Nintendo recently entered the “season pass” arena with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which provides additional quests and even map features to those willing to shell out a little extra cash. Its collaboration with Ubisoft, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, releases next week, and it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that it will be getting a season pass as well.
“In addition to eight unique steampunk weapons available at launch, season pass owners will have access to new solo challenges and co-op maps this fall, along with new story content in 2018,” said Ubisoft’s senior communications manager, Giancarlo Varanini, in a post on the UbiBlog.
The post lists “unexpected story content” among the season pass’s features, but it’s not clear what this means. As Mario and the Rayman Rabbids were already an unexpected pairing, perhaps we’ll see another Nintendo franchise enter the picture. How would Pit from Kid Icarus: Uprising play in a turn-based strategy game? Would Callie and Marie from Splatoon be an effective killing force? Only time will tell.
While Nintendo’s characters feature prominently in the strategy game, Ubisoft is handling its development, primarily at its Milan studio. The French gaming giant is no stranger to season passes, using them for Rainbow Six Siege, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, For Honor, The Division, and even the snowboarding game Steep. These vary in price, as well as content. While the Ghost Recon: Wildlands season pass granted access to multiple story expansions, the Rainbow Six Siege pass primarily provided purchasers with early access to characters that would eventually be released to the general public for free.
Of course, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle isn’t the biggest Mario title coming this fall. Super Mario Odyssey launches exclusively for Switch in October, and we were blown away with the game during our demo at E3. Ubisoft will also be launching Rayman Legends: Definitive Edition for the console in September — it originally began its life as a Wii U exclusive before a lengthy delay allowed it to also release on other platforms, including PlayStation Vita.
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle launches for Nintendo Switch on August 29. The season pass will set you back $20.
