2017’s Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle had one of the best DLCs we’ve ever seen a game starring Mario receive. The Donkey Kong Adventure story expansion saw Donkey Kong and Rabbid Cranky team up with Rabbid Peach to take on tons of reworked enemies and tons of tight, tactical challenges. It proved Ubisoft knew how to make a quality DLC. Thus far, this quality hasn’t extended to the DLC releases for the sequel, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope – while both the Tower of Doooom and The Last Spark Hunter gave us more of what made Sparks of Hope great, they were just that: more of the same.
We had high hopes for the final DLC expansion titled Rayman in the Phantom Show. Not only have we not seen Ubisoft’s platforming poster boy in quite some time, but it looked like it might follow in Donkey Kong Adventure’s footsteps. However, after clearing the regrettably short story, it mirrors Sparks of Hope’s other lacklustre DLCs.
Rayman in the Phantom Show begins with Rayman arriving at the Space Opera Network via a golden invitation, which is a run-down TV studio that produces on a galactic scale. Much to his surprise, he runs into two Rabbids, Rabbid Peach and Rabbid Mario, who aren’t out to cause problems for him. Rather, they also received invitations and came to claim galactic stardom along with their robotic pal Beep-0.
If you want to see Rayman team up with his platforming peers Mario and Luigi, you’re out of luck. Rayman in the Phantom Show is a completely separate adventure, meaning Rayman cannot join in the quest to stop Cursa and her minions. In fact, other than a couple of post-credits images, Rayman and the denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom do not interact, which makes for a rather disappointing crossover.
A lack of Rayman-specific elements furthers this disappointment. Sure, Rabbids originated as a Rayman enemy, but the Space Opera Network has nothing to do with our straw-haired hero’s storied adventures. The Big Bad of the adventure isn’t a Rayman rival either, such as Mr. Dark, but rather a return of Kingdom Battle’s Phantom. While a fun character in his own right, the lack of Rayman elements left us feeling like he deserved better.
Rayman does, however, play quite differently than the other heroes. Instead of using the titular Sparks in battle, Rayman comes equipped with two of his suits: Vortex and Rocket. Switching to either of these suits changes everything about him, such as giving his basic Blaster Shot and Plunger Guards the ability to push foes off the map or cause area-based damage. Rayman can also grab onto flying rings, which is the only element from his games that Ubisoft included. He can also punch blocks and grab distant items, which almost all of the overworld puzzles rely on. These puzzles, as you’d expect, play much like they do in the base game: find a shaped key, use Beep-0 to reveal a hidden bridge, and repeat. We grew tired of them quickly.
Thankfully, Sparks of Hope’s freeform tactical battles still provide a lot of fun. The Phantom has Rayman and friends visit three different themed sets — cowboy, pirate, and mediaeval — to complete a puzzle or two before a boss encounter of some sort. Team hopping to take out Flamin’ Stooges before they can hit you with fiery blasts, and finding a way to pop Darkmess Eyes plays as great as it always has. Of these three sets, the pirate set stands out with a massive cardboard cutout of a Kraken serving as an obstacle, while the cowboy stage reskins a standard foe and the mediaeval one enlarges a Stooge to serve as a boss.
When we finished these three in a few hours of play, we opened the menu to check our progress and were surprised to find the adventure was 80% done. While we still had a lot of little secrets to uncover and puzzles to solve throughout the Space Opera Network, we expected another handful of sets to battle through or a more open area, such as the base game’s Pristine Peaks, to explore. Instead, we merely had to defeat the Phantom to finish the game in under four hours.
The Phantom himself has a few fun musical numbers as we took him on, taking digs at how Rayman hasn’t had a game in a while and lamenting his previous loss at the hands of Mario. The final encounter with him plays almost exactly the same as it did in Kingdom Battle: to break his invulnerability, you must disable his spotlight by destroying the light fixtures near him first. You have to do this three times with increasing difficulty, yet we had grown tired of the mechanic before we finished the first round.
