Disclaimer: This copy of Rabbids Go Home was generously provided by Ubisoft.

We’ve come a long way since the early days of Rayman.  Now it’s time for the rabbids to take to the stage, in a true blue platformer rather than a series of mini games.  Let’s see how it does.

Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier
Publisher: Ubisoft
Genre: Platforming
Console(s): Wii

The verdict: The crazy energy and charm of Rabbids Go Home is augmented by some humorous and creative gameplay elements, resulting in a solid platformer only somewhat marred by repetition and some awkward design choices.

It’s difficult being a hero when you’re being overshadowed by a more popular antagonist.  In the case of Rayman, the maniacal Rabbids gained such popularity that Ubisoft saw fit to give these psychotic little rabbit creatures their own game franchise.  Rabbids Go Home is one of the most bizarrely entertaining games I’ve ever played, which is perfectly in sync with the nature of the crazed Rabbids.  This charming Wii title’s off-the-walls energy and fun do a lot to offset its repetition.

Fly-err, stack me to the moon

The titular Rabbids have decided that they want to go home, and on a whim they deduct that the moon is their home.  Unfortunately, the small pile of junk they stack up isn’t nearly high enough to reach the moon, so the wily Rabbids get the fiendishly clever idea to invade the nearby city and steal enough stuff to pile up in order to reach the moon.  A shopping cart is commandeered to be used to contain stuff and manned by one Rabbid wearing briefs and another wearing a red thong (don’t ask), while several other Rabbids surf down into the city on a mattress while playing musical instruments (again, don’t ask).  Thus begins your incredibly strange journey to help these Rabbids find their way…err, home?

The best way to describe the story of Rabbids Go Home is to imagine a platformer game on the ultimate sugar high.  This game is off-the-walls crazy and only more endearing for it.  The Rabbids do their part to contribute to the madness; the little critters speak in hilarious gibberish and give the most dementedly funny grins that it’s impossible not to smile yourself.  They communicate largely through humorous gestures and their antics only intensify the kinetic energy on screen at almost all times.  The presentation alone is enough to warrant most people sticking with the game to see what the Rabbids will do next, especially since the game has a deliberate sense of irony to it.

They’re keepers, literally.

Gameplay starts you in the city your Rabbids have traveled to, which takes form of a hub location.  From there you can travel to designated “New Stuff” zones, or various city locations, where your goal is to collect large objects to increase the size of your junk tower.  Along the way you’ll be able to collect hundreds of relatively smaller objects that can be added to your pile to increase your score.  The one big object you need to collect counts for 600 points and each smaller object counts for one 1 point, at 400 objects per level.  You don’t need to collect the extra pieces, but doing so is a lot of fun and takes advantage of the game’s various puzzles.  At various points you can deposit the stuff you’ve collected in the tuba of a fellow Rabbid who appears at several points throughout the level.

The controls are generally solid and only feature minimal Wii motion control usage.  The A button accelerates your cart, a shout attack is performed by shaking the Wii Remote, and you can point your Wii Remote at the screen and shoot live Rabbids as missiles.  You can’t jump, but this actually winds up factoring into the puzzle mechanics.  You’ll wind up utilizing your controls in a lot of creative and humorous ways, such as using your shout attack to literally knock humans’ clothes off in order to collect them to add to your junk pile.

The game presents a surprisingly diverse palette of gameplays despite the simple game mechanics.  Sometimes you’ll have to race through an enclosed area, while other times you’ll have to lure a “Neatbot” enemy onto a button in order to open a door.  At one point, you’ll literally steal a patient in a hospital tube and use it to temporarily be able to triple jump across several skyscrapers.  The cleverness comes from the fact that you don’t need to collect the extra stuff, but deciding to collect every piece of junk before the timer runs out and the room you’re trying to run through seals off makes challenges much harder.  Ubisoft took a relatively simple concept and did a lot with it.

Quick, run towards…nothing!

One rather severe misstep in game design comes from several scenes where you need to run your Rabbids toward the camera.  This is an archaic gameplay element that I was hoping gaming had grown out of, but it pops up several times throughout the course of Rabbids Go Home.  In addition to being confusing, you also run the risk of missing some pieces of junk, which can be annoying if you’re trying to get every piece in the level.  Loading screens are also long and fairly frequent, although to Ubisoft’s credit they came up with a fairly clever way of countering this.  The loading screen takes the form of a hilarious cutscene involving the rabbids barreling down on a sewer on a mattress playing brass musical instruments.  It’s funny the first several times, but it does get annoying after a while.

Repetition is certainly the game’s other problem, even with the impressive variation in gameplay modes.  Enemies get more aggressive and levels get more complex but the game boils down to the same fundamentals and the same objectives.  The repetition is eased by the variations in activities, and additionally there are some fun extra rewards to unlock.  You can participate in challenges, customize the physical appearance of your rabbids and even give them accessories.  They help ease the repetition that can be found in the story, and it’s fun running around with a squad on your rabbid’s head.

Cheeeese!

Aesthetically, the humorous cartoony nature of the game fits perfectly well with the game’s energy.  The rabbids themselves look as hilarious as they sound; their Cheshire cat grins, crazy eyes, and goofy mannerisms are matched by the communicative noises they make.  The rest of the environments look fairly ordinary but colorful and vibrant, and you’re taken to a lot of locations in actual stages like shopping malls, airports, and hospitals.  The sticklike designs of the humans look a little dated and their movements seem very artificial, but the bits of dialogue they spout are a lot of fun to listen to.

Conclusion

The crazed rabbids put on quite a show in Rabbids Go Home, and it manages to be one of the most entertaining Wii games in recent memory.  The gameplay creative and fun, and the sheer craziness of the rabbids turns out to seal the deal.  Every time you find mission objectives starting to get a little repetitive, you wind up stealing an outrageous object or the rabbids start terrorizing the locals, and it pulls you back into the game immediately.  Hopefully Ubisoft will see fit to give these crazy little critters more adventures in the future.