In particular, there is the game where you have to use the Wii Remote to draw a line around an image on the screen which, if you are successful, becomes a tasty morsel to eat! Imagine that. If you could just draw a nice chicken leg out of thin air! The world’s hunger crisis would disappear immediately, but I digress into reality.
Another favourite is the
Time Crisis-style game 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. 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!
I also loved the pig-milking game whereby you re-enact the milking motion with the Nunchuk. There are many complex reasons why I found these two particular games both darkly funny and especially addictive and I’ll be discussing them with a mental health professional for years to come as we try to deconstruct my dreams and nightmares!
As you can see mini-games are many (70 as I said) and varied - and, although they’re based on a limited number of themes, they succeed in not being repetitive. This is purely because of the twisted humour and the fun control system. Beware though, this is not a game you want to play on your own at night in an office environment with the windows open, as I mistakenly did. The looks on the faces of the bemused secretaries across the other side of the street spoke volumes - they had clearly been watching me for the better part of an hour as I threw my arms around the place, laughing like a village idiot at the on-screen action.
In terms of graphics and audio, sadly, I’m going to have reprise what is becoming a standard Wii-tune: “It could be on the GameCube/It could be on the GameCube/La la”. Neither graphics nor sound is exactly what you would call “cutting edge”. Obviously on the graphics front, with its 480p (using component cables) the Wii has never been set up as a truly next-gen device. So, although
Raving Rabbids does a better job than the majority of other games that I’ve seen on this box, it’s still never going to blow you away.
Audio really shouldn’t hold the same argument, however. And while the soundtrack (and the licensed songs including, for some reason,
La Bamba) ticks along, it doesn’t achieve any form of Leroy Holmes-eque cartoony fun – Leroy Holmes, by the way, did a lot of the music for Tom and, indeed, Jerry. In fact it can get downright annoying.
SPOnG Score – B
Surprisingly, Rayman Raving Rabbids is up there with Zelda as one of the all-too-few decent Wii launch titles. It is also going to keep our love of zany, mini-games alive, at least until we see the new Wario title sometime in 2007. Alongside Wii Sports, I look forward to playing Rayman with the non-gamers amongst our friends and family this coming Christmas, as it really has the essential mix of cartoony humour and simple-yet-addictive controls which sets Wii apart from its competition.
