Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (Nintendo Wii)

I have had this game for a couple of years now and it is the second game in the rayman raving rabbids series of games - although this is the first raving rabbids game I bought. This game is available on the nintendo wii and I believe it is also available on the nintendo ds.

- About the game

This game is based on the little characters called Rabbids, which are just like rabbits but they are very crazy and they scream and shout a lot - although they are really quite cute and funny. This game features 50 unique mini games and it can support up to four players. The only controller you need for this game is the nintendo wii remote and the nunchuk. This game is rated by pegi for ages 3 and over - although I highly doubt three year old child would be able to play this game. The game was released on Wii and DS in Europe in 2007. This game has been described by the official Nintendo magazine as "The best party game on the wii". The main features of the game include:

*50 mini games
*Up to four players (or you can play it as a one player game)
*You get to choose and also customize your rabbid character
*You can submit your high scores on the internet through your nintendo wifi connection (if you have set it up)

- Setting up the game

To set up the game you just insert the disk and while the game is loading, this only take a minute or less, you can attach the wrist strap on the wii remote to your wrist - you may need to do this as with this game you have to move your arms quite a bit. And at this point you could attach the nunchuk via the USB like port on the end of the wii remote but I would just attach the nunchuk when a mini game in which the nunchuk is needed comes up. Then select the rayman raving rabbids game from the disk menu and you will be presented with the main menu.

- Main menu and navigating around the menus

The main menu contains four options to choose from these include: Free play, Plaza, Trip customization and Trips. The free play mode allows you to play any mini games you have unlocked during the trips played. The Plaza option takes you to a shopping mall where you can access the options: character customization, shooting games arcade and jukebox. The Trip customization option allows you to make your own trip (in this game the word 'trip' means a series of mini games). And the last opinion is Trips in which a series of mini games will be randomly selected for you to play - although you can pick the continent you want to play on which will influence the mini games you will play. Navigating around the menus is really easy as the layout is very simple, easy to follow and the menus are also really colourful and bright.

- Trips

The main game play option is Trips. The trips option allows you to play all of the mini games available. Also in the trips option you can either play a solo mode or multiplayer mode. We always choose the multiplayer mode as this game is quite a social, funny, interactive game and the solo mode is really quite boring in my opinion. After choosing the multiplayer mode you can then choose your character (you can either pick one of the pre-designed characters or before you click on the trips option you can go onto the Plaza opinion on the main menu and from there you can customize your own rabbid). Then the trip selection page will appear after all of the players have chosen a character to represent them in the game. From the trip selection page you can choose which ever continent you want including: Europe, the USA, Asia, South America and the Tropics. The continent you choose will affect which mini games you will play. Each continent has about nine mini games which are randomly selected and every time you complete a trip, you unlock more trips and mini games.

- Mini games

Some of my favorite mini games are as follows: The shooting games such as big city fights and greatest hits. Dial R for rabbids, yummy butterflies and the rock band style games which include the songs satisfaction, funky town and smoke on water. There is also a dancing mini game which is to the song 'singing in the rain' and Hot cake is also a good game. The following paragraphs include some of my favorite and not so favorite mini games in Rayman Raving Rabbids 2:
*Shooting mini games*

These mini games in the trips section include: 'Big City Fights' in which you use the buttons on the wii remote to shoot other rabbids dressed in random clothing. Another shooting game is called 'Greatest hits' and this game works in the same way as 'big city fights' as again you have to just shoot rabbids in random clothing items but with this mini game you have to shoot at UFO's as well. I really like these shooting games, especially when you play them on the multiplayer option. They are fairly easy but shooting games are always going to be a winner in my opinion. I would rate these two mini games 5/5.

*Dial R for rabbid*

The rabbids are in a movie theatre and you have to use your wii remote as a mobile phone and hold it against your ear and when a security guard comes into the room you have to put the wii remote down - otherwise your rabbid will get squashed by a giant popcorn container or a giant movie award. The longer you have the phone to your ear without being caught the more points you get, it is a simple game but it is quite funny and I think children would definitely like this mini game. This particular mini game in my opinion is quite interactive as you have to use the wii remote in a different way. I would rate this mini game 4/5.

