Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party

System: Wii
Developer: Ubisoft Paris
Publisher: Ubisoft
Genre: Party
Players: 4

Rayman is back, well not really... but those crazed evil Rabbids sure are. This is the third time they've hit our screens, however it seems that every time they do, we see less and less of Rayman. But wait his name is in the title isn't it? For all his former glory Rayman has been brushed aside to no more than a name in the title and brief appearances during the game's cut-scenes. It begs the question why tag Rayman along if he's not invited to the party? Rayman aside, the Rabbids again prove to be very humorous and entertaining.

The game's plot is as shallow as a mud puddle but nonetheless it provides a reason for the title 'TV party' and the 50 or so mini games that you're bombarded with. Rayman is chased by the Rabbids to his home, the Rabbids get hit my lightening and naturally find themselves inside Rayman's TV. They appear on every channel ripping off TV hits from left to right from adverts to daytime infomercials. The mini-games are set out like shows on a TV guide, you start on Monday and choose one from a small selection to fill a time slot. With your selected game you must attain a certain score in order to open the next time slot or move on to the next day. Fantastic, now that we have the mechanics out of the way I can briefly tell you about the mini-games!


The distinctive Rabbid humour is obvious from the get go. The parodies are the most enjoyable to play in such as 'Dud's Army', 'Rabzilla' and 'Dawn of the Rabbids'. There's also a lot of variety and some very nice use of motion controls. From skiing to rail shooting and even bouncing a lottery ball, the motion controls work well to an extent. In addition there's the bad and a lot of pointlessly shaking the Wii remote up and down which will no doubt give you a stunning work-out but last time I checked this isn't Wii Fit. On a minority of occasions you'll also be faced with unresponsive controls but this isn't a major problem and doesn't hold you back from play. Often in the middle of a mini-game you'll have a choice to skip to an ad-break. It goes to a cartoon style sketch with a Rabbid doing something hilarious and you're given a command to move the remote in a particular way, if done correctly you receive a bonus such as double points in the next round. When you first see these they're funny but when they start to repeat themselves, it gets old and annoying quite rapidly.


I should also mention that there are some mini-games that will frustrate the hell out of you and even some you may want to avoid. Such as many of the 'Groove On' and ' Shake it TV' games which are rhythm based. They can be fun if you like the music, but the covers for the songs is horrendously laughable. You can choose to play drums, keyboard, guitar and more or even be the singer, but it all follows the same rhythm mechanic of flinging the remote and nun-chuck up and down at the right time. Personally I didn't enjoy this but only because half the songs were horrible. One exception is 'Born to be wild', playing drums to that is actually quite fun. There are other mini-games which I basically found impossible to win such as 'Star Worse' and 'A Day At the Races'. As far as I'm concerned it's not humanly possible to win at 'A Day At the Races'. The game consists of you being a Rabbid riding a cardboard box in slow motion, shaking the remote and nun-chuck as fast as you can to win the race. Sounds funny does it not? But it's impossible! I could fling the controls up and down until I'm red in the face but to no avail. Surely they could have devised better controls than shaking about the remote, but alas most of the games are thought out, work brilliantly and are easily accessible for the casual gamer.

There is the nice option of using the Wii Balance Board during the game however as I don't own one I'm unable to comment on it. But it is good to see another game utilising it. Apart from the story mode there's Party, Training and World Contest. World Contest is very much functions like the Mii Contest Channel but with a twist, you pimp up your Rabbid instead of your Mii. You can enter weekly contests based on a theme and choose from a wide variety of amusing hats, clothing or faces for your Rabbid, or vote on other entrants. In terms of online that's as far as it goes apart from also being able to share your high scores with the game's website.


The audio is bouncy and catchy and Rabbids yelling and causing chaos will be music to your ears but the song covers for the rhythm mini-games are truly, truly awful. Ubisoft Paris definitely have a standard when it comes to presentation and polish, this game is no exception. Average and simple visuals but crisp models and cartoon styled graphics suit the Rabbids perfectly. Their facial expressions definitely speak louder than words here. The game itself as a whole is better played with friends in party mode other than playing solo. It's also wise to consider that the game becomes less interesting once you've seen and played all the games, afterwards it all tends to repeat itself. There's little to come back to unless you want to earn all the high scores and unlock all items of clothing/faces available for World Contest.


Score: 7/10 - "Good buy"

Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party will definitely cater for lovers of those mental vermin but for fans of Rayman unfortunately not. It's a good game for parties and will surely get many laughs out of your friends and family although the fun is short lived once you've seen it all. However kids will definitely get many kicks out of it over and and over again. It's difficult to explain why it's an enjoyable game because the Rabbids say it all and you can only really appreciate them if you see what they have to offer which are many laughs and a whole load of 'BWAAAAH' and 'DAAAAAAH'.

By Ben Grasso / REV_pioneer