Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is a perfectly adequate XCOM-style strategy game that takes some big steps backward from its predecessor. The Sparks are a great additional layer of tactical interest, but the game does very little with them other than add status effects to attacks. The scripted battles seem to be generally lower quality than the first game and the roaming enemy encounters are frequent, short, and repetitive.

Outside of combat the overworld activities are simple and inane. The cutscenes are charming but similarly puerile. The game also tries really hard to get the player to sign up for Ubisoft Connect, including a nag screen that pops up every time you start the game. This is egregious behavior for any retail game and unacceptable in my view. Fortunately the game isn't really good enough to make me put up with that any longer.