Supermarket Sweep
By any measure the Rabbids – those rabbit-like
creatures who appear in Ubisoft's Rayman spinoffs – should be so annoying as to
put people off buying their games entirely. The squawking, buck-toothed little
nutters are so in-your-face they should be universally reviled and
hated.
But you know what? In the context of their own
games they work. Their manic movement, and gibberish-spouting general idiocy
has turned out to be a recipe for extreme amusement, both for critics and the
wider gaming community. In fact, so popular are the Rabbids in their own right
that Ubisoft, for this third (or is it fourth?) spinoff, hasn't even bothered
putting Rayman's name in the title.
Moon Mission
Rather than cynically milking the same formula
though, Ubisoft has taken the little weirdos in a completely different
direction for this latest game, ditching the minigame format of previous titles
and replacing it with a 3D platform structure.
Ubisoft has taken the little weirdos in a completely different direction for
this latest game.
The story this time around is that the Rabbids,
who now live in a junkyard, believe that their real home is on the moon and
decide to return there. Building a rocket ship is clearly beyond the mental
capacity of these sub-normal furballs so they decide instead to build a giant
tower out of junk in order to get home. Such a tower is going to require a lot
of stuff, though, so three of the rabbids head for town to grab anything and
everything they can get their hands (paws?) on.
Shop 'til You Drop
Now, while we said this was a 3D platformer it's
not really one in the traditional sense. In this game, one rabbid occupies a
shopping trolley while another one pushes it around. A third Rabbid resides
inside your Wii controller, but we'll come back to that in a moment. By skeetering
around the game's environment, and hitting people and objects, the rabbids can
acquire more stuff (this 'stuff' can be almost anything, even the clothes off
the back of a passer-by) and stick it in their trolley. When enough stuff has
been found, it all gets flushed down a toilet and ends up back at the
junkyard.
When enough stuff has been found, it all gets flushed down a toilet and ends up
back at the junkyard.
Inventive level design has been a notable feature
of previous rabbids games and Go Home continues the trend. While the underlying
platform gameplay remains the same, the levels, challenges and puzzles therein
vary considerably. At one point you'll be zooming around an airport utilising
the power of a jet engine, while in another segment you can use a hospital bed
in order to add jumping to your repertoire of moves. The madness plays out over
15 different environments, each crammed with surreal and surprising visuals.
And as for that Wii remote thing? Well, bizarrely,
you can keep a rabbid in it, customise the little fella then release him at any
time to use him in-game. It's an odd and interesting feature in a game that's
already chock full of odd and intersting things.
Maybe at some point in the future the novelty of
the Rabbids will wear off, but we haven't reached that point yet, not by a long
chalk. By reinventing the franchise, Ubisoft has kept the Rabbids as fresh and
freaky as ever.
GAME's Verdict
- Completely new direction.
- Hilarious action.
- Varied
level design.
- Ingenious puzzles.
- Just
plain weird.
Review by: Simon 'Rabid'
Kirrane
Version Tested: Nintendo Wii
Review Published: 06.11.09