Rayman Raving Rabbids sees the return of the Ubisofts limbless hero, but rather than pitching Rayman in the normal, go there and get this platform game, Ubisoft have taken the innovation of Nintendo’s Wii controller and used it to full effect in a myriad of mini-games.

The Story Mode is where you will start this game, and the more you unlock in this mode, the more extra options and secrets you will have available for you to enjoy later. Story Mode is a single player experience where Rayman has been captured by the real stars of the show, the Rabbids, these cute little fella's burst up from the ground and kidnap Rayman and his mates whilst he is having a picnic. From the start their weirdness is evident as you are just sitting staring at Rayman, slowly breathing. Rayman is then dumped into a huge gladiatorial arena, with hundreds of Rabbids screaming and booing at him. Playing as Rayman you have 5 doors to choose, 4 of them lead you to a new mini game. Once you have done three of the four, the fifth “boss level opens” and allows you a chance to win a plunger (the use of these become apparent later in the game). As you progress through each day the Rabbids gradually become your fans and start to cheer you on, for the story mode, that’s about it.

Rather than just having a bunch of mini games to plough through, Rayman Raving Rabbids has an ace up its sleeve, the humour. Each Rabbids personality shines though; you have the silent scary type. Clark, who has superpowers not unlike a certain super man, Frog-rabbids who have flippers and snorkels whose aim is to raid bars for carrot juice. Not only that but each mini game has some humour injected in, and though some miss the mark, most of the 75 mini games are spot on and will have you in stitches, be it from throwing a cow the furthest, to poking out-of-tune choir singers.

Due to the amount of games available you will not be short of entertainment, with each game requiring a slightly different use of the remote and nunchuck, personal favourites include skydiving, where the remote represents Raymans body as he falls through the sky, trying to guide him through the smoke hoops by tilting the remote. Another favourite is the bowling, where you have the shake the controllers like mad to gain speed and then aim a barrel into a crowd of Rabbids, knocking them into a ravine. For each of the games, there is an intro screen that will have a Rabbid show you what moves are required to complete the game.

A few of the more common levels are the dancing stages, where you have to shake the controllers each time a Rabbid moves past a certain point, the more points you earn, the more Rabbids join you on the dance floor, this is actually really difficult and I have no doubt this is better than doing aerobics.

The final level I have to mention and what can easily be a game on its own right is the shooting level. This is an on rail shooter (in the vain of Virtua Cop) where you shoot Rabbids with your plunger gun and reload with the shake of the nunchuck, in single player this is fun, but in multiplayer it really come into its own.

Once you have opened each of the games on single player, you then open up the game on Score Mode, this is where the most fun is as you are able to have some friends join in on some multiplayer mayhem, and also get more points to log onto the Rayman web site and compare with the rest of the world.

I picked up this game on release date and was not disappointed; in fact I have played this more than Zelda. This game is a perfect launch title for the Wii and a good sign of what Ubisoft has in store for the Wii. Don’t be put off by the fact it is just mini games, if your on your own or with a group of friends, this is a great game to break out for a few minutes or even a proper hardcore session, especially on the shooting levels.

Words by Magnapop