During today’s Nintendo Direct, we got several more details about Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, including a release date for the tactical sequel to Nintendo and Ubisoft’s unusual collaboration: October 20, 2022.

But we also learned a bit more today about Sparks of Hope, notably that it will include Bowser as one of the nine playable characters. There’s more to come on Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, too, as we’ve been promised a special presentation tomorrow, June 29 at 9am Pacific / 12pm Eastern /5pm UK with even more details about the upcoming game, so stay tuned.

Sparks of Hope promises a number of changes to Kingdom Battle’s tactics formula, most notably allowing free movement around the map instead of using a grid-based system, and introducing some strange new Rabbids – including Rabbid Rosalina. We know from the announcement that it will remain an entirely single-player game, and will feature new equipable partners called Sparks, which offer both active and passive bonuses in battle.

We first learned about Sparks of Hope over a year ago at Ubisoft E3 2021, and today’s presentation was the first significant chunk of info we’ve gotten since then. It’s a sequel to 2017’s Kingdom Battle, which we praised for its surprising XCOM-like complexity and variety of enemies, objectives, and abilities.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.