The traditional way to view game companies when it’s E3 season is to look at what they announce for the future. In that regard, Nintendo had a so-so E3.

Donkey Kong can throw allies and enemies around, making for some interesting new tactics in the expansion to the Mario +Rabbids Switch crossover coming out near the end of the month. I played it and have footage of an early level for you all to watch.

Seven years ago, a 15-year-old started a YouTube channel called rabbidluigi. He had no way of knowing that in 2017 that would be a real character in a real video game.

The video game gods have been good to us in 2017, but that means there are way too many games to choose from. Take this quiz to find out which one you should devote your precious time to.

So much about Kingdom Battle is surprising, but the thing that I still can’t get over is that in this game, Mario shoots his enemies with a gun. This is Nintendo’s mascot we’re talking about, and the game wasn’t developed internally. How the hell did anyone get Miyamoto to sign off on that?

Kingdom Battle is a love letter to Mario and the Mushroom Kingdom, and you see this reverence in nearly every aspect of the game, from mechanics to the animations. Even the flavor text is wonderful.

Mario’s power as an icon is defined by his versatility. The plumber doesn’t just jump: he fights, he drives, he plays sports, he parties. He does it all, really, without ever looking out of place. And yet earlier in the year, the announcement of a Mario and Rabbids mash-up was met by some skepticism on the internet.…

Much as I love derivative works, I prefer my fictional characters to remain fictional. The official Rabbid Peach Instagram account gives me the heebie jeebies.

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was one of the strangest announcements at E3 this year, and fearless Kotaku editor-in-chief Stephen Totilo got a chance to play it for about 15 minutes. Based on what we’ve seen so far, this mash-up works surprisingly well!

When a marketing presentation for Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle was leaked in May, the internet met it with mockery and bafflement. But now that people have finally seen the game in action at Ubisoft’s E3 press conference, the internet has done a 180. Huh.

The gaming internet was agog today over what appear to be leaked marketing images of an upcoming Super Mario team-up with Ubisoft’s Rabbids characters, despite word of the game’s existence having trickled out via various gaming news outlets (including this one) for months.

One of this fall’s big Nintendo Switch games will be Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, a game that has been rumored for quite some time and does indeed exist, as confirmed by art assets provided to Kotaku. The game will mix Nintendo’s iconic plumber (and friends) with characters from Ubisoft’s popular Rabbids series.