Beat all the ultimate challenges and obtained 100% completion. Now I can finally say I've thoroughly played this game start to finish at least once, justifying a 5+ year purchase.

UC-1 and UC-4 weren't anywhere as difficult as UC-2, the toad escort level took awhile but it was a breeze mostly. UC-4 needed one retry but otherwise relatively easy.

UC-2 is what took a bit time, something would always go wrong during the last wave. To mitigate the issue with enemies piling up to fast, I got a sentry stuck on the top platform so it would denotate as soon as the first wave spawned. This made it drastically easier to kill them all before the final two waves. Even kept everyone alive so I'm happy with the end result.

Don't think I'll bother with the co-op levels. Prefer to get on with Sparks of Hope.

Backtracked through Lava Pits and completed everything there so now I'm left with only the ultimate challenges. They weren't particularly hard, some like 'No Pain, No Gain' required distributing power orbs to boost Luigi's team jump range and some trial and error before I beat it. I used Mario's Hero Sight (with obviously weaker blasters) to draw the smasher at the spawn close enough to push him into the zone and used Mario to throw Luigi in position to be bounced. Not sure what the "intended" solution is but it worked. The secret stage was baffling easy, I was well equipped but still.

I planned to finished more of the ultimate challenges today but I had to repeat UC-3 because the game crashed; worst of all on the winning turn. Managed to clear it though, albeit not as cleanly as the first attempt. Haven't found where UC-1 is yet, I presumed near the Ancient Gardens but I couldn't see any switches to activate.

Went all out clearing the rest of the main story; I put aside my qualms about doing levels with 'minimal upgrades' and spared no expanse on weapons. This meant that most of the final stage was fairly easy, with notable exceptions being 4-5, 4-8, and 4-9. Levels 4-5 and 4-8 are back-to-back gauntlets each ending with a Midboss. That difference is that they must be completed in a single attempt, which makes all the more frustrating when you need to reset.

Bowser Jr wasn't too difficult since he couldn't squeeze into pipes meaning you run circles around no problem. Still the 3 round limit for perfect required me to be more aggressive which resulted in me needing to try again after Luigi got squashed. I regret not using him in my team compositions earlier during my playthrough because 'Itchy Feet' gives a huge advantage at the beginning of levels, and 'Steely Stare' ability can deal some crazy damage especially when paired with Mario's 'Hero Sight'.

The next set of bosses were Lava Queen and the Bwaluigi / Bwario duo. 2 additional encounters precede the boss, and while they graciously recover your abilities before each; you don't get any chance to alter team setup between rounds. The enemies can usually be dispatched in 1-2 turns but that doesn't make it any less tedious on repeated attempts. The bosses weren't tough but stakes are higher if you mess up.

Which leaves only 4-9, the fight boss against Mega Dragon Bowser. Took a few tries to succeed while keeping everyone alive, managed to score a perfect score though. The main change to my approach was anticipating the enemy spawns and positioning my units to get rid of them pronto. Both Mario & Luigi were incredibly useful for attacking during the phase transitions. The ending was pretty anticlimactic and while the story wasn't meant to be taken seriously, I still found the "twist" that Beep-O's mysterious correspondent turned out to just be themselves from the future disappointing with all the build up it received. First of all, how did Beep-O and co. manage without the guidance of F.B? They wouldn't even have gotten weapons if not for the email (and you didn't even send them the best ones!?), and how do you transmit physical objects through an email anyway? If you could do that, why did you have me find the 'Goodness Relics' instead of just sending it? Yes, I know that F.B's Email was hacked by Bowser Jr. during this portion, but still wouldn't Beep-O in present time be aware he gets hacked and be able to give the statues beforehand? Why do the messages suddenly stop coming once you reach Lava Pits, did the previous Beep-O fail? Or did they simply feel it unnecessary to provide advice at that point?

