Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle for the Nintendo Switch has been leaked courtesy of developer Ubisoft's Twitter account. It quickly tweeted and deleted what appears to be a piece[1] of the key artwork for the game.
This was soon corroborated by gaming site WWG which released the image in its entirety (posted above) and claims to have confirmed[2] with Ubisoft that it is indeed real. However Ubisoft or Nintendo are yet to comment officially.
This is inline with previous rumours[3]. One report from Kotaku emerged[4] stating that the game is definitely in development and could be called Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle with an official reveal at E3 2017. It’s slated for an August or September release and will use Ubisoft’s proprietary Snowdrop engine and feature turn-based combat, two player local co-operative play, and a goofy sense of humour.
The game will apparently have eight playable characters: Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, and, oddly, four Rabbids dressed up as Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Peach.
An August or September release would make sense considering that Splatoon 2 and ARMS are due for the Nintendo Switch in June and July respectively, allowing for a decent window of opportunity for Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle.
Considering the close ties between Nintendo and Ubisoft what with Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot praising the Switch prior to its reveal and rumours of the new Beyond Good and Evil[5] being a Switch exclusive, we won’t dismiss this latest report just yet. More so considering Kotaku’s reputation with past leaks such as No Man’s Sky’s release delay[6] and the next Assassin’s Creed game set to take place[7]in Egypt....