The game packs a ton of zany mini-games onto the disc, and most of them are a lot of fun, once you unlock them in the single-player mode. This mode is strung together on the thinnest of premises. Rayman's world has been invaded by a gang of crazy rabbit-like creatures called Rabbids. They've kidnapped our hero and thrown him into an arena, forcing him to compete in crazy events for their own entertainment.
If there's one thing that sticks out about Raving Rabbids, it's the Rabbids themselves. If you haven't already seen Ubi Soft's series of viral videos, be sure to check them out for a taste of how incredibly whacky this game truly is. The game delivers laughs in spades.
These mini-games will have you doing the weirdest things you could imagine, including: pulling worms from teeth, throwing cows like a shot-put, slamming urinal doors, and shooting Rabbids dressed as Superman with your plunger-gun, just to name a few. A few games repeat the same control mechanisms as other games. In the case of some games, like the whole series of rhythm-based games (each with its own song), it's fine, but in other games you might only be shaking the controller like mad. There's no need for more than one mini-game like this, as they all bring the same thing to the table.
For the most part, the games control fine, as they should considering how simple they are. Before playing a mini-game, a Mario Party-style explanation screen will explain what you will be doing, along with an animation of a Rabbid playing the game, which actually helps quite a lot in figuring out exactly how you'll be using the Wii remote and Nunchuck. For the multiplayer mode, some games have all the players playing the game simultaneously, while others require players to take turns. This is really nice considering that Wii owners with a single controller won't be left in the dark for multiplayer. However, It would be nice if there was an option to only display these games. Also, the interface for selecting mini-games is terribly confusing. Games are divided into multiple categories, and within each category they are displayed as a picture, so there is no quick and easy way to find a specific game.
Two specific types of games require a special mention. They are they shooting games and the dancing games. The dancing games are based on a simple rhythm-based mechanic, in which Rabbids move to the front of a stage on either the left or the right. When they hit the front of the stage, the player must shake either the nunchuck or Wii remote, depending on whether the Rabbid is on the left or right of the screen. These games start out very easy but eventually work their way up to a decent level of challenge. Plus, watching the Rabbids dance in the background is indeed hilarious. The shooting games are done in the style of those old light-gun arcade shooting games, such as Area 51, and include a lot of tongue-in-cheek references to that style of games. While easy, they're also a good deal of fun. The Wii remote's pointer is used to aim your cross-hair, and the B-button fires, while a quick shake of the nunchuck reloads. A grabber-chain can also be launched with the Z button on the nunchuck, and pressed again to throw out whatever has been grabbed (including Rabbids). Watching these shooting levels is often as fun as playing them, as you'll catch the Rabbids at their most hilarious.
Rayman: Raving Rabbids is a lot of fun with a group of friends, but only after you've put the time in to unlock all the mini-games, or if you have an SD card and access to the Internet to download a completed save file. The single-player game is little more than an excuse to force you to play all of the mini-games so you can unlock them for multiplayer and high score modes.
Pros:
Lastability: 7.0
Again, it's a really fun party game, so expect it to stick around for awhile as long as you've got friends to play it with.
Final: 6.5
It really cannot be stressed how much fun you won't have with this game if you don't play it with other people. Acting stupid and laughing at the absurd antics of the Rabbids is what this game is all about. Download a save file if you can.
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Originally posted by: SvevanMost important point here: the game isn't very good. At NWR, any score above a 5 means it is good in some way, and I can almost entirely agree with the score given by Mike. Keep this in mind, because many other sites treat 9s as the norm, 8s as "above average" and 7s as "not very good," which is dumb. It's a 1 to 10 scale, so anything below five is officially not recommended, but above five is recommended at least partially. This game has some quality stuff, but not enough to make it stellar.
The new site didn't change anything with regards to our scoring - in fact we made it clearer and more like our original intentions. Also, a great majority of the Wii games out there aren't very good. You're going to get lower scores from those who play all systems and all games because at NWR, we aren't just Nintendo fanboys - as I've said before, Nintendo fans have lower standards for FPS games, so Red Steel seems pretty good to a lot of people out there. Truth is Red Steel isn't very good - just because you haven't played an FPS in 8 months doesn't mean the next pile that comes by is the best FPS yet.
Same with Rayman. Who here wishes they had made a real Rayman platformer? Gosh this was a waste, but there's some fun stuff in it.
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Originally posted by: Svevan
Most important point here: the game isn't very good. At NWR, any score above a 5 means it is good in some way, and I can almost entirely agree with the score given by Mike. Keep this in mind, because many other sites treat 9s as the norm, 8s as "above average" and 7s as "not very good," which is dumb. It's a 1 to 10 scale, so anything below five is officially not recommended, but above five is recommended at least partially. This game has some quality stuff, but not enough to make it stellar.
