Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope free this week for Nintendo Switch Online members

Tasking us all with bringing some order back to the universe, Nintendo has announced its upcoming Switch Online trial for members.

From today (July 8) until July 14, those interested can take Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope out for a spin as part of their subscription. The full game is available during this time.

We were rather taken with Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope on its release in 2022, with our Donlan calling it “knockabout XCOM fun in a galaxy-hopping adventure that makes Mario’s brother a true star”.

However, despite warm critical reception, the Ubisoft developed and published game failed to set the company’s financials alight.

The company’s CEO Yves Guillemot admitted that he had been “surprised” by Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope’s “underperformance in the final weeks of 2022 and early January”. Guillemot went on to state this slightly lacklustre performance was likely down to the publisher’s decision to release a sequel on Switch, ignoring Nintendo’s advice to “only do one iteration [of Mario] on each machine”.

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope served as the follow-up to the much-loved Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, developed for release on Nintendo Switch in 2017.

Elsewhere for Nintendo Switch Online members, last week the company added seven more NES games to the service, including the original Golf.

For a full list of everything available on Nintendo’s subscription service, head over to our Nintendo Switch Online guide.