Preview: Rabbids Go Home (Wii)

With a back-log of three frankly average party games, I'm sure a lot of people are likely to laud the departure of the traditional Rabbids. As the title suggests, Rabbids Go Home is a completely different direction for the series, focusing the frenetic energy of the old mini-games into something with a little more tenacity, and while you shouldn't expect Uncharted with demented cartoon rabbits, you should expect a charming and whimsical action-adventure that keeps proceedings to a strict regime of fun and silliness. Plus, if you really don't like Rabbids, you'll be pleased to know it's largely about pro-actively helping them go away.

The premise of the game revolves around one simple principle: The Rabbids have grown tired of earth - presumably having seen their respective metacritic pages - and now desire to return “home” to the moon. After much deliberation on how to reach it they finally land on the idea of collecting as many things as possible from our planet, by riding around on an assortment of makeshift vehicles, and piling them up until they have amassed a heap so vast they have only to climb to their destination. I bet NASA would feel stupid in the presence of such irrefutable logic.

Rabbits and Pieces

Before any of that, though, Ubisoft's enchanting Brand Manager, Ombeline Wallon, made a point of showing me the Rabbid customisation tool: Quite delightful in its concept, any cosmetic adjustments you make are conducted inside what is supposed to be your Wiimote - circuits and all - the twisting and shacking of which sees your Rabbid tumble about and smash into walls in an enthralling synergy of cuteness and belligerence reminiscent of something Joe Cartoon would create should he get his hands on the technology – sans the gore.

Seemingly beaten into submission the Rabbid returns to his Wiimote speaker podium, ready for artless adjustment, whereby Ombeline resizes his head with a sinister hand clamp – an option available to most parts of the body - stamps a Ubisoft logo on his right side and then spray-paints on a yellow t-shirt. She also toyed with the idea of a jelly hat but that was dismissed, lest he looked stupid. As charismatic as it is, there's little depth or complexity to the tool, appearing to favour humour over forming any great channel of creativity, but nonetheless it's perfectly in sync with the humble appeal of the characters themselves, and the unlockable accessories and tattoos throughout the game tie it into progression as opposed to being dropped in arbitrarily. You can also upload photos of your work to the Wii Channel, but any enduring purpose of this feature beyond “for the lulz” is yet to be explained.

Harey Trip

Now ready for action, Ombeline selects one of the 40-odd levels, accompanied, like all levels, by its own 2D animated loading screen explaining what to do, and it opens with a couple of Rabbids forcefully removing a jet engine from the wing of a landing plane. Once detached the hulking cylinder of metal becomes their ride, carrying them through the windows of the airport into the interior and flailing wildly as Ombeline just manages to tame its unhinged propulsive force. The sheer volume of items you collect along the way – which range from traffic cones to people's clothing – means only a certain amount are visible on your vehicle; the others simply disappear to a holding place to be regurgitated alongside everything else and placed into a toilet at the end of the level. Obviously, the more items you collect the better your score, but the maximum 1000 points isn't an easy task.

The reasons for this are three-fold: Firstly, the unlikely vehicles at hand have crazy handling. Secondly, you've always got humans – or “Verminators”, as they're called – on your case, trying to stop you from destroying parts of the planet for your own devices. And thirdly, small puzzles and obstacle courses challenge your flow whilst keeping each level interesting. I only got to see some basic switch flipping and evasion, but Ombeline spoke of a flying hospital bubble bed later in the game, and what I saw added some much-needed challenge to what would otherwise be a simple and thus repetitive concept. Think French Katamari.

To be honest, Rabbids Go Home has a lot in common with Katamari: they're both often frantic in gameplay; they both involve mass item collection; they both have a warped sense of humour; and most of all, they both have strangely enjoyable music. That's not to say Rabbids Go Home is guaranteed to find the acclaim that Katamari has, but the comparison alone warrants interest. Whether the Rabbids name will deter people or not is yet to be seen, but I think the series has a lot more potential in this form.