Rayman: Raving Rabbids

Overview

Rayman Raving Rabbids (Rabbids Party in Japan and Lapins Crétins in the original French) is a spin-off of Ubisoft's Rayman franchise. The game was developed by Ubisoft Montpellier and published by Ubisoft. The game was released for Nintendo Wii on November 19, 2006 (one of the Wii's launch titles), November 14, 2006 for the Game Boy Advance, December 5, 2006 for the PlayStation 2, December 11, 2006 for the PC, March 6, 2007 for the Nintendo DS, and April 24, 2007 for the Xbox 360. Originally, Rayman Raving Rabbids was designed with the Wii Remote in mind (hence it being a launch title). The game has since spawned a spin-off franchise sequels including Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 and Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party. Despite originally being previewed as a platformer, the game ended up being more of a minigame compilation.

Story

The game opens with a scene of Rayman having a picnic with three Globox, small, frog-like creatures. During the picnic, the Globox are captured by three Rabbids, which are similar to rabbits, only completely insane. After offering the Rabbids food, Rayman is also captured. After the cut-scene, the player is allowed to move around his/her jail cell. In the beginning, the cell is inhospitable, consisting of a cot, old record player, dirty toilet, and some kind of closet. During the course of the game, the room becomes much, much nicer and cleaner.

After completion of all the days, Rayman will then scale the plungers like a ladder, capture the bird, and escape through the window. Here, a cut-scene plays with Rayman walking through the forest and coming across the ruined picnic. He remembers the captured Globox, and tries to dive down the remaining Rabbid hole, only to become stuck. Here the credits roll.

Gameplay

Rayman is tasked with completing "trials" to progress the story line. The game is broken down into 15 days, each day consisting of four trials leading to one primary task, usually an on-track style FPS with plungers, at the end of which Rayman rescues a Globox, or a race. Each "trial" is a mini-game, requiring the player to move the Wii mote or Nunchuck a certain way in order to complete the task. After completing a majority of the lesser games, the primary trial is unlocked. If all four trials are completed, however, the player unlocks costumes, to be mixed and matched, and songs, to be played in the cell. If a player does end up skipping a mini-game, he/she can go back to complete just that task by sitting on the toilet in the cell. Completion of each day rewards the player with a single plunger, which Rayman originally throws in a corner. However, after earning so many plungers, a cut-scene depicts Rayman sticking the plungers vertically on the wall next to the toilet. Here it is revealed that up the wall is a window through which Rayman can escape. Activating this cut-scene without enough plungers, however, results in a little blue bird pooping on Rayman.

Xbox 360 Release

The game was ported to Xbox 360 and released on April 5th 2007, 5 months after the Wii version. The Xbox 360 version featured slightly updated visuals, and a different control method. The game received a negative reception by reviewers, mainly due to its controls and how they'd made a poor transition from Wii to the 360. The game had frame rate problems, despite the fact that the graphics had barely been altered. Other problems included the cutscene taking up only 60 percent of the screen. The game didn't support any online at all. Instead, the game gave players a code to type into the Ubisoft website. Critics called out the leaderboard function for being old and incredibly dated.

PC System Requirements

• Supported OS: Microsoft Windows® XP (only)
• Processor: Intel Pentium® IV 1.0 GHz or AMD Athlon processors (2.5 GHz or better recommended)
• System Memory: 256 MB of RAM or above (512 MB recommended)
• Video Card: 64 MB DirectX 8.1-compliant video card (128 MB video card recommended)(*see supported list)
• Sound Card: Direct X 8.1-compliant sound card
• DirectX Version: DirectX® version 9.0c or higher
• Hard Disk: 1.5 GB available hard disk space
• Supported Peripherals: Keyboard and mouse, Windows-compatible gamepads