Despite quite a few rumors and leaks, many were still surprised about the reveal of Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. Not only does it bring the denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom together with the former raving Rayman adversaries, but it’s wrapped in a visually striking strategy RPG package. Fans and journalists noticed quite a few similarities between this new title and the classic SRPG series XCOM, but Venture Beat managed to get a comment from an XCOM developer at Firaxis, Jake Solomon. Not only was he surprised to see elements of the series he himself helps shape, he also wants to introduce it to his children.

There are few times in my career that I’ve been as surprised as when I was watching that presentation. Just like everyone else, my jaw dropped a little bit when I heard the phrase, ‘As you see, Luigi has taken half-cover.’ What world am I in right now? I couldn’t believe it. But I realized that this is finally how I can introduce XCOM to my daughters. I can finally play something like XCOM with my daughters, introduce the basic concepts. Then, when they’re old enough, maybe we can move on to XCOM together. That was really cool to see.

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle is set to release exclusively for Nintendo Switch on August 31.

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