Product Description

Rayman Raving Rabbids is the edgiest and most off-the-wall gaming experience in the history of the Rayman franchise. This new Rayman game features the funniest, zaniest, wackiest antics ever when hordes of nasty bunnies invade Rayman's world. They enslave him, forcing Rayman to participate in a series of gladiator-like trials. In order to win his freedom, Rayman must entertain and outwit these crazed, out-of-control bunnies.

Welcome to a new generation of Rayman

You'd be hard-pressed to find a game with as much character as Rayman Raving Rabbids. From the creative minigames to the quirks of the bunnies, this game packs an immense amount of entertainment on one disc. It's rare in games that failing during a competition can bring you as much joy as actually succeeding, but Rayman Raving Rabbids does an admirable job of rewarding your failure with a large dose of comic screams, flying plungers and crossed eyes.

Of course, the point is to succeed and not let the bunnies laugh at your failure. Rayman Raving Rabbids may have a lot of style but it has very little plot. Each level consists of four minigame challenges and one "boss battle," so to speak. If you complete at least three of the minigames, the main gate opens, allowing you to take on a greater challenge. Once you play a minigame in the Story Mode, you unlock that minigame and can play it at any time and against friends.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #190 in Video Games
• Brand: UBI Soft
• Model: 17319
• Published on: 2006-11
• Released on: 2006-11-17
• ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
• Platform: Nintendo Wii
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .57" h x 5.40" w x 7.51" l, .38 pounds

Features

• Tame Sharks, Eagles, Rhinos, Spiders, and Angelfish -- each with their own unique capabilities
• Combat the ultra-crazed Evil Rabbits; there are several types with their own whacked-out characteristics
• Explore the colorful, fantastic World of Rayman - huge, free-roaming environments and epic landscapes that mix reality and cartoons

Amazon.com

Rayman Raving Rabbids is the edgiest and most off-the-wall gaming experience in the history of the Rayman franchise. This new Rayman game features the funniest, zaniest, wackiest antics ever when hordes of nasty bunnies invade Rayman's world. They enslave him, forcing Rayman to participate in a series of gladiator-like trials. In order to win his freedom, Rayman must entertain and outwit these crazed, out-of-control bunnies.

Beat the bad bunnies and become a superstar!

Unlock mini-games to play with friends. View larger.

Innumerable uses for the Wii Remote allow for creative game modes. View larger.

How many Raving Rabbids can you take out in 30 seconds? View larger.

Multiplayer games are as fast as they are hilarious. View larger.

Welcome to a new generation of Rayman
You'd be hard-pressed to find a game with as much character as Rayman Raving Rabbids. From the creative minigames to the quirks of the bunnies, this game packs an immense amount of entertainment on one disc. It's rare in games that failing during a competition can bring you as much joy as actually succeeding, but Rayman Raving Rabbids does an admirable job of rewarding your failure with a large dose of comic screams, flying plungers and crossed eyes.

Of course, the point is to succeed and not let the bunnies laugh at your failure. Rayman Raving Rabbids may have a lot of style but it has very little plot. Each level consists of four minigame challenges and one "boss battle," so to speak. If you complete at least three of the minigames, the main gate opens, allowing you to take on a greater challenge. Once you play a minigame in the Story Mode, you unlock that minigame and can play it at any time and against friends.

Exercise your Wii Remote
Hand it to Ubisoft's development crew as they really took advantage of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers' capabilities. Some minigames are as simple as twirling the Wii Remote like a lasso and pushing a button to launch a cow as if you were in a hammer throw competition. Some minigames really test your coordinating, asking you to swing the Nunchuk like a jump rope and flicking the Wii Remote up to make Rayman jump.

Each level has one consistant challege, however: a rhythm game. As a song plays, the bunnies approach a spot on either stage left or right. When they hit that spot, you'll shake the Nunchuk (if the bunny is on the left) or the Wii Remote when the rabbid hits the mark.

When you take on the boss stages, you'll find yourself, more often than not, playing a rail shooter. The Wii Remote becomes your light gun, firing plungers at the horde of oncoming rodents. When your plunger supply runs out, shake the Nunchuk to reload. In recent years, the rail shooter (where you don't control the movement) has been forsaken for the first-person shooter and free movement. The Rayman boss experience will make rail shooter fans rejoice. If other shooters can perform as well as the plunger-fueled firing action of Rayman Raving Rabbids, the genre will come back with a vengeance.

Impressive replay value
There's extra incentive to play the many minigames of Rayman Raving Rabbids. When you complete a game in Challenge Mode, the game gives you a code that you can enter at the Rayman Web site which basically gives you access to special features on the site.

The minigames of Rayman Raving Rabbids skew toward a younger audience, and at first, an above-average gamer should find the games to be pretty easy. However, once the minigames are unlocked, a big challenge awaits you to get the highest scores and blast your friends in multiplayer challenges. That's when the real party begins! Rayman delivers exactly what the Wii promises: fun and lots of it. Here's hoping the bunnies come back for multiple invasions!

