For those of you who enjoyed the first collection of party games known as Rayman: Raving Rabbids released to a whole host of systems, chances are you’ll also be interested in grabbing a copy of the second sequel, Rayman: Raving Rabbids TV Party, which is sadly only available on the Wii.
The plot is about what you’d expect for a game like this, where those brain-damage cases with bunny ears and horrible dental work, the Rabbids, are once again pursuing Rayman for reasons that probably only make sense to them, if they make sense to anyone at all. From what I can tell, Rabbids were a race of extremely trusting idiots, kind and gentle, but wholly idiotic. This left them the butt of numerous jokes, and, unable to take the abuse any longer, the Rabbids snapped, resulting in the lunatic wackjobs who beat anything and everything that comes nearby, including each other. Anyway, due to a freak lightning strike, the Rabbids end up transported to an alternate dimension located inside a television. Now the Rabbids have seized control of the programming and are recasting it in their own image, forcing you to play along. The sheer parody value alone is worth the price of admission, as they’ve skewered most every TV show imaginable and several movies to bring you this game.
As is generally the case with games like this, you get a whole slew of things to do—the Rabbids have seized the entirety of cable, apparently—and you’ll get to choose the programming for the Rabbids’ new network by selecting one of several minigame choices for that day. You might be playing music by shaking your Wiimote, or dancing (or doing aerobics) by holding it in a certain position. You’ll shoot plungers at targets, you’ll drive a lawn mower, you’ll kill weeds, you’ll decimate towns with radioactive fire. You’ll do literally hundreds of different things in the course of this game, and that’s what I love about it.
There is an INCREDIBLE variety here. It is a time sink the likes of which I haven’t played since my last round of Fallout. Seriously—I started this one last night and figured I’d play a bit this morning just to get reacquainted before I wrote it up. I wanted a half hour…but by the time I noticed the clock again forty-five minutes had passed.
I didn’t even notice. I lost almost an hour and I didn’t notice.
To me, that’s the surest sign of a game’s success—when I no longer care about time. When I’m having so much fun playing a game that the clock no longer has any bearing, that’s a good game. And that means this is a good game. Sure, it’s simplistic. There’s no great and epic storyline here. There’s decent sound and good graphics (for the Wii, anyway, which is always something of a laggard in graphics), and most importantly, a whole lot of fun.
Granted, if you don’t like simple games, and you crave a good story, Rayman: Raving Rabbids TV Party isn’t going to be the game for you. You can look at the front of the box and tell it’s not going to be the game for you. But if you want something fast and simple that’ll eat up a whole lot more time than you’ll ever see coming, then this is the game right here.
If you haven’t already had the chance to try this one, go. Go and grab it. This thing is downright amazing and I relish every moment. Chances are, you will too.
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Developer 38 Studios — founded by former MLB pitcher Curt Shilling — has