Rayman Raving Rabbids

Gelato?

A long, long time ago, I had to be content with whatever I could get hold of for the PlayStation. Before it had a lot of classics, you would have to enjoy the not so stellar offerings. I had Rayman, a cartoony 2D platformer that I absolutely couldn't make progress through, and ever since then, I've ignored the character and the games he stars in.

Some of the more recent titles, like Rayman Origins, look fantastic, don't get me wrong, but my view of the series has been tainted by bad gaming experiences in my formative years, and that's hard to get past.

It's also been sullied a little by the stars of the next must-play game, Rayman Raving Rabbids, huge, dopey, Minions-like rabbits who ceaselessly serve as the butt of each and every joke. If you dislike Minions, the mute Rabbids might be a more palatable alternative, but they are basically the same thing, and here, they're challenging you to a whole bunch of absurd mini-games.

Fun Times

I wouldn't go so far as to say I like the Minions, but in small doses and genuinely funny scenarios, they're alright. The same goes for the Rabbids. They're not my idea of 'always funny', but they've got potential. They look a little like they're in their 40s with Homer Simpson stubble, but they're also great blank slates for whatever the comedy calls for.

Rayman was enjoying a picnic with some frogs until the Rabbids show up, silently looming over their prey before a much larger, much scarier bunny scoops Rayman up and carries him off to the arena.

Held captive by the Rabbid swarm, Rayman can win his freedom by succeeding a whole bunch of mini-game challenges and boss fights against the Rabbids, none of which are your usual mini-game affair.

The first challenge, for example, is to deliver an explosive present before it explodes. Obviously.

Now, I need to set this up correctly. Rayman Raving Rabbids was a Wii game aiming to compete with Nintendo. It's full of Wiimote waggling that the kids are bound to love, and with silly games involving exploding presents, they'll be laughing their little heads off at high pitch, too. 

But I'm not playing the Wii version. Somewhere along the line, I picked up the PC port. This was well before I knew what kind of game it even was, so I assumed I'd be fine with whatever version I was able to play.

A controller in hand, I set about reading the instructions for this game. "Move the right and left stick up and down one after the other to run as fast as possible to run." That's it. But what does that even mean? Does it mean right up, right down, left up, left down? Right up, left up, right down, left down? Right up, left down, right down, right up?

Your guess is as good as mine because nothing was consistent. That rocket in the top left represents my speed. It needs to be full. The fuse on the present is continually burning, after all. There's no time to hang around.

Upon restarting, I switch to the keyboard controls, because alternately pressing the Control keys sounds like a doddle.

Why aren't I moving? Nothing registers? My controller works. My controller works... oh no... that default option in the settings... it's not taking that as the only input I want to use, is it?

It is, and wouldn't you know it, alternately pressing the Control buttons on the keyboard is so trivial that this mini-game is a right joke to complete. Rayman rockets through it with ease. What's next?

Cow chucking, hammer throw style. Why? Because Rabbids, lol. This one involves moving your mouse in a ridiculously fast circle and then click the left mouse button to let go of the chain and launch your cow. I forget what the controller inputs were, but I bet I'd have prefered them instead. Either my arm doesn't move quickly, or my mouse isn't sensitive enough to swing cows, but this mini-game wasn't exactly a joy to play either.

60 meters I've got to chuck this cow. I can't even hit top speed on my circling, let alone time the release so that it actually gets hurled downrange. This isn't a silly little mini-game, but a frustration.

Look at that. I'm so sure I want to quit that I'll even quit twice. Forget cow chucking. I'd chuck Rayman Raving Rabbids in the bin if I had a physical copy.

Final Word

As you might have guessed, the Wii version of Rayman Raving Rabbids is rated higher than any other, with the PC version struggling to get a 6/10 aggregate score. It was the worst possible way to play this game, and I can vouch for that without even having touched the Wii version. It's just awful.

The idea of the game is that it's a bunch of mini-games. There's a story mode to string them together, but you don't have to dive into it and aren't missing much if you don't. This is something to keep the kids entertained, and that's about it.

But my goodness did it seem to do its job. There are nineteen titles in this Rabbids subseries, including teaming up with Mario himself. These stupid-looking fools are actually popular enough to go the distance, and it all started with this collection of mini-games for the new Nintendo console with the funny controller.

I'm more than happy to remain ignorant of them, though. This particular game isn't for me, nor are many of its sequels and spin-offs, and I'm fine with that. Gives me more time to play anything else instead. I'd even go back and play more Dreamfall after this. That's saying something.

Fun Facts

A more traditional Rayman game was planned until Nintendo Wii development kits landed at Ubisoft Montpellier and a sketch of a daft looking bunny resulted in this.

Rayman Raving Rabbids, developed by Ubisoft Montpellier, Ubisoft Sofia, first released in 2006.

Version played: PC, 2006.