Rabbids Go Home Wii

Released on 06/11/2009

• Rabbids Go Home

  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.

  

  • Dodgy camera at times.

  Review by: Simon 'Rabid' Kirrane
  Version Tested: Nintendo Wii
  Review Published: 06.11.09

  Published: 06/11/2009