See, to get to the center of the galaxy, you’re tasked with collecting Darkmess Crystals from each planet to fuel up your ship and let you hop to your next destination. The game spreads its battles and activities across five major planets, each acting as both a hub-world filled with things to do, but also as a sort of meta-puzzle in of itself. The scope of this game feels utterly massive for a Mario title, moreso than any of his previous adventures.

While Sparks of Hope is still a tactics game at heart, it plays almost completely differently from its predecessor Kingdom Battle. And so, after a brief series of surprisingly epic tutorial battles that introduce the basic mechanics of combat, Mario, Luigi, and Peach blast into space (along with their Rabbid counterparts) to planet-hop their way to victory. On top of that, the gang learns that their beloved friend Rosalina has been captured and is being held in the center of the galaxy. Sparks of Hope’s premise feels like a sort of “greatest hits album” in that sense – Mario and company are just chilling near Peach’s castle, casually chatting about how “nothing could go wrong” when a massive cosmic manta ray (yes, really) comes out of nowhere and coats the galaxy in a gooey ink-like substance called Darkmess. It’s been fifteen years since our prolific plumber first visited the depths of space in Super Mario Galaxy, and since then he’s had a surprisingly active career as an astronaut, visiting space again in both Super Mario Galaxy 2 and even Super Mario Odyssey.

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