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Developer: Ubisoft Paris
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: Nov. 13, 2007
Systems: Wii (reviewed), Nintendo DS
ESRB Rating: E10+
Official Web site

0:00 I found the first RRR game to be amusingly odd, if not that great playability-wise. I played a demo of this new one briefly at the last E3 and I'm hopeful about the prospects for more interesting mini-games this time around.

0:00.5 I know this game should be played with multiple people, but there's no one around and I really want to try it out now. So there!

0:01 The Disc Channel Preview screen has this incessantly peppy tune that's just too cute. Also a yellow submarine flying by. Do I smell a lawsuit from The Beatles?

0:02 A Breaking News alert flies on screen. "Hi, I'm Jennifer Hart live from Paris.... large yellow submarines have been identified from around the world." Bunnies invade the standard news scene and attack Jennifer with plungers. Poor girl. She was just doing her job. Rayman shuts off the TV with a disembodied hand.

0:03 At the Rabbids "Super Secret" HQ, Rayman sneaks in to find the deformed white bunnies deep in training. He puts on a bunny ear disguise, inhales some helium and proceeds to sneak in using his best Solid Snake impression. The Rabbids are being hypnotized by scenes of everyday mundane-ness, à la "A Clockwork Orange," but with less violence. Rayman falls through a skylight and is surrounded! The leader Rabbid comes in and everyone stands at attention. He seems suspicious of Rayman, and keeps glancing at the box for the first game to see if he's the same guy (LOL). Ray gives a helium-aided scream to prove his Rabbid-ishness. That was close! He gets led into a submarine by a comely flight attendant Rabbid. SO CUTE!

0:06 The main menu is a mall hallway. My only choice is a "trip" to the USA, Europe, Asia or South America. I've always wanted to go to Asia. I choose Normal difficulty, "for advanced players." Shouldn't it be advanced difficulty then? Or for normal players? Or something?

0:07 Game #1 "Spicy Chicken! Your goal: Cook chickens!" Gotta love those instructions. The briefing screen tells me to eat peppers (or throw them away) and then cook the chickens with my spicy fire breath. Heh.

0:10 So here I am, enjoying the game, cooking chickens, when suddenly the system seizes up and lets out the WORLD'S MOST ANNOYING HIGH-PITCHED TONE! The remote doesn't respond, and neither does the system's power button. I have to unplug it. Uh, oh.

0:11 The system starts up OK, ad the game seems to be doing fine now. Hopefully, this is a one-time thing. This time I get a baseball mini-game first. It's by far the oddest version of baseball I've ever seen. I shake the remote and Nunchuk to make the Rabbid run from first to third, then he takes a super slow-mo flying leap to home plate. I swing the remote to make Rayman hit the flying Rabbid with an oversized matchstick. I get 5,748 points, which is obviously a "new high score!" and deserving of a bronze medal.

0:14 "The China House. Your Goal: Spin the plates at the right speed." This means swinging the Wii remote around to keep plates balanced on a tall stick. Not too fast, not too slow. I eventually get the hang of watching Rayman and adjusting my spinning speed accordingly. This has some potential, but will probably get old kind of quickly once I get the rhythm down. I don't even get a bronze this time.