Mario + Rabbids: Battle Kingdom - 6 mobile alternatives if you don't have a Switch
Rabbid with anticipation
Mario + Rabbids: Battle Kingdom is out this week on the Nintendo Switch, and critics are already raving about it. This most unlikely of team-ups has paid off handsomely.
Why unlikely, you ask? Well, Mario + Rabbids: Battle Kingdom sees Mario, Luigi and co teaming up with Ubisoft's Minion-like Rabbids in a tight turn-based squad strategy game. Mario carries a gun, for goodness sake.
If you don't own a Switch, you're not going to be able to play this curious game any time soon. But don't worry - there are some excellent games on iOS and Android that feature some similar ingredients.
XCOM: Enemy WithinThe game that's been most used to describe Mario + Rabbids: Battle Kingdom's action is XCOM. 2K Games's masterful series is perhaps the most prominent example of squad-based strategy - particularly in this rebooted form.
Fortunately, there's a brilliant port of the game available for mobile. XCOM: Enemy Within's grim humans vs aliens world isn't anything like the Mushroom Kingdom, but the action is clearly comparable.
SteamWorld HeistSteamWorld Heist shifts the whole squad-based thing around to a side-on perspective, but the essentials are much the same. What's more, the game mixes intense cover-to-cover strategising with warm humour in a way that's not too dissimilar to Ubisoft's game.
The main difference is in the setting - a sort of sci-fi robotic western - and a satisfying ricochet mechanic that has you banking bullets off hard surfaces and over cover.
RAD SoldiersRAD Soldiers is a top-down squad-based strategy game with a colourful, chunky art style and a knock-about sense of humour. Sound at all familiar?
The big focus here, though, is on RAD Soldiers's online multiplayer match-ups. It's also worth noting that RAD Soldiers is free to pay.
Skulls of the ShogunSkulls of the Shogun doesn't quite offer the same brand of squad-based strategy as Mario + Rabbids: Battle Kingdom, with less of a focus on clinical positional play and cover. But fans of one will certainly appreciate the other.
Besides its entertainingly knock-about turn-based strategy gameplay, Skulls of the Shogun has a genuinely funny storyline that will have you grinning even as you furrow your brow in concentration. Rabbid Peach would certainly approve.
Little Lords of TwilightDeceptively deep turn-based battles in a cute-as-a-button wrapper? That's what you'll find in Little Lords of Twilight, which positions it as a great fill-in for Mario + Rabbids: Battle Kingdom.
Bkom's game is far from a dead ringer though. It focuses on player vs player battles, and stirs in a smattering of MOBA and CCG elements as you build yourself a formidable deck of units.
Fire Emblem HeroesSo, you're still really hankering after some Nintendo-tinged turn-based casual strategy? There's only one thing for it then: Fire Emblem Heroes.
It's a far simpler affair than Mario + Rabbids (and all of the games mentioned above), but the basic principles of play aren't too dissimilar. Plus, the art style is simply adorable.