Conclusion
As we haven’t seen Rayman on the Nintendo Switch in quite some time, Rayman in the Phantom Show comes as a disappointment – especially when compared to Kingdom Battle’s Donkey Kong Adventure. The lack of Rayman specific elements, the inability to play as Rayman in the base game, and the rehashing of old enemies and encounters, make this an adventure fit only for those that can’t get enough of Sparks of Hope’s great tactical battles.
Comments 32
Oh wow that sounds boring if you aren’t a rayman fan. Sorta wish i could buy one dlc only. This will likely be the last rayman showing until another reboot as well.
Sad to hear this isn't up to the caliber of the DK DLC for the original Mario + Rabbids. Played Sparks of hope when it first came out and loved it but will wait till the DLC goes on sale. The combination of a reduced price and some added time between playing the base game and the DLC will hopefully make for a rather delightful experience.
Sounds like average to me, not «not bad».
This and the Melodic Gardens both felt like more of the same to me (although I've yet to finish this DLC, I'm 3/3 through.
The biggest downgrade compared to the first game's DK DLC is the map randomization. DK's maps felt perfectly suited to his vine-swinging and throwing abilities. Rayman's got a similar ability, gliding with the hoops.in stages, but they're rarely placed in such a way as to make sense. They might trivialize a stage entirely, or be entirely useless.
Rayman's other abilities don't seem very coherent either. The costume swap seems like a neat feature, but it mostly exists to tack on elemental abilities to his basic, boring gun and his inexplicable motion-sensing turrets. Having these static (albeit carryable) turrets alongside Rayman's mobile hoop-gliding kit feels at odds with each other - although using his tornado and rocket abilities to toss foes around and trigger the turrets is fun, I just don't have as much fun with Rayman as I did with DK.
I do appreciate there's new music here, at least. Even if the main set is weirdly lacking it. Melodic gardens tried this too, eschewing music in favor of environmental noises. I don't know who needs to hear this, but while Rabbids + Mario is many things, a relaxing/vibes game it is not. Having areas without music is weird and feels unfinished- probably because they couldn't get the composers back for very long, but I digress.
It's definitely a bit disappointing that the DLC itself is on the meagre side when it's abundantly clear through all the promotional material that the team in charge absolutely ADORES Rayman and wanted to do him the justice he deserves.
I'll probably really enjoy the DLC myself whenever I get around to picking up Sparks of Hope as I love Rayman (both as a character and as a series) but I doubt it'll do much for anyone who doesn't have the limbless wonder constantly rattling around in their mind which is a shame. Here's hoping this is just the starter for a potential Rayman renaissance! (yes I'm delusional)
I think the biggest failure of the base game is they added in a load of busywork fetch quests on the map and flashy cutscenes, but the core tactical gameplay was made so easy and became a chore. Shame, because the original game was quite a lot of fun.
This is the most Rayman content we're getting for the next five years.
@HotGoomba more likely ten
Shame the DLC came out like this. I wouldn't be against Ubisoft Milan taking the helm of a new Rayman game because I do think that they have the passion and drive to make a truly great Rayman 4 down the line.
It’s a shame how this game handles dlc. I might be more compelled to buy it if it unlocked Rayman for the main game.
Just 100% the DLC and yeah pretty disappointing. Over waaaaay to fast, and very small areas to explore. The lack of Rayman stuff outside of small references it also pretty disappointing. Would have loved to battle some Rayman themed enemies or see other Rayman characters make an appearance. I think this probably comes down to the DLC not having enough budget, more than likely. All of these DLC seems to have been made rather quickly. Overall I think the last spark hunter was probably my favorite, the area to explore there was rather large and the theming is much better than old warehouse lol.
Pro-tip
When the development lead publicly says "we shouldn't have made this game" ... the DLC is probably not going to be all that good
I think that the reason is shorter than the DK one in the first game, is because that was the only DLC (other than the extra challenges), but this time there are two (other than the extra challenges that this time is the tower of doom)
This is either the beginning of Rayman making a proper comeback, or if it does poorly, it will be the "justification" for there to be no more Rayman in anything any more.
From the looks of everyone's opinions, it doesn't seem like the DLC is all that worthwhile, which is a little sad for Rayman fans.
