Filled with wildly funny inventive characters, mini-games that would land you a death sentence if they were real, and a simple design, Rayman's latest outing comes come together nicely on this late Xbox 360 port.
As with any mini-game collection since Wario Ware, each play becomes a small game that either works or fails miserably. Raving Rabbids recovers nicely from the inaccurate Wii controls, though the standard controller design does lead to some problems of its own.
Starting as a simple yet stunning platformer back on the Atari Jaguar and then splitting onto countless other consoles, Rayman is an undervalued creation of Michael Ancel, and has somehow ended up here. Gone are the days of millions of colors on screen, now replaced by bleak stages littered with dark humor. This is a series definitely headed in a new direction, though one that seems to be pushing Rayman to the side for the sake of the Rabbids.
The series has turned into various genres over the years, but has seemingly forgotten its roots. The only direct control over Rayman is when you're moving into the next mini-game inside an arena to perform for the Rabbids. These sick, priceless and totally expendable critters are the best use of cute bunnies since Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Rayman has become their only source of entertainment after he's captured, and they'll abuse him in countless ways for their amusement.
This leads into 70+ mini-games that require a wide variety of moves to conquer. Each "day" in the arena lasts four games (not including one extended “boss” round), and you need to conquer at least three to move on. Some games struggled to come together on the Wii. Motions wouldn’t respond, rapidly moving the controller was tiring, and the benefits in terms of fun were lost. On the 360, everything is responsive, and game becomes far easier than it used to be, only making the missed motions on the Wii all the more apparent.
Article comments
1 - Common sense
Lame to the max
2 - ryan
I really enjoyed Rayman raving rabids for the Wii, and i found the title to be full of originality, albeit maybe a bit shallow due to the mini games simplicity.
One thing i do disagree with you on is that the Wii's controls could be unresponsive at times, which i did not find once. However, motion controls might not be received for a variety of reasons including being out of range, low on batteries or the sensor being placed at a bad angle, so.. from time to time this will happen.
One area of the game that i did feel the game was improved upon within the 360 version was when the Rabids would cheer from the stadium, that within the Wii version would drop in FPS quite often, however, i do feel that this could be solved on the console.
I do feel though that the Wii version ws better, not because of content, but due to the motion controls.