Toronto Thumbs

REVIEW
Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party

I first played Rayman Raving Rabbids at Shaun’s place shortly after he bought his Wii. I was new to the Wii at the time, but not to mini-games. And Rayman Raving Rabbids was like mini-games on steroids. It was so much fun and surprisingly unique in a sea of other like-minded games. We played for a good stretch of time.

The game was one of the reasons why I wanted to own a Wii.

Fast forward to the future, where the Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party (or RRRTVP) disc is sitting inside my Wii. My Wii-mote and Chuk are connected. My Wii Balance Board is in the floor at my feet. I am ready.

From the get-go the game is a hoot. The polished cinematics are hilarious and really get you in the mood to start playing the solo section (which is the bulk of this review). Everything down to the menu animation is geared to get you in a Rabbid mood.

The premise of the game is that the Rabbids have taken over Rayman’s television. They are on every channel and control every time slot. Television just got a whole lot more interesting. Your job is to play your way through the various mini-games available in the time slots. Each mini-game fits the theme of the channel you choose.

The mini-games are awesome. There are quite a number (to be honest, I haven’t even tried to count all of them yet, but I counted at least fifty), each game utilizing a creative control scheme. Whether it’s flicking your Wii-mote as if you’re frying up some steak, or sitting on the Wii Balance Board and leaning left and right to steer as you careen down a snowy mountain using a cow as a toboggan, you will certainly have a lot of fun.

The amount of thought and creativity that went into the game is obvious, as the control schemes for each mini-game are somewhat unique. I really enjoy the ability to choose between the Wii Balance Board and the Wii-Mote for certain games. One of the games involves a drag race/obstacle course on a motorcycle. You have to sit on the balance board and hold the Chuk and Wii-Mote like chopper handles. It must have looked pretty hilarious to anyone peering inside my window, but I enjoyed it immensely, laughing like a kid as I “steered” my bike with my body weight.

There are not many negative points about this game, other than slight repetition and some controller issues. The repetition, though, is par for the course. Almost every game of this style is bound to have some repetition. I would argue that it’s part of the appeal of the game. The familiarity it breeds is a very comforting thing. The other negative is that the controls don’t always respond the way you think they would. However, this could have been an issue with my low battery power, and to be fair, it didn’t really affect my enjoyment level at all.

The scoring is fun, too. Tough enough to be challenging, but forgiving enough to allow beginners to unlock some good stuff (accessories for your Rabbids).

I don’t want to give too much away in terms of the content, because discovering all of the crazy things you have to do is half the fun. I will close by saying that this game is worth the price of admission purely on the solo mode. Throw in some multiplayer (8 Players turn-based or 4 players simultaneous), online sharing of “pimped up” Rabbids, a great training mode and hilarious movies and you have yourself a great game to play with a group of friends or on your own!

Posted in Reviews, Wii |