Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party Nintendo Wii

Darren Arquette guest review of Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party. Subscribe to this column via RSS or Newsletter.

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Column:
Tech Gamer

Format:
Nintendo Wii

Genre:
Minigames

Style:
Competitive

Written on:
16/01/2010

Second opinion:
Family Guide Gamer (Wii)
Fitness Gamer (Wii)

Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party offers a last throw of the foaming crazy dice. Although the Rabbids still struggle to roll a six, and have a few technical issues, there is fun to be had here because of the sheer weight of TV show inspired minigames and endearing visuals.

First the Rabbids (rabbid rabbits) invaded Rayman's world, next they invaded our world and now they've invaded our TV. This sets the theme for this minigame outing and enables them to bring parodies of top TV shows from Wrestling to Strictly Come Dancing.

With their first fully fledged game, Rabbids Go Home, released there is still fun to be had in the shorter blasts of minigame action here. To begin with I have to say it's more of the same. But with new features and game play as well as being Balance Board compatible there is both fun and a little exercise to find here.

From the off, Rayman is running from the Rabbids, he runs into a house just as the Rabbids are stuck by lighting, zapped through the antenna and sucked into the TV. Now he's constantly haunted by their Attention Deficit-ed antics on the small screen and it's up to you to break them out by playing the mini-games.

The story is just as loopy as the Rabbids are but that's not the reason why you play these Rabbid games, you play them for the four player mini games that are always fun to play, alone or with friends. Even if you don't have a Balance Board you can still get a strong experience with the Wii-mote and Nun-chuck. For example where you can use the Wii-Fit board to steer with your but, you can get a pretty similar experience sitting on the floor with the Wii-mote and Nun-chuck in hand.

The Balance Board never quite seems to gel with the rest of the game. One technical problem is that you can only use one board at a time on the Wii. This is just a technical limitation of the system, but makes multiplayer Rabbid games a little odd when only one person can make use of the Wii-Fit board.

Shooting plungers and racing all manner of vehicles was a great fit for our household. Like the previous Wii games, Rayman Raving Rabbids and Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, the volume and wackiness of games on offer will mean there will be some you'll love - and undoubtedly others you'll avoid simply.

One game I struggled to get was where you had to draw a shape in order to shoot, or dodge, by drawing that shape on the screen. Without the inclusion of MotionPlus support, the sensitivity being asked of the Wii-mote and the accuracy expected of the player failed to take into account the technical abilities of either. This resulted in many tantrums by myself and friends who drew the shape but the game simply didn't recognise our efforts. Although this is amusing for a while as each player flails frustratingly around trying to trigger the move, it get olds pretty quick.

It's sad to see that this is the last Rabbid mini-game collections as they were always funny and enjoyable to play, alone or with friends. It's especially saddening that we won't get to see a MotionPlus enhanced Rabbid minigame. There are plenty of great ideas here begging for a better technical execution. As it stands, you'll be playing the slim portion of games that click for you here. Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party is more of a distraction than ongoing entertainment, but brought as such there is fun to be had still.

Guest review by Darren Arquette

Darren Arquette wrote this Tech Gamer article under the watchful eye of Simon Arquette. "Gaming technology and techniques fascinate me, always have and always will do. They've driven me to a gaming degree, and aspirations to a whole lot more. Here though, I'll be reviewing games for how they put their technology to work to deliver a compelling experience."

Simon Arquette's recent reviews:

• International Cricket 2010
• Naughty Bear
• Alan Wake
• Crackdown 2

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