Games Database
PS3
Platform
| Also for: | PC, Wii, Xbox 360, PS2 | ||
| Viewed: | 3D Third-person, floating camera | Genre: | Platform |
| Media: | DVD | Arcade origin: | No |
| Developer: | Ubisoft Montpellier | Soft. Co.: | Ubisoft |
| Ratings: | PEGI 3+ | ||
Summary
Rayman Raving Rabbids is a bold new step forward for Michel Ancel’s much loved Rayman series. This Wii launch title – and it is up there with Zelda as one of the must-buy titles for showing off the Wii controller – has been developed by the team behind Beyond Good & Evil and Peter Jackson’s King Kong.
It is by far the edgiest, funniest and most off-the-wall gaming experience in the history of the series.
In case you are new to Rayman, he is that funny French videogame character with floating limbs and floppy ears. Unlike past games in the Rayman series, which have been 3D platformers, this one is made-up of 70 barking mad mini-games – a very pleasant surprise indeed. Particularly as Wii gamers in Europe are going to have to wait a good few months after launch to get their mitts on Nintendo’s unparalleled king of zany mini-games WarioWare: Smooth Moves.
The background story goes like this: Rayman is enjoying a perfectly pleasant picnic when, quick as a flash, he’s captured by the evil buck-toothed ‘rabbids’. Those evil bunnies have only gone and dumped our limbless, gladiatorial hero in a crumbling coliseum. To find your way out of your prison you simply select one of four gateways, behind each is a challenge in the form of a kerr-azy mini-game for you to complete. Complete all four in one game-day and you are rewarded with a massive plunger… which is nice. It’s also useful, if you successfully complete the full 15 levels then you will earn enough plungers to make a ladder so you can make it all the way up the wall and out of the window as you escape to victory!
So what of these mini-games/trials that Rayman must endure then? Firstly, they are very easy for even the most inexperienced gamer to pick up and play. This is helped massively by Ubisoft’s innovative use of the Wii Remote and Nunchuck controllers.
Secondly, they are genuinely very funny. We cannot imagine anybody picking up and playing this game and not smiling. It’s quite a challenge to keep a straight face while lobbing cows about. Or a mini-game during which you use the pointer to lock in on a rabbid as it sticks its stupid head out of a hole. Then you follow up with a swift bonk using the Nunchuck in classic whack-a-mole style.
It’s classic Tom and Jerry humour based on cartoon violence hilariously enacted against cartoon villains. The mini-games are all about completing basic objectives within a set time limit. There are 70 in total and, to give you a good idea, the titles of the games are fairly literal descriptions of the games themselves:
In “Bunnies Are Addicted to Carrot Juice”, you use the Nunchuk to pump carrot juice out of a hose that you aim at the approaching snorkel-clad rabbids.
In “Bunnies Can't Slide”, you slide as close as possible to a centered target.
In “Bunnies Can't Jump”, you skip a rope (or an evil-looking chain) by flicking the Nunchuck.
As you progress through the game the difficulty levels on each task increases accordingly, with the developers really managing to nail that essential ‘just-one-more-go, nearly there’ factor.
Perhaps the best style of game is the Time Crisis-style affair in which Rayman is led through variously themed levels populated with insane killer rabbids, which you are required to take out by firing over-sized sink plungers at. Once you run out of plungers you merely flick the Nunchuck to reload and carry on plugging the buck-toothed baddies. Which is hugely pleasing.
Many of the games are rhythm-action type affairs in which you use the controllers as drum sticks in time with on-screen markers. Perhaps the most out-there game of all is the ‘fling-a-cow’ in which you spin the Wii Remote around as if you are throwing a hammer. Not of the work-tool type, but of the Olympic flinging sport type!
Carrying on with the ‘bonkers’ theme is the pig-milking game whereby you re-enact the milking motion with the Nunchuk. Rayman Raving Rabbids has the essential mix of cartoony humour and simple-yet-addictive controls which sets Wii apart from its competition.
It is by far the edgiest, funniest and most off-the-wall gaming experience in the history of the series.
In case you are new to Rayman, he is that funny French videogame character with floating limbs and floppy ears. Unlike past games in the Rayman series, which have been 3D platformers, this one is made-up of 70 barking mad mini-games – a very pleasant surprise indeed. Particularly as Wii gamers in Europe are going to have to wait a good few months after launch to get their mitts on Nintendo’s unparalleled king of zany mini-games WarioWare: Smooth Moves.
The background story goes like this: Rayman is enjoying a perfectly pleasant picnic when, quick as a flash, he’s captured by the evil buck-toothed ‘rabbids’. Those evil bunnies have only gone and dumped our limbless, gladiatorial hero in a crumbling coliseum. To find your way out of your prison you simply select one of four gateways, behind each is a challenge in the form of a kerr-azy mini-game for you to complete. Complete all four in one game-day and you are rewarded with a massive plunger… which is nice. It’s also useful, if you successfully complete the full 15 levels then you will earn enough plungers to make a ladder so you can make it all the way up the wall and out of the window as you escape to victory!
So what of these mini-games/trials that Rayman must endure then? Firstly, they are very easy for even the most inexperienced gamer to pick up and play. This is helped massively by Ubisoft’s innovative use of the Wii Remote and Nunchuck controllers.
Secondly, they are genuinely very funny. We cannot imagine anybody picking up and playing this game and not smiling. It’s quite a challenge to keep a straight face while lobbing cows about. Or a mini-game during which you use the pointer to lock in on a rabbid as it sticks its stupid head out of a hole. Then you follow up with a swift bonk using the Nunchuck in classic whack-a-mole style.
It’s classic Tom and Jerry humour based on cartoon violence hilariously enacted against cartoon villains. The mini-games are all about completing basic objectives within a set time limit. There are 70 in total and, to give you a good idea, the titles of the games are fairly literal descriptions of the games themselves:
In “Bunnies Are Addicted to Carrot Juice”, you use the Nunchuk to pump carrot juice out of a hose that you aim at the approaching snorkel-clad rabbids.
In “Bunnies Can't Slide”, you slide as close as possible to a centered target.
In “Bunnies Can't Jump”, you skip a rope (or an evil-looking chain) by flicking the Nunchuck.
As you progress through the game the difficulty levels on each task increases accordingly, with the developers really managing to nail that essential ‘just-one-more-go, nearly there’ factor.
Perhaps the best style of game is the Time Crisis-style affair in which Rayman is led through variously themed levels populated with insane killer rabbids, which you are required to take out by firing over-sized sink plungers at. Once you run out of plungers you merely flick the Nunchuck to reload and carry on plugging the buck-toothed baddies. Which is hugely pleasing.
Many of the games are rhythm-action type affairs in which you use the controllers as drum sticks in time with on-screen markers. Perhaps the most out-there game of all is the ‘fling-a-cow’ in which you spin the Wii Remote around as if you are throwing a hammer. Not of the work-tool type, but of the Olympic flinging sport type!
Carrying on with the ‘bonkers’ theme is the pig-milking game whereby you re-enact the milking motion with the Nunchuk. Rayman Raving Rabbids has the essential mix of cartoony humour and simple-yet-addictive controls which sets Wii apart from its competition.
Wallpapers
