When Firaxis’ strategy reboot XCOM: Enemy Unknown released in 2012, I fell in love almost instantly. The game’s turn-based tactical battle system was tense and thrilling, with just enough random number generation to keep you on the edge of your seat in even the simplest encounters. Its world was stylish, with an aesthetic clearly influenced by classic science-fiction films, and while its story was simple, it allowed for the introduction of a few new late-game enemy types. Many look back on Enemy Unknown and last year’s XCOM 2 as masterpieces – blueprints for how to design the perfect turn-based strategy game.

To raise the stakes of each fight and force players to make every move as if it were their last, the XCOM series uses a “permadeath” mechanic, with gravely wounded soldiers forced to spend weeks recovering and killed soldiers vanishing forever. If you’re one to name your many squad members after your friends and family, it can feel like a gut punch, but it’s rarely the end of the world. As someone who can get stressed pretty easily playing games, I also knew that I could always reload a past save and attempt a mission again if things went too far south. However, XCOM 2 introduced the “Avatar Project,” an endgame for alien forces that would be triggered if you weren’t able to complete certain missions to counteract it.

It forced me to play defensively, always trying to turn back the project’s clock to the neglect of other objectives, but it also punished experimentation. Firaxis expected players who bought the game to play through the main story several times before they eventually developed a worthwhile strategy, making victory taste that much sweeter. But as great as that victory looked in my head, the thought of failing over and over again to achieve that goal ultimately dissuaded me from continuing the game. I often use games as a way to unwind, but my time playing XCOM 2 would be even more stressful than school or work had ever been. I made the decision to move on.

Enter Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. Released in late August for the Nintendo Switch, the game wears its XCOM influence on its sleeve. Turn-based battles with an “overwatch” mechanic, a “full cover” and “half cover” system, and a variety of character classes all make it look – at least at first glance – like a simple and pure love letter to the XCOM series. But developer Ubisoft Milan didn’t intend for the game to be frustrating. Instead, it eliminates the most infuriating elements to create a strategy game that, for once, doesn’t give me an ulcer.

The relaxed tone of Mario + Rabbids is set before you even have your first battle. The game’s premise -- botched science experiment merging the Mario and Rabbids universes – is silly even by Nintendo standards, but the game leans into it. Big baddie Bowser Jr. gets interrupted with an angry call from his father while trying to give a menacing speech, and the Roomba-like character Beep-0 seems to always have a snarky comment for the odd sights Mario encounters during his adventure. Instead of dreading the moments in between battles like I did in XCOM, I found myself looking forward to them so I could hear a few more jokes.

But once you do get into a fight, it’s an absolute blast, as well. The characters – Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and the Rabbid versions of all four – serve different roles, with only three of them available for each fight. Of these three, one has to be Mario, who has a well-rounded fighting style, but it’s completely on you to shape the rest of your team. Peach is a great choice for destroying enemy cover, which is even more crucial than it is in XCOM, while Rabbid Peach can quickly heal teammates back to full health. Even if you find that a particular character setup isn’t doing the trick for a fight, restarting a fight will only set you back a few minutes, and it’s never more than a few encounters before your entire team has their full health restored. The ability to just relax and enjoy the wacky action on screen might seem simple, but it completely changed how I approached the game. With the elimination of most of the game’s more “random” elements (you are guaranteed to hit a target not protected by cover, for instance) there are also far fewer instances of luck getting in the way of a victory. And if you do still have issues, there’s always an easy mode option for individual battles.

In between encounters, there’s no racing against the clock to stop the Rabbids from fully taking over the Mushroom Kingdom. Instead, you get to solve fairly simple puzzles, some of which can only be completed after acquiring an ability later on, and you can even just take some time to soak in the game’s gorgeous, bizarre scenery. If you want to go back to an older area and search for extra coins or unlockable items, there’s absolutely no penalty for doing so. You don’t have to worry about a countdown that will eventually force you to restart your progress. You don’t have to stop what you’re doing to deal with a random attack. You can actually enjoy yourself and move at your own pace.

I haven’t finished Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle quite yet – I’m on the final of its four worlds – but it’s quickly becoming one of my favorite games on the Nintendo Switch. Ubisoft Milan seems to understand not just what makes the XCOM series so addictive, but also why fans revere the Mario universe so much. It’s totally possible to meld a “hardcore” game genre with family-friendly stories and environments, and in the case of this 23-year-old adult, that’s a welcome marriage. My only request for a sequel is the addition of Rabbid Birdo and Rabbid Waluigi characters, preferably to be used exclusively as cannon fodder. If that can happen, it will be a game to remember.