Rayman Raving Rabbids, known in French as Rayman contre les Lapins Crétins, is
a spinoff in the Rayman series released by the company Ubisoft as a Wii launch
title. The game consists of 75 minigames. The game is primarily
designed with the Wii Remote in mind, but is also available on Game Boy
Advance, PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, and Xbox 360.
Releases for PlayStation 3 and PSP of the game were planned, but were later
cancelled for unknown reasons, making it the only game in the series that was
released for the PlayStation 2. Ubisoft released a sequel to the game,
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, in November 2007, and released the third game in the
series, Rayman Raving Rabbids: TV Party, in November 2008. The fourth game in the
series, Rabbids Go Home, was released in 2009, though only on the Wii and DS
systems and a fifth game, Raving Rabbids: Travel in Time, was released in
2010. A sixth game, Raving Rabbids: Alive & Kicking, was released in 2011
only for Xbox 360 and the seventh game, Rabbids Land, was released as a Wii U
exclusive game on November 2012. As of April 2014, the series had sold over 14
million units worldwide. Gameplay
The game features two different modes of play - 'Story mode' and 'Score mode'. In
story mode the game follows fifteen days of Rayman's imprisonment by the Rabbids.
Each day, Rayman must complete at least three trials, followed by one special
“boss trial”, such as a first-person rail shooter using plungers, or a racing
game in which the player controls a warthog and uses a flyswatter as a
riding crop. Completing trials earns Rayman various costumes and matching
music, including Gangsta, Raymaninho, Disco, Gothic, Caramba, Rock'n'Roll,
Granny, DeeJay and Bunny. Trial completion also earns plungers and after
accumulating enough, Rayman builds a ladder up the edge of his jail cell and
escapes to freedom. In Score mode, the player can repeat past trials in an
attempt to improve their score or as a multiplayer party game.
= Minigames = Minigames fall into one of four
categories: Bunny Hunt, Sports, Challenges, and 'Shake your Booty!'
dancing. Bunny Hunt comprises first-person rail shooter stages, all
appearing in Story Mode as "boss" stages that the player may play for Score,
Time, or Survival with the goal of obtaining the highest score possible
with only one life. Two players can participate in Co-op Bunny Hunt, but
Survival is not available for multiplayer. The Sports minigames can be
played for Workout, which requires rapid movement of the Wii Remote, and
Precision, which involves the controls of the remote. Sports minigames also
include 'Get Going!' racing stages, including four warthog racing games and
a skydiving race. Challenges are various games found in Score Mode which must be
played one after the other with the goal of a high combined score in a Triathlon,
Pentathlon, or Decathlon. The 'Shake your Booty!' category involves
dance-themed minigames and are found in Story Mode each day. Also, there are
"Skill" minigames that do not fall under any of the other categories. Variations
of the mini-games are featured in the DS version. Games such as "Feed the
bunnies", "Ghost hunt", "Bunny invasion", "Stop the mines" and "Super
rabbid" are used. The stylus is used for all of the minigames, unlike the rest of
the gameplay. = Handheld versions =
The Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS versions of the game are, unlike their
console counterparts, traditional platformers. In the GBA version, the
costumes that Rayman acquires give him special abilities, such as using the
Granny oufit to sneak past cameras, or the DeeJay outfit to break open vents.
The DS version allows players to use the stylus to perform certain actions, such
as controlling wind or setting a bunny on fire.
Plot = Characters =
The Rabbids are the common enemy in this game. Their technology varies from
advanced giant robots to close combat tools such as plungers and feather
dusters. Characters do not have the voice acting that was first used in
Rayman 2: The Great Escape. Instead, the voices become regular gibberish, except
for a few words like "Hey" and "Wow", or "Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!". Besides the
Rabbids, there are also warthogs, seen in the game's warthog races, and various
other animals. One of the minigames actually requires the player to point
the members of the same species out. = Story =
The game begins with a cut-scene showing Rayman having a picnic with the local
Globox kids. Their picnic is interrupted when an earthquake erupts and the Globox
kids sink into the ground while 3 Rabbids appear in their place. Their
commander Sergueï kidnaps Rayman and throws him in an arena with angry
Rabbids, several of whom are armed. Rayman must complete his first trials
now, and afterwards Sergueï takes him to his cell and gives him a plunger.
