October 20, 2022
The Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope release date was leaked…by Ubisoft itself! It seems as if the sequel is due in October, thanks to a listing for October 20 on an international arm of Ubisoft’s own site. The date was subsequently taken down, but it was discovered by several folks on Twitter (including Wario64) and screencapped/archived.
In all likelihood, Ubisoft and Nintendo want to save the Sparks of Hope release announcement for the Nintendo Direct Mini this morning, so we only have roughly an hour and change to go until we get full confirmation. Now, this has happened before. The announcement for the game itself was actually fully leaked by the Nintendo storefront around this time in 2021.
As a reminder, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope was revealed last year, and serves as a sequel to the 2017 original, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. Ubisoft promises more open-ended levels to tackle, as well as an enhanced combat system.
It feels like we’re in a weird little “post-E3” era this summer, with all these Nintendo announcements either leaking errantly or on the way. Hopefully we get some good third party confirmations for 2022! A lot seems to be delayed into 2023 across the industry.
[Update: The October 20, 2022 date was confirmed in today’s Nintendo Direct Mini showcase.]
