Rayman Raving Rabbids review

What happens when you cross a sausage with a chipolata? Nope, I don’t have a clue either, but I thought it would quite effectively signify the randomness of one of the Wii’s latest offerings: Rayman Raving Rabbids.

Just as it would feel like to walk into your living room and finding an elephant munching on your mince pies, Rayman is certainly random. The game begins by showing a quick clip of our old platforming friend Rayman being whisked away by some “rabbids” that look rather a lot like the rabbits from Wallace and Gromit. They say a few choice mad syllables to old Ray-boy and lock him up.

Luckily for you and to provide an actual game to play, they decide not to throw away the key. From there on in you’re thrust into one strange challenge after the other, hoping to gain the Rabbid’s respect so they’ll let you go. The basic game structure pans out like this: complete mini-games. It’s a good job then that the mini games are so varied. Everything starts off semi-normal: with challenges like milking cows and dancing leading the way. Then it all goes a bit up the creek without the proverbial missing paddle.

Throwing a Cow

Let me highlight one particular challenge to emphasise the point of randomness that I keep banging on about. I had to keep the doors shut for four Rabbids while they noisily emptied their bowels not ten feet in front of me. The term memorable set pieces I don’t think will be ever used in the same light for me again, but if there had to be one it has got to be that. And throwing that cow. And shooting that Rabbid in the face with a plunger. The list really could go on forever. Each new mini game presents a new challenge and nearly always a new way to use the Wii remote. Without going too much into the inevitable Wii rant, this really is what the Wii has been created for. To play games in different and sometimes completely perplexing new ways that you previously thought was impossible. On that front, Rayman really doesn’t disappoint.

That’s not to say that the disappointment fairy completely sidestepped Rayman though. The longevity gap that used to be filled by copious amounts of jumping about and crossing treacherous virtual abysses, has been replaced by what one could only describe as the short straw. The platforming Rayman of old used to provide a decent amount of substance and something to really get your teeth into, but the old cream cake of a Rayman game has somehow been reduced to the cream bun of the new one.

Surprisingly Tasty

Apparently games were meant to look something like dog meat on a rather posh platter on the Wii, so it is with some surprise to everybody that I’ve found that Rayman actually looks nice. Some may say nice isn’t a particular appealing factor - what with the triple core of the 360 and the run-your-whole-house Cell chip of the PS3 – but that’s before you take into account the power of the Wii. Going by that – and judging that this is a launch game – the graphics are in fact a pretty amazing feat of polygonal juggling.

The dream will fade eventually. Eventually you’ll realise that Rayman Raving Rabbids is no more than a demonstration of what the Wii Remote can do, and there’s actually no substance to it at all. The game is a collection of mini-games, with next to no long term appeal. Similar to finding that elephant in your living room; Rayman Raving Rabbids will be a shock at first. Then after a while when you’ve got used to it being there and used to it’s control system you’ll realise that there’s not much there at all. The inescapable truth is that while the new direction will be fun for a while, Rayman Raving Rabbids leaves a gigantic hole in the Rayman series instead of filling one.

Rayman Raving Rabbids: a good game without the substance to make it a great one.