Just like Sony spilling the beans on its own The Last Of Us Part 1 reveal, Ubisoft too has shot itself in the foot less than 24 hours before the recently revealed Nintendo Direct Mini Showcase tomorrow.
Though it’s no longer visible, for a brief period of time, long enough for internet sleuths such as Nibel to get ahold of it, a release date was listed on the Spanish Ubisoft Store for the hotly anticipated Ubisoft Milan developed, XCOM inspired, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks Of Hope. The listing was for the Gold Edition of Sparks Of Hope and reveald that the game would be coming to the Nintendo Switch platform on October 20, 2022.
Other eagle-eyed fans discovered other nuggets of information nestled within the store listing. New screenshots for Mario + Rabbids: Sparks Of Hope were uncovered featuring Bowser prominently, and teases of what the moment-to-moment might look like when we inevitably see a trailer tomorrow morning. Even more notably, the description for the Gold Edition of Sparks Of Hope outlined the inclusion of a Season Pass which would be an avenue to accessing further “story content featuring new heroes, quests and battles” as well as the “Galactic Prestige Pack” which includes a trio of weapon skins that are available to players right out the gate when they begin the game.
This latest leak is the newest in a string of leaks that have plagued Ubisoft and the Mario + Rabbids sub-franchise. Sparks Of Hope itself was leaked via the official Nintendo website hours before Ubisoft’s 2021 Ubisoft Direct showcase, while the original title, 2017’s Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle was leaked as early as November 2016, before the pitch deck was then leaked prior to the official reveal in May of 2017.
With Nintendo recently announcing a Nintendo Direct Mini that was set to focus on third-party products, it is hardly a surprise to many that Mario + Rabbids: Sparks Of Hope is seemingly a prominent part of it. Other heavily speculated about titles that seem like prime candidates to appear include Bayonetta 3, Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, Live A Live, and even the much-rumoured Goldeneye port