The new site didn't change anything with regards to our scoring - in fact we made it clearer and more like our original intentions. Also, a great majority of the Wii games out there aren't very good. You're going to get lower scores from those who play all systems and all games because at NWR, we aren't just Nintendo fanboys - as I've said before, Nintendo fans have lower standards for FPS games, so Red Steel seems pretty good to a lot of people out there. Truth is Red Steel isn't very good - just because you haven't played an FPS in 8 months doesn't mean the next pile that comes by is the best FPS yet.
Same with Rayman. Who here wishes they had made a real Rayman platformer? Gosh this was a waste, but there's some fun stuff in it.
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Originally posted by: Infernal Monkey
Rayman in this game would be like Shadow the Hedgehog making an appearance in a Mario game. Nobody cares.
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Nintendo fans have lower standards for FPS games
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Judging from the review text, I would have expected a higher score
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Originally posted by: Jonnyboy117
I think some of the backlash to our "harsh" reviews of launch games comes from the fact that some people are enjoying these games simply because they enjoy playing the Wii -- almost regardless of the game itself. It's an understandable side-effect of launch mania, and hey, if you're having fun with every single game, that's awesome. But we do have to look past hardware romance and judge these games on their own merits, and the truth is that many of the Wii launch games are mediocre but are made more amusing (to varying degrees) by the nature of the controls on Wii.
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Originally posted by: VGrevolutionQuote
Originally posted by: Jonnyboy117
I think some of the backlash to our "harsh" reviews of launch games comes from the fact that some people are enjoying these games simply because they enjoy playing the Wii -- almost regardless of the game itself. It's an understandable side-effect of launch mania, and hey, if you're having fun with every single game, that's awesome. But we do have to look past hardware romance and judge these games on their own merits, and the truth is that many of the Wii launch games are mediocre but are made more amusing (to varying degrees) by the nature of the controls on Wii.
You know, every game out there is probaly mediocre but is made better by the controls. Yep that seals it, all games are mediocre junk without good controls. Really though if people are truly enjoying these games because of the controls, then shouldn't that be enough to justify a good score if people are getting the number 1 things that you should be getting out of a game, and that is fun. I dunno I've always been of the philosophy that review scores should reflect more heavily on the amount of "fun" a game has above all else.
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Originally posted by: Jonnyboy117
I think some of the backlash to our "harsh" reviews of launch games comes from the fact that some people are enjoying these games simply because they enjoy playing the Wii -- almost regardless of the game itself. It's an understandable side-effect of launch mania, and hey, if you're having fun with every single game, that's awesome. But we do have to look past hardware romance and judge these games on their own merits, and the truth is that many of the Wii launch games are mediocre but are made more amusing (to varying degrees) by the nature of the controls on Wii.
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Originally posted by: Mario
Yeah I know.. but it's almost as if... the games were designed to take advantage of the Wii controls?!
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Originally posted by: matt oz
If you buy a game, there should be an option to have EVERYTHING in the game unlockable from the start.
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Site's Avg Ratio For All: 70.7%
GR Avg Ratio for All titles this site has reviewed: 72.0%
Difference: -1.3%
Number of All Reviews Higher than the Average: 283
Number of All Reviews Lower than the Average: 284
QuoteAs Jonny just pointed out, the average score of NWR is very similar to the other sites, so you can't use that argument..
Originally posted by: Svevan
Most important point here: the game isn't very good. At NWR, any score above a 5 means it is good in some way, and I can almost entirely agree with the score given by Mike. Keep this in mind, because many other sites treat 9s as the norm, 8s as "above average" and 7s as "not very good," which is dumb. It's a 1 to 10 scale, so anything below five is officially not recommended, but above five is recommended at least partially.
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Originally posted by: Jonnyboy117
ooohboy, don't you mean that you had to unlock Wario Ware's games for single-player? I think they are all available for multiplayer out of the box, since that game (the GC version) was specially designed for multiplayer.
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Originally posted by: Jonnyboy117
Many of the worst shovelware games never get reviewed on our site, although we are slowly trying to broaden our coverage to get ALL games on Nintendo platforms, even the Barbie Horse Adventure junk. Just for thoroughness.
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Originally posted by: Jonnyboy117
Many of the worst shovelware games never get reviewed on our site, although we are slowly trying to broaden our coverage to get ALL games on Nintendo platforms, even the Barbie Horse Adventure junk. Just for thoroughness.
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Nintendo fans are extinct, and this site has no reason to live.
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Originally posted by: couchmonkey
I think the game randomly causes you to fail at closing the door at times. It would be better if the door flew open again right away or something, but sometimes it seems that it reads the motion, but nothing happens. Could be wrong.
I think we'll see fewer "precise" uses of the nunchuck in the future. It's terrible in WiiSports boxing and it's so-so for the shield thrust in Zelda. It's fine for assigning one job that has no penalty for over-shaking. Then you can just shake like heck (Zelda spin-thrust or Rayman carrot juice game) and it doesn't matter that it's not very accurate.