The remaining objectives are the challenges and secret level in Lava Pits, and the ultimate challenges. I plugged away at UC-2 into the night, but kept failing at the last wave. I'm developing a concerning amount of hatred towards Boos and Rabbids.

Finished up Spooky Trails today; phantom was a fairly tough boss (to get perfect) mostly thanks the minions he keeps spawning. I enjoyed the musical roast fest he gave Mario.

After that it was just completing challenges and finding the secret stage both of which ramped up the difficulty. Not hard enough in that I can't win, but keeping everyone alive by the end. Found the Boos particularly annoying and bad RNG often led to me resetting. However, I still managed to clear them all with minimal weapon & character upgrades.

Only two more chests remain in Spooky Trails and I'll find them next session. I got held up trying to figure out how to access the chest near the clocktower, before noticing the cannon in the far distance.

Approaching the end now, feeling pretty confidant going forward.

Found 'Spooky Trails: World 3-4' surprising easy. I made a few miscalculations which didn't really affect the battle, and reached the area in 7 turns. Not sure why I struggled so much years back; looking at my save file I used (Mario | Rabbid Mario | Peach) so obviously not making use of vampire damage. I didn't bother trying to fight the smashers since I could outrun them anyway, and used peach's extra jumping range to cross the gaps between the level.

The following levels after that were quite easy as well. I did need to retry a couple of times on the 'Calavera' midboss because of poor hindsight and positioning (anytime someone died I would reset). Got lucky with the burn effect from Peach which let Mario take two shots with 'Hero Sight', and allowed me to finish him off in the next round.

3-6 introduces the 'Valkyrie' enemies and I just love their BIG machine guns. Experienced some bizarre flickering while picking objects that infected Beep-O, causing the area around them to periodically glitch. Closing and restarting the game seemed to fix the issue.

Fought my way through the remaining battles and faced off against the 'Icicle Golem'; a fairly generic (and easy-peachy) boss. This is where you acquire Peach and she's pretty good, with lots of HP and AoE heal on throws, plus a shotgun.

After this I backtracked to find the chests I was missing which took up probably a third of my session. I also took it upon myself to not upgrade any character's weapons for the challenges too mostly successful results. Admittedly, I seemingly got lucky on 'Chomp Alley' as all the chain chomps glitched and didn't attack making for a very easy escort.

At Spooky Trails now which is where I dropped the game last time. How will things turn out this time...?

Finished all the challenges in Ancient Gardens, obviously these are all the easier challenges in the game but both 'Quantum Leap' and 'Once Bitten, Twice Shy' required slightly more thought (and levelling).

Received my first 'good' rating tarnishing my perfect record...it was the 'Gatecrashers' level where you fight Blizzy & Sandy. Annoyingly, if I had just better positioned Rabbid Peach to not get dashed into; he...she...they...it? would've survived. My victory is rewarded with another member to the team: 'Rabbid Mario'. His AoE dash can be a liability at times but I'll forgive purely for the shotgun and raw damage he can inflict. Also, Rabbid Luigi's 'Vampiric Dash' ability is absolutely busted once you invest some power orbs.

Bowser Jr caught me off guard with his "Daddy issues to repress" line; I cracked a smile.

Definitely one the strangest crossovers I've ever seen; played this years ago but dropped it halfway through.

Now that I think about it this game alluded to the Nintendo + Illumination collaboration on the Mario Bros. Movie. Rabbids in essence are the progenitors of minions and who helped make this game? Ubisoft, a company at that time (and perhaps to this day) known for churning out the same rehashed products just to score a quick profit. Illumination is similar in this regard stretching their films out into franchises; creating soulless sequels with as small budgets as possible to maximise profits. iT's AlL CoNneCtED!

Schizo rants aside; game is quite good. Honestly I like the interactions between the Mario characters and Rabbids (Rabbid Peach especially since they're hot). Completed the 'Ancient Gardens' and backtracked to collect extra chests and attempt the challenges.