The new Nintendo Wii is all about having a good time with enjoyable gameplay, instead of focusing on ultra realistic graphics and the hardcore gamers. Ubisoft’s Rayman Raving Rabbids is exactly the same way. It is simple, easy to pick up and play, easy to get a good laugh out of, and doesn’t focus on cutting edge graphics or physics. Unlike previous Rayman games, Rayman Raving Rabbids is a game that is based entirely on numerous minigames, which has turned out very much like Nintendo’s Wario Ware. There is a story to the game, but the real meat of the game lies in the 70+ minigames.
At the beginning of the story mode you are thrown into an arena and you have to compete in a number of games each day. There are a total of four minigame doors and then another large door that opens after beating three out of the four other minigames. The game behind the large door is always more complex and takes more time to complete. Once you pass this last game, you are then awarded a plunger (yes, a plunger!) which will be thrown into your jail cell that you are kept locked up in. Rayman uses the plungers to build a ladder on the wall that leads up to an open window in the cell. Although because the window is extremely high and out of reach, you have to continue competing in the arena each day until you have enough plungers to reach the window in your cell and escape. That is as deep as the story mode gets. It would have been nice if the game actually contained an interesting story, but the minigames have enough variety to keep you playing, at least for a while.
If you happen to beat all four minigames in a certain day (before moving onto the final minigame for the day) then you will unlock something that you can use inside of your jail cell. The unlockables include things like music to play in your cell and new costumes to suit Rayman up with. Once changing costumes in your cell, Rayman will continue to wear the costume throughout the rest of the game, until you switch it up again. These unlockables honestly aren’t worth wasting time over, but they do add a little variety to the game.
The unlockables can mix up the presentation of the game, but there needed to be a lot more. Besides the minigames, the game repeats itself over and over again many times. You will see the same short videos over and over again and they get old real quick. Before you know it you will be skipping over every short movie and just flying in and out of the minigames. Luckily though, very little of the game is spent outside of the minigames.
Pages
