Wii Preview: Rayman Raving Rabbids

What’s it all about?

The Wii launch-game is the fourth in the popular series, and consists of 70-odd short games, much in the style of other Wii games, like Wii Play. It seems the storyline starts when Rayman’s world is taken over by a bunch of crazy rabbits, and Rayman discovers that if he performs these minigames, called ‘trials’, he becomes popular among the Rabbids, and manages to free the world from its captors.

Should I be excited?
Most definitely, it seems the creators of this game were inspired by other open-world games such as Grand Theft Auto, Raving Rabbids has 10 worlds where you can roam freely, and even six animals that you can ride around. Here’s where it gets a bit Pokemon, as before you ride them you must fight and tame then. Pikachu! There’s also two styles of gameplay, a story mode where all the trials are unlocked, and the replay mode, where the minigames can be replayed over and over to your heart’s content.

Does it do nifty stuff with the Wii controller?
You bet yo’ bottom dollar it does, dawg. All the minigames are divided into categories - first-person shooter, racing, and rhythm minigames, so there are many different ways in which you can put the Wii-mote to the test. One minigame centres around dancing, when Rayman is grooving away, rabbids approach him, so you must quickly move the nunchaku and the Wii-mote to K.O. them. In another groovy sounding trial, called ‘Rabbids love carrot juice’, you must shoot rabbids, drowning them with carrot juice. In order to pump the juice at the rabbids, you have to ‘violently’ shake the nunchuk up and down, which sounds a lil’ difficult, as you have to aim with one hand, whilst shaking the other quickly. Sounds just like a session at the urinals, don’t it?

Any good multiplayer features?
The developers have stated that there’s an ‘array of multiplayer turn based, as well as simultaneous 1-4 multiplayer games to get everyone involved in the fun’. One multiplayer game we have heard of is the plunger shooting game, where you and a friend go around, shooting the rabbids in an arcade-shooter style. For the whole family!

What else should I know?
This is one of the Wii’s launch titles, and looks set to be one of the more popular games, with its family-friendly themes, and multiplayer features. People lucky enough to have a go on the game prior to its release have all noted how easy it is to work up a sweat, in a three-minute session playing ‘Rabbids love carrot juice’, that we mentioned earlier, one journalist said he was extremely tired afterwards and felt quite exhilarated. Perhaps not for the faint-hearted, or, indeed, this man here.

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