I really hope we can see another proper 3D platformer Rayman game, as Rayman 2 is an all-time classic and Rayman 3 was pretty fun too.
but I know it ain't happening.
Everyone saying they want a new Rayman game while I’m just by myself in wanting them to remake the first 3 games to see what the fuss is about.
A rare NintendoLife review that is much lower than the other scores, which are between an 8 and a 9 from what I've seen
@Greatluigi
Rayman 2 has been ported to soo many things. You might already have something that can run it.
The old Windows CD-ROM version has been released digitally on GOG.
And aside from that, it's also on N64, Dreamcast, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 1, and PlayStation 2. I think there was a mobile version too.
The PlayStation 1 version was a little different (reduced scope and content), and the PlayStation 2 version was also a little different (Added a new hubworld, and shuffled some of the levels around for some reason).
Both of these versions are also available digitally on the PlayStation 3 store.
The 3DS version is kinda borked (falling in lava restores your health...lol yeah) , and the DS one has poor controls but is otherwise very similar to the N64 version.
The best version is generally considered either the Dreamcast one or the Windows version. N64 is passable too.
I agree, it would be nice if we had a modern console version.
I most recently played the GOG version, and it was still pretty good!
It's a shame Ubisoft can't seem make good Rayman content after the Origins and Legends releases. Of course, it's a grim picture of what modern Ubisoft is now; an out of touch company that charges outrageous prices for their popular IPs with little to no work put into them whatsoever which is funny considering how much time and care they put into Starllink's Starfox content but I suppose that was due to Nintendo's oversight.
@EarthboundBenjy I also replayed Rayman 2 on GOG a few months ago and I was astonished at how well it’s held up. If ever a game deserved to be described as timeless, it’s Dreamcast/PC Rayman 2.
Mario x Rabbids… yet what we really wanted was Mario x Rayman.
Don’t get me wrong, this series was surprisingly great overall - but it’s amazing they fumbled the ball right at the end here when including the main man as DLC. We were all expecting him to interact with Mario and the Gang, not the Rabbid counterparts.
@EarthboundBenjy while I do have a 3DS and a PS2 I bet the prices online will be a bit too much. :/
Also I don’t have a computer. (I mainly use mobile devices.)
To those who have completed the DLC, does Mario even make an appearance at all?
@Greatluigi Rayman games tend to be very cheap secondhand in my experience.
Mario really doesn’t interact with rayman? Awww.
I don't know what's going on but it seems like there's a lot of lazy porting, lazy remastering, and lazy DLC lately. I know we can't have it good all the time, that's not realistic, but damn.
Guess not every game gets the Xenoblade level of dlc love.
@MrGawain I agree soooo much on that.
This was such a disappointment.
The overall game is so ridiculously easy.
They added hundred of useless frills that just made the game slower and more boring... Just give me cool maps to battle on with smart enemy placement and hard difficulty.
No overworld exploration, Quest, Generic battles etc...
In Spark of Hope they even eliminated ranking after a Battle (getting 3 stars in every Battle was the best part of the game) and now characters can't hit each other when they're near.
They also eliminated 1 skill per character for some reason.
I don't know what happened, this felt such a massive step back from the first game.
This review was either plagiarized or is the victim of plagiarism:
https://gameishard.gg/news/review-mario-rabbids-sparks-of-hope-rayman-in-the-phantom-show-enjoyable-and-brisk-but-rayman-deserves-better/76387/#:~:text=Ultimately%2C%20Rayman%20in%20the%20Phantom,recycles%20old%20enemies%20and%20encounters.
I replayed Rayman Legends recently and it is amazing. Also, did they ever re-release the first Mario + Rabbids game with DLC included. That would probably be the only case where I would pick this up.
@HeadPirate Well, they said they shouldn't have made it for the Switch, and instead waited for the Switch successor, big difference. They still wanted to make the game and the quality is clearly there, they just wanted to be able to go bigger than they did for the first game which is the opposite of what you're implying.
@MK_Ultra Yes, in Spring of 2018.
@RobynAlecksys Sweet, hopefully they do that with Sparks of hope and I can pick up the complete edition.
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