Ubisoft has hit a nice stride with the Rayman Raving Rabbids series - this new party game offering is reminiscent of when Mario Party was in its heydey, before MP4 took the series on a steady downhill climb with cheap throwaway gimmicks. Let’s hope that RRR doesn’t follow the same path.
At Ubisoft’s recent launch party in San Francisco, I got the chance to play some of the more hyped up minigames that are new to the franchise this time around. First and foremost were the games involving the Wii Fit’s Wii balance board. Ubisoft has made this a central part of their marketing campaign, claiming that TV Party is the first game you can “play with your butt.” Well, they’re not lying - this game gives new meaning to the term “hardass.”
With names like “Mount Kilamytushy” that are so silly you just can’t help but roll your eyes, the games that have you sitting on the balance board to control a death-defying descent down a snowy mountain are appropriately crazy. It’s a lot of fun, especially when your competitor tries to ruin your performance by shaking a Wii remote to fling snowballs that block your vision.
Also on display were minigames that required you to use the balance board like a surfboard. Through space. As a rabbit. This odd combination was a cool concept but not quite as entertaining as the butt-boarding. It’s a bit harder and trickier to control when you’re standing, but the main drawback is that other people can’t interact with you during this particular minigame, and the multiplayer is of course where this series shines.
The most fun and simplest minigames in the bunch were the dancing games - requiring up to four people to hold the remote and nunchuck and move their arms DDR-style in the right directions with the right timing to choreographed dance moves. It doesn’t sound as impressive on paper, but when you’re up there with your friends flinging your arms around to “Jungle Boogie” and “Soul Bossa Nova” (The theme song from Austin Powers), even the most serious person can’t help but enjoy themselves. A warning: spread out as far as you can when playing this game with four people. If not, don’t be surprised when your buddy smacks you in the face.
Overall the package and the launch party were a ton of fun. This game is a marked improvement over the last entry in the series, with minigames that are extremely simple and tap into our brains’ fun-centers in a very instinctive way. The only noticable issue I had was with some control sensitivity; While the balance board is a very precise instrument and translates your movement perfectly, the nunchuck is as usual more of a blunt instrument. The minigames involving the remote/nunchuck combo suffer from the nunchuck not always reading your movements, even when you put in as much “oomph” as you can muster. It’s not a game-breaker, but it’s also more than a minor annoyance. Fortunately not every mini has this issue, and even the ones that do still have a lot of entertainment value. TV Party isn’t as revolutionary as the “play with your butt” ads would have you believe, but it’s a solid product and a great way to spend time with friends.