll. In this beach area, the party can access the Weapons HQ, the Museum, check their progress on the puzzle bridge, and access various post-game challenge stages.
• Interquel: The DLC is seemingly set directly after Chapter 1 of the main storyline, as Rabbid Kong has gone to Peach's Castle like the other defeated Rabbids, Bowser Jr. has Spawny, and Mario's group only has the first four characters in it (himself, Rabbid Peach, Rabbid Luigi, and Luigi).
• Load-Bearing Boss: The battle with Rabbid Kong at the end of the Jungle requires the party to attack the pool of water healing Rabbid Kong. Once it's health is drained, Rabbid Kong flees, and the temple surrounding everyone collapses, causing them all to fall into the Dungeon.
• Puzzle Boss: Rabbid Kong (again) in the temple. If you hit him, the Washing Machine-empowered water will simply heal him back to full health, but you can target the water pool to destroy it. However, its 3,000 HP will make that an arduous task if you don't snag the TNT barrels and throw them into the pool.
• Skewed Priorities: When the party falls into the Dungeon, Rabbid Peach is initially completely unconcerned and decides to start moonbathing... until Beep-0 reminds her that her cell phone doesn't get any signal from deep underground.
• Tropical Island Adventure: This DLC is set on a series of islands far from Peach's Castle. The settings include places styled after locations Donkey Kong frequently visits in his home series, Donkey Kong Country: Banana Lagoon and Reef both fit Palmtree Panic (though the former is based on inland while the latter has a more oceanic focus), Jungle is a classic Jungle Japes, and Dungeon is a dangerous Temple of Doom.
• Villainous Crush: Downplayed with Rabbid Kong, who seems to have developed a minor crush on Rabbid Peach. He's stunned when she does a Hair Flip towards him, he gets jealous when she picks Donkey Kong over him, and gets flustered when she blows a kiss at him (although at this point, he's not a villain anymore).

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