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, ? 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.

0:17 "Laundry: Your goal: Wash the laundry." This means shaking the remote and Nunchuk to wash pair after pair of soiled undies in the river. The intro movie shows fish bobbing up to the surface from the pollution. HA! Seems if I clean them too long they're ripped to shreds, but it takes time to lift up and check. 7,417 points is enough for a bronze, but not even close to the Wi-Fi high of 18K.

0:20 "Shopping Cart Downhill: Cross the finish line first." It's a Jackass parody! I hold the Wii remote upright and tilt it to steer. Funny, I thought they'd make it like a faux Wii Wheel, but this works better! I like having the ability to push the opponent into obstacles. It seems like it would be fun as a two-player game, once or twice.

0:23 "The Office: Don't get caught by the boss." This means shaking the remote to dance when the boss is away, then holding still when he shows up. I love the laugh track when Rayman does his silly dance. Is someone at Ubisoft a fan of Steve Carrell? I get 13,317 points, which is 5,161th in the worldwide rankings. That's right! I'm a world-class goof-off!

0:26 "Smoke on the Water: Play the Track and Dance" Yay! Dancing was my favorite part of the first game. This one is arranged more like Rock Band, with instructions scrolling from the top of the screen to the bottom. I have to shake the remote and Nunchuk in time to play the keyboard part I chose. Some complex rhythms, but nothing too horrible. The game seems a lot better at detecting my shaking this time around, as compared to the first game. Also, why am I playing in a barn? I thought this was Asia.

0:30 My final score for the trip is 49,875, which is obviously a "new high score." Enough for second place on the local boards, but not enough to even be ranked on the Internet leaderboards. Why can't they tell me I'm 150,000th or something?

0:33 I unlocked a new shooting game in the plaza and I decide to try it. It's a simple rail shooter, but with full-screen video behind the polygonal Rabbids running around. There are a lot more targets than the similar game from the original, thankfully.

0:35 We've transitioned from a meditation garden to an empty Chinese restaurant. Reloading takes a frustratingly long time, and I'm noticing some frame rate problems. Still, you've got to love any game that has a "butt-shot" bonus.

0:38 The "boss fight" is against some horribly stereotypical Power Rangers knock-off Rabbids. They are frustratingly good at dodging my shots, and they have a LOT of cohorts with their own plunger guns.

0:41 I finally take out the last Rabbid. I get 11,980 points, only 20 away from earning the gold. ARGH! The mode is pretty fun, as far as these types of games go. I bet it would be an absolute blast with another player.

0:42 Back to the "trips" for some more mini-game unlocking fun. I decide to see what the Ubisoft Paris devs think of the USA. First game is "Anesthetics: Be the last one to knock the Rabbid out." Me and a Rabbid alternate hitting another, bedridden Rabbid with sausages to knock him out. I control the power of each hit, and I can't figure out any reason not to choose full power every time. Is this what Europe thinks of U.S. health care? That we don't have real anesthetic?

0:46 "Usual Rabbids: Find the guilty Rabbid!" It's a film parody! I am Keyser Soze! I see photos of a Rabbid committing a ridiculous crime, then I have to identify the culprit in the lineup. Neat idea, and it gets progressively harder as the lineup Rabbids look more and more alike. I miss one of four, get a bronze medal.

0:49 I unlock an Assassin's Creed outfit for my Rabbids! SO CUTE!

0:50 "Spider-Rabbid" has me a little confused at first. Eventually I figure out that I have to hit the guy swinging around above me with a missile,


then I get to swing around and avoid my opponents' missiles. All this while we're running at full speed through the city and causing as much destruction as possible. Seems to have very little to do with the actual superhero, but I like the controls and the back-and-forth gameplay concept. I unlock a Spider-Man costume, predictably. Clicking on him makes him dance. Heh.

0:54 Another dance game, this one based on the film classic "Singing in the Rain." The intro is a super-cute recreation of the famous song-and-dance sequence, only with Rabbids! I have to memorize the remote/Nunchuk shaking steps and repeat them. No rhythm needed, just do it as fast as possible. The steps get faster and harder near the end, and some even become audio-only clues. Surprisingly challenging.

0:58 "Spitter Cells: Spit in as many glasses as possible." It's tough to learn the back-and-forth timing down on the loogie controls. There's a sentence I never thought I'd type.

Would I play this game for more than an hour? Yes.

Why? Bwaaaaaaaaaaaah!

This column was based on a retail copy of the game rented from GameFly.

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