Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

The Mario Brothers have been around nearly as long as video games themselves, and have starred in just about every single kind of game you can play. In all those decades however, Nintendo's Mushroom Kingdom heroes never faced the gridlocked life of tactical strategy. Apparently, they were just waiting for Ubisoft's goofball Rabbids to provide the impetus. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is one of the best games in Ubisoft and Nintendo's partnership, and is a surprisingly strong strategy game to boot.

The week of E3 is filled with so many games, it's often hard to find a way to stand out from the crowd. Sure, there are major sequels fans have been waiting for and splashy new titles from respected studios, but it takes a special kind of game to be heard above the traditional noise. One way to accomplish that is by doing something completely unexpected, say like teaming Mario up with the Rabbids. That only gets your foot in the door though. By making that mash-up a quirky tactical-strategy game in the vein of XCOM, you don't only get into the room, you take over the conversation.