*Burgerinni*

You get a tray with a burger on and you have to deliver it to the customer on the other side of the room. This does sound easy and it is quite easy if you are playing as a one player but when you are playing this as a multiplayer game it gets quite funny and not as easy. When playing this as a multiplayer is gets a bit more difficult as when the two or more characters are trying to deliver the order you can easily bang into each other and then the burger will fall and you have to get another from the kitchen - this is made even more difficult as the more times you successfully deliver the burger the higher the stack of burgers on your tray will be. I really like this mini games when played with others as it always ends up in sabotage, with one player running into the other character to make them fall and drop the tower of burgers! I would rate this mini game 5/5.

*Laundry, Hot cakes, Voodoo rabbids*

Laundry is a mini game on the Asia continent and all you have to do is use the wii remote to wash the laundry. I like this mini game as it gets you to use the wii remote in a different way which makes the game more interactive. Hot cakes is another good mini game in which you have a hot cake and you have to pass it to the other players, it is quite a funny game in my opinion. Voodoo Rabbids is good too and all you have to do is dig a hole in the ground and throw the soil from your hole in the ground to the other players. It is simple but funny as we always pick on one other player to throw all of the soil at! I would rate these three mini games overall 4/5.

*Rolling stone, Snake charmer, RRR Xtreme beach volleyball*

Rolling stone is a really simple game and it is quite boring in my opinion as all you have to to is run away from a giant boulder - think Indiana Jones and the raiders of the lost ark. The snake charmer is another game that I don't really like as again I find it a bit boring. What you have to do for this game is press the buttons on the wii remote as shown on the screen to charm the snake. Finally, RRR Xtreme beach volleyball, this is one game that I do not play as I find it quite difficult as the sensor does not seem to be sensitive enough with this game to be able to hit the volleyball (well it is actually a giant watermelon they are using) - this mini game in my opinion is the worst in the game. I would rate these three mini games 2/5.

Overall, there are a lot of fantastic, funny and entertaining mini games including the ones already mentioned and also: TNT, 'Are we there yet?' (which is very funny), Splitter sells and one of my favorites is American football - and you just have to play American football (similar to rugby but with lots of body padding!). The amount of fantastic mini games far out weigh the awful mini games of which there are about five/six in my opinion. The majority of these mini games are funny, entertaining, easy to play and interactive - but they are best played with others.

- Other options: Plaza and rabbid customization

The plaza option is really good as from there you can access the jukebox for songs, you can play any of the shooting games from the trips and there is also the rabbid/character customization. The character customization is really quite funny and a really unique and interesting addition to this game. In the rabbid customization option you can select your rabbid and then dress them up in random (but funky) clothing and accessories. Some of the outfits will be locked until you play all of the trips (the more mini games and trips you play, the more outfits, clothing and accessories will be unlocked). Some of the outfits your rabbid can be wearing includes: the assassins creed outfit, a pirate outfit (which consists of a pirate hat and a barrel), a green zombie like body suit, a teenage mutant ninja turtle outfit and many more. You can pick whole pre-designed outfits or you can mix and match. For example, my rabbid is wearing the new season trend - Mexican wrestler means Viking!

- Free play and Trip customization

The free play option is where you can play all of the mini games you have unlocked during the trips section. You choose your character as normal and then you can choose what game you want to play such as American football, Burp, The office (not one of my favorites), smoke on water (my favorite song to play out of the rock band style mini games) and many others. The trip customization is a game option we have picked quite a few times, as you can actually pick which continent you want to play on and also you can pick every single game you want to play (and how many mini games you want to play) which I think is great and it is an option I haven't seen on any other game for the wii.

- Price and availability

We bought this game a couple of years ago for about £20 and it is now priced at: Play.com and GAME: £14, Amazon.co.uk new from £19.99 and this game can also be found on eBay.co.uk. It is also available for Nintendo DS as well as the Wii.

Conclusions

Positives

*Very funny and entertaining and it is a really good social game
*Great for the whole family (and friends) to play - although the sound that the rabbids make can be quite annoying after a while
*About 50 mini games to play from shooting things to the down right bizarre!
*Bright, colourful graphics and good (but cheesy) music
*Character customization is a great additional to this game in my opinion
*Free play (you can practice individual games)
*Trip customization where you can pick exactly what mini games you want to play on the trip
*Great instruction booklet
*Easy to play and the mini games are just fantastic (apart from a few)

Negatives

*Some of the mini games are not so fantastic but this only applies to a few of the mini games such as: Rolling stone, Snake charmer and RRