UbiNintendo: Rabbids Go Home
posted:
7/14/2009 11:53:00 AM
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Rabbids Go Home
Ubisoft launched the Rayman Raving Rabbids spinoff on the Wii and the series has stuck with the console’s bread and butter—minigames—ever since. That’s all about to change with Rabbids Go Home, the first adventure game featuring the mentally unhinged bunnies. Billed as a comedy adventure, it focuses on the Rabbids’ quest to return home to the moon (whether this really is their home or just a figment of their shattered imaginations is left open to debate).
The Rabbids aim to accomplish this by stealing everything in sight—cars, appliances, houseplants, a cow, people’s clothes—and piling everything into a mountain of stuff that reaches the moon.
The game’s theme is an obvious jab at American consumerism. All of the clueless humans in the game are fixated on acquiring consumer products and the Rabbids emulate this in their own demented way—you steer a shopping cart around the environments as the two Rabbids inside snatch everything they can get their grubby paws on. The humans send security dogs hazmat suit-wearing government agents after the Rabbids, resulting in a Loony Toons-type chase dynamic to most of the wide, suburban levels.
Seemingly mundane items litter every corner of the levels and collecting more stuff gives you a higher score. Of the 40 promised missions in the game’s 15 distinct environments, I tried out two level based games and a minigame. The first was Super Racket in the Supermarket, a pretty standard level in a department store. The action was a good example of the standard level setup, as I careened around corners and over ramps, snatching stuff and outwitting the bumbling agents. The developers have done a good job capturing the feel of a rickety shopping cart—it doesn’t corner too well, especially with crazed Rabbids driving it, and there’s a certain skill to navigating the maze-like levels. It ends up feeling like a cartoon shopping spree, which is really a lot more fun than it sounds.
The second level I tried was set on rails, as a handful of Rabbids tore a jet turbine off a plane and an agent stuck a bomb to it. The idea was to race to the end of a tunnel in the time limit, dodging obstacles and collecting stuff as you go. It was a pretty standard rail setup but balancing your maneuverability against your speed, the ticking bomb and the limited number of lives you get made it a decent challenge.
The one minigame I tried, Inside the Wii Remote, was a lot more fun than the minigames in the previous couple of Rabbids titles I’ve played. The game basically feeds on that passive annoyance everyone has with the Rabbids by letting you suck one into your remote and then view him inside of it. You get a cool interior view from the back of a stylized remote, with all of the button presses and movements corresponding to what you do with the remote in your hand. If you press a button enough the Rabbid will get interested and walk over to that button, allowing you to smack him around between the buttons or even shake the remote and slam him into the walls. You can also add goofy costumes and props to your Rabbid to enhance the cartoony torture. It’s a pretty simple minigame in principle but the mildly sadistic nature of it will make for several hours of entertaining Rabbid-bashing.
While the previous two Rabbid games were handled by another team, Michel Ancel and the Beyond Good and Evil team have been working on Rabbids Go Home for nearly three years, ever since work wrapped on the original Rayman Raving Rabbids. The whole package looks pretty deep carries Ancel’s signature manic humor; I’ll be looking forward to the Rabbids’ return to form when it launches in October.
The Rabbids aim to accomplish this by stealing everything in sight—cars, appliances, houseplants, a cow, people’s clothes—and piling everything into a mountain of stuff that reaches the moon.
The game’s theme is an obvious jab at American consumerism. All of the clueless humans in the game are fixated on acquiring consumer products and the Rabbids emulate this in their own demented way—you steer a shopping cart around the environments as the two Rabbids inside snatch everything they can get their grubby paws on. The humans send security dogs hazmat suit-wearing government agents after the Rabbids, resulting in a Loony Toons-type chase dynamic to most of the wide, suburban levels.
Seemingly mundane items litter every corner of the levels and collecting more stuff gives you a higher score. Of the 40 promised missions in the game’s 15 distinct environments, I tried out two level based games and a minigame. The first was Super Racket in the Supermarket, a pretty standard level in a department store. The action was a good example of the standard level setup, as I careened around corners and over ramps, snatching stuff and outwitting the bumbling agents. The developers have done a good job capturing the feel of a rickety shopping cart—it doesn’t corner too well, especially with crazed Rabbids driving it, and there’s a certain skill to navigating the maze-like levels. It ends up feeling like a cartoon shopping spree, which is really a lot more fun than it sounds.
The second level I tried was set on rails, as a handful of Rabbids tore a jet turbine off a plane and an agent stuck a bomb to it. The idea was to race to the end of a tunnel in the time limit, dodging obstacles and collecting stuff as you go. It was a pretty standard rail setup but balancing your maneuverability against your speed, the ticking bomb and the limited number of lives you get made it a decent challenge.
The one minigame I tried, Inside the Wii Remote, was a lot more fun than the minigames in the previous couple of Rabbids titles I’ve played. The game basically feeds on that passive annoyance everyone has with the Rabbids by letting you suck one into your remote and then view him inside of it. You get a cool interior view from the back of a stylized remote, with all of the button presses and movements corresponding to what you do with the remote in your hand. If you press a button enough the Rabbid will get interested and walk over to that button, allowing you to smack him around between the buttons or even shake the remote and slam him into the walls. You can also add goofy costumes and props to your Rabbid to enhance the cartoony torture. It’s a pretty simple minigame in principle but the mildly sadistic nature of it will make for several hours of entertaining Rabbid-bashing.
While the previous two Rabbid games were handled by another team, Michel Ancel and the Beyond Good and Evil team have been working on Rabbids Go Home for nearly three years, ever since work wrapped on the original Rayman Raving Rabbids. The whole package looks pretty deep carries Ancel’s signature manic humor; I’ll be looking forward to the Rabbids’ return to form when it launches in October.
