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Here at Digital Foundry, we're a little late to the party with Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, but we felt compelled to weigh in on this exceptional title. In addition to being a beautiful, brilliantly designed strategy game, it's also a technological showcase for Nintendo's handheld, designed using Massive Entertainment's Snowdrop Engine - the rendering foundation for Tom Clancy's The Division. It's surely one of gaming's most unlikely engine transitions but according to Ubisoft, a core tenet of its creation hinges on the concept of working smarter - doing things better, not bigger.The combination of Switch and Snowdrop proves to be a highly potent pairing, bolstered by Ubisoft's exceptional artistic direction and a strong gameplay concept. Based on what we've seen of the technology to date, Massive's engine demonstrates a level of flexibility similar to Unreal Engine or Unity, clearly capable of powering a wide range of game types. In addition to Mario + Rabbids, the upcoming South Park title is also based on the same core technology.
With all of these titles in mind, it's clear that the engine has a great deal of scalability: The Division remains one of the most visually striking games released this generation, showcasing what Snowdrop can do when aiming for a more realistic aesthetic. It's an impressive showcase, capable of stressing even the most powerful PC hardware when pushed to the limit, but Mario + Rabbids is something entirely different. It's a game that seeks to capture the look of a pre-rendered cartoon, the perfect match for a Mario title.
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