A fun, yet reppettive collection of mini-games

By: Roger Gude

 

Rayman first appeared on the Playstation, competing with platforming icons like Mario, and Sonic. Up until now, Rayman has been hobbling around on his peg leg, trying to gain some momentum. The Wii has done away with the platforming Rayman of old and created the mini-game master Rayman. The back of the Rayman Raving Rabbids box could trick you with the phrase, "Over 70 different minigames." Really, the 70 games are just a different variation of other mini games. For example, you may start off doing a running mini-game, where you shake the Wiimote and the Nunchuck up and down rapidly to make Rayman move faster. Later on, the same game will appear, but instead of running you'll be rapidly trying to launch "Super Rabbid" off of a cliff.
The set up is different, but the motions are the same, so in all actuality, there are about 30 or 40 mini games. This isn't bad, I was just hoping for more, like the box promised.

The overall story involves Rayman getting captured, and then slowly earning enough plungers to climb out of a window in his cell. You earn plungers by completing levels, which entails entering a Gladiator type arena, and completing four mini-games, and then a boss stage. The boss stage involves either a fun, plunger shoot-em up or a lousily controlled race on a pig.

Again, this is a mini-game Game, so it's not really about the story. It's about the games. The mini-games are fun. From pumping carrot juice into Rabbid’s goggles, to having a fun rhythm based dance off, Rayman offers a lot of variety.

Overall, Rayman Raving Rabbids is a fun game. There are a lot of mini-games to choose from, but some of them perform sluggishly. There aren't many unique mini-games after the first few stages. The game is enjoyable enough to come back to every once and awhile to play with some friends. But, then again this is no Wario Ware, so don't expect to be blown away.