Initially the Rabbids jeer him, but as Rayman completes more trials, they grow
bored, and eventually he even becomes popular among the Rabbids and they cheer
him on, in addition to making his jail cell more hospitable. Eventually, Rayman
amasses a collection of plungers as rewards for completing the trials. By
building a ladder out of all his plungers to reach the window(and
settling with an annoying bird who keeps defecating on him), Rayman manages to
escape and free himself. Once liberated, he remembers the Globox kids and
attempts to return through one of the Rabbid holes to rescue them, but winds
up getting stuck in the hole. After the credits, Rayman is still stuck in the
hole through the night, and sheep come to eat the leftovers of his picnic.
Development The game began development in Ubisoft's
Montpellier Studio, during the later stages of making King Kong, when the
developers were looking to create the "ultimate enemy" for use in the next
Rayman game. The studio head Michel Ancel sketched an initial concept for a
rabbit character, and from there, the idea of a mass invasion of bunnies grew.
The team then began work on a traditional action game platformer, then
tentatively called Rayman 4. However, upon receiving development kits from
Nintendo, the team began focusing on implementing a wide range of gameplay
types. When it became clear that these were not going to fit into a traditional
platformer game, Rayman Raving Rabbids was altered to become a game consisting
of separated trials. The changes meant that some of the trials and concepts
revealed before the game's release did not appear in the final game, such as
hawk and tarantula riding. While Ancel was seen as one of the main figures
behind the project before E3, he left the project after the revamp, and is
only credited with character design in the final game.The PC version is made in
Ubisoft's studio in Sofia. Rayman Raving Rabbids is available for the Xbox 360,
PlayStation 2, Wii, Game Boy Advance, PC, and Nintendo DS.
Reception The game has received mixed to positive
reviews. IGN and GameSpot complimented the game's "sick sense of humor" and a
heavy emphasis on fun, as well as the design of the bunnies and the game in
general. Reviews highlighted the story, music and sound, and said that gameplay
is addictive and optimized for the Wii. A few critics claimed that other
developers of Wii launch titles had simply ported their games and "tacked
on" Wii controls. It is currently one of the highest-selling third party games
for the Wii. The game was subsequently released on other platforms, including
the PC, PS2, and Xbox 360. Reviewers in general found these versions to play at
an inferior level to the Wii version due to the game's controls having been
optimized with the Wii in mind. Several shortcomings were cited. Some of
the minigames were described as "duds", being unenjoyable or broken; the game
could not run in progressive scan mode; and not all of the trials had
multiplayer opportunities, "reducing the game's potential as a party game."
Nintendo Power stated that a lot of promised features had been cut out. The
Wiire awarded this game with Family Friendly, Ease of Use, and Multiplayer
Mayhem awards. The reception of the Nintendo DS version
was mixed. GameSpot gave the DS version a 5.9/10 and commented that the game had
unsightly graphics and it was too short. IGN gave the DS version a 6.5/10, and
wondered why Rayman Raving Rabbids played so well, but looked so awful.
Cultural references In Rayman's room there is a painting of
a carrot, which is a parody of the famous painting The Treachery of Images
by the Belgian painter, René Magritte. The background of the level of the
minion Chorus is similar to the official poster of the 2004 film, The Chorus
while also singing and playing the Piano the high-pitch version of Ode to Joy
theme, of Symphony No. 9 from Ludwig van Beethoven.
Superbunny is a spoof of Superman. Raymaninho is a spoof of the well-known
Brazilian football player, Ronaldinho. In one of the levels,where you have to
shoot bunnies in The Wild West, you can hear the title music of The Good, the
Bad and the Ugly. Dyslexia
In a 2013 study of dyslexic children conducted by Sandro Franceschini et al.
and published in the March edition of Current Biology, it was concluded that
playing action sections of Rayman's Raving Rabbids increased dyslexic
children's ability to read. References
External links Rayman Raving Rabbids at MobyGames
Rayman Raving Rabbids at MobyGames