Customer Reviews

Tons of fun with friends. A lighthearted game you can simply pick up.
I am not much of a gamer. The Wii has been my first game console since the Playstation a LOOOONG time ago. In fact, games usually bore me. Not this one.

The experience with the wii-mote is awesome. This game should come packaged with the Wii because it shows off just how wll the wii-mote can immerse the player into the game! Something like this would be utterly boring with a regular controller. But when you're swinging the remote over your head like a lasso, or holding a hose in your right hand and pumping with your left... or tippy toeing with your arms close to your body... or jumping rope or slapping bunnies with your backhand... YOU GET THE PICTURE. They really did this game well. It's so much fun. Tons of laughs.

We played the game ALL DAY yesterday and all night today and finally passed the 1-player story-mode game (unlocking all the multiplayer games). It was fun. We were very loud. Certain levels were very challenging and required many rounds with the controller being passed from hand to hand between the 5 of us.

The game has an excellent soundtrack. Graphics, I don't know, they looked pretty good. The bunnies were cute! The game is great for kids of all ages because there is no killing. You just shoot bunnies with plungers and they cry and go away! Hilarious. That's one thing about this game that will catch you off guard.. It's FUNNY. You will find certain stages, animations, games instantly hilarious. Fat bunnies running all over your screen, what more can you ask for?

I would like to highly recommend this game to anyone who wants to play Wii games with a party-type atmosphere. In all honesty, playing this game alone will be fun but might get old after a while. That's why single player games (like Zelda) have things like puzzles and mysteries to keep you occupied. This game is just pure fun with the controllers and reflexes and skills. I have a hard time paying attention to any game that takes more than 5-10 minutes per level. I don't feel like my games should stress me out like my job.

This game is mindless fun. We all loved it. Get it. Here is a breakdown of our diverse little party group over the past 2 days:
Aged 17M, 19F, 19M, 23M-s/w consultant, 23F-banking, 27M-engineer, 28F-project mgr, 34M-educator). This game really is for everybody. I think kids (<13) would get a freaking kick out of it.

What a fun family game!
I haven't played video games for a very long time. I have a PS2 that I used primarily for playing dvds. I was so excited to get the Wii because I wanted something my whole family could play including my 3 1/2 year old daughter.

The mini games got us all hooked. I had my daughter help when I couldn't do it my first time. She would help me shake the nunchuk to help close the door on the bunnies using the bathroom. She would dance along with the music in the rhythm test and when "we" passed a test, she would say "You win!" I even got my husband to participate when my arms were too tired to shake and control the wii remote and nunchuks.

The game is lots of fun and something that the whole family can enjoy.

Funny at times, but lacking in much substance
I bought Rayman: Raving Rabbids over Super Monkey Ball because of the reviews I saw here on Amazon. I wanted a party game that would entertain myself and a few family members during the holiday season. I'm afraid I made the wrong choice.

The other reviews here make some points.
1) It is very funny at times.
2) Some of the minigames are a lot of fun.

The problem is that once you get by these 2 points, there's not much left to the game. I am not a hardcore gamer yet I still beat the single-player story mode in about 4-5 hrs. That was ok with me because I really just wanted to unlock the games to play with some other people. Problem is, there are only maybe 3-4 games worth playing again.

Let me address the 2 points many have made.
1) It's funny. Yes it is...the first couple times you see it. Then it's not funny any more. It's like hearing the same joke for the 5th time, it's not like the first time you heard it. In other words, it doesn't save the game.

2) Some games are fun. Yes, maybe 3-4 of them. Only 2-3 would I play in multiplayer more than once...the bunny hunt, dancing, and the warthog racing. We played each of the others once or twice, laughed a little, but then everyone says, "What other games does it have?" i.e. I'm bored with that now.

Even the best games got old very quickly though. Bunny Hunt is too easy and we were ready to be done with it after playing it for an hour...and it is exactly the same every time, no variation or AI at all. Warthog racing is cute the first couple times, but leaves you thinking, "Is that it?" The dancing game is quite a bit of fun in multiplayer but is not worth the $50 price tag on its own. The ice sliding game similar to curling is an ok game too.

The games are clever in that they do think of interesting ways to use the Wiimote. However, I think too much thought went into thinking of clever ways to use it rather than thinking about how fun each game would actually be. There is almost no replay value whatsoever.

Bottom line: I have had the game 3 days now, have beaten it (which is unusual for me), and am bored with it. I am wishing I could trade it back in for Super Monkey Ball now, but I know the store will give me nothing for it.

I give it 3 stars overall because there are some good qualities and I did have some fun playing it the first day. I would recommend renting it before you buy it though because you'll be wishing you had the $50 back after playing it for a few days. You'll be thumbing through the menus wondering "Is that it?" and "Have I missed something?".

EDIT: Turns out Super Monkey Ball was not any better! Perhaps even worse overall considering the awful control schemes....