Rayman Raving Rabbids – Mini Games Galore, but is it the Next Party Game?
When I first heard about Rayman Raving Rabbids, I thought it was another run of the mill joke game that would sell about 2 copies and dismissed it. Last week I saw the first 20 minutes of gameplay and I was sold on the game. What I had seen was a game full of great mini games that rival WarioWare and Mario Party but with more substance. Could it get any better!?
Before I get down and dirty with the review, lets talk a little about the story. Rayman Raving Rabbids does feature a story, but just a warning, that’s not what you’re going to play the game for. The game starts out with Rayman on a picnic with several of his buddies when the all of the sudden when they’re taking by rabbits! Yes, taken by rabbits. Rayman tries to play the friendly side, but before he can become too chummy with the rabbits, a giant bunny snatches him up and throws him in a holding cell. When Rayman comes to, he finds himself in an arean full of bunnies where he must complete tests for their amusement and for the chance to free his buddies. As Rayman completes these tests, he wins prizes that will help him escape and he frees his buddies. These tests that he must complete are various mini games that make up Rayman Raving Rabbids.
Rayman Raving Rabbids features over an incredible amount of very fun mini games that all take great advantage of the new innovative Wii controls. The game offers the single player story mode or a Score Mode for 1-4 players where you can revisit any mini-game you have already completed by yourself or with your own friends.
Presentation – 8.0
Rayman Raving Rabbids is a very sharp looking game that will keep you laughing the whole time playing it. The game looks and play wonderfully, but there are a few bugs and the loading times do get annoying. I’ve had a few graphical bugs where the large parts of the screen will randomly flash grey for a small instant. This isn’t anything game stopping, but it is noticeable and it does take away from the overall game.
The next bug I encountered, however, was not so forgivable. During one of the games, you have to use the speaker on the Wii Remote to tell where bunnies are hidden in the ground. The problem with this game was that the first three or four times I played this mini-game, the speaker didn’t do anything. When the speaker finally started working, I was so relieved that I wasn’t going crazy and that the game wasn’t as hard as I thought it was.
The other thing that takes away from Rayman Raving Rabbids are the loading times. None of the loading times are anything extreme, but there are a lot of them. They didn’t bother me at first, but after a while, they start to bother.
On an up note, Ubisoft did add various “characters” from their previous games in the form of rabbits. I think my favorite would have to be the Splinter Cell bunny that makes it way in the FPS mini-games.
All in all, Rayman Raving Rabbids is a great game with great style, but the few bugs and large amount of loading screens it does have does take away from the overall experience. Rayman Raving Rabbids gets an 8.0 for presentation. I can forgive the graphical bugs and large amount of loading screens, but the sound bug I experienced was a show stopper and that can just ruin a game entirely.
Graphics – 8.3
The graphics in Rayman Raving Rabbids are brilliant. The bunny design never gets old and you will love watching every little cut scene over and over again. While the graphics aren’t anything revolutionary by far, they have an excellent style that will not leave you disappointed.
The bunnies have such great style and are beautifully animated. I laugh at every cut scene and every other scene that involves a bunny (which is pretty much every scene). The environments that the game offers also look great. While you may be wondering just where you are at some times, the environments just look wonderful.
While the graphics in Rayman Raving Rabbids isn’t anything overly impressive, they’re still something that will leave a good lasting impression on you. Ubisoft’s attention to detail very much deserves an 8.3. These weren’t the best graphics around, but they absolutely nailed the style of the game.
Sound – 9.3
By far, the most impressive thing about Rayman Raving Rabbids is the sound design. Everything, and I mean everything, has the most perfect sound and sound placement that you could imagine for that object. Furthermore, the sound coming from the Wii Remote only makes that sound design even better.
The soundtrack offers “bunny remixes” of many recognizable songs that you will have stuck in your head for days; I’m still humming the bunny version of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” Every environment and every game just has the most absolute perfect background music that just creates the perfect atmosphere for the game.
On the other side of sound, we have the sound effects which are also incredible. Even though the bunnies all sound great, you will still laugh every time any one of them make a sound. It doesn’t matter if it comes from the TV or Wii Remote, the bunnies just sound great.
The sound design of Rayman Raving Rabbids is truly just great. The only thing that takes away from it is the lack of sound options, but that’s even a very minor detail. Rayman Raving Rabbids earns a very deserving 9.3 for sound.
Gameplay – 8.1
The time I’ve spent playing Rayman Raving Rabbids I’ve had an absolute blast. The mini-games are just plain fun. Even the games I don’t like, I still like playing. While I’m playing through the single player mode, I often find myself finishing games I don’t even have to because the games are just so fun.
Each mini-game offers some unique way of using the Wii Remote whether it’s moving the remote and nunchuck up and down as if running, keeping a beat with the nunchuck and remote, playing a FPS shooter like House of the Dead, to even continuously knocking a bunny over the head with hammer. The mini-games are just fun. Each one will have you laughing the entire time as you do various things to or for the bunnies. The min-games for Rayman Raving Rabbids are just a huge success.
After getting a good sampling of these mini-games, I couldn’t wait to play them in multiplayer. Sadly, save for a few games, the Rayman Raving Rabbids mini-games are just not fun in multiplayer. Each game is made for one person to play at a time and most games takes one to two minutes to complete, if not more. There are a few games that let two players play at once and a few games that take about 20-30 seconds to complete, but they’re still long and when waiting for 3 other people to complete these games, it takes a long time.
Because of the length of the mini-games, the multiplayer just does not cut it, which is sad because that’s what any mini-game based game should be all about. You will often find yourself playing for about one to two minutes and then waiting for you turn for another five or so minutes. It’s totally surprising that the single player is actually much more fun than the multiplayer, but I suppose that’s just the way it is. The fun single player mini-games earn this game earn Rayman Raving Rabbids an 8.0 for gameplay. That score would have been much more higher if the multiplayer was fun, but sadly, the multiplayer is just painful to sit through.
Lasting Appeal – 7.0
It’s that if Rayman Raving Rabbids had fun multiplayer that it would be an absolutely brilliant game that would be fun for years to come, but it’s not. Sadly, Rayman Raving Rabbids only offers a very fun single player experience full of creative mini-games. This is still a good thing for gameplay, but not for lasting appeal. You will find yourself coming back to several of these games because they are just so much fun, but they will get old and in a short amount of time you will put this game down never to pick it up again.
Rayman Raving Rabbids offers great gameplay, it just won’t last much longer than one time through the short game, if you even make it through the game so it gets a 7.0.
Overall – 8.1 (Excellent)
Rayman Raving Rabbids offers a large amount of mini-games that are insanely fun that will keep you occupied, but the multiplayer just isn’t fun and a game based on mini-games needs to be fun in multiplayer. The game offers great innovative control schemes that are a lot of fun to use and they all work great, which is very impressive for a launch title, but this game won’t keep you satisfied for long. If you see this game used, pick it up, otherwise rent it and have an awesome Wii-kend. Rayman Raving Rabbids gets an for it’s great gameplay but lack of fun multiplayer.
Scores Roundup
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Presentation – 8.0
Graphics – 8.3
Sound – 9.3
Gameplay – 8.1
Lasting Appeal – 7.0
Overall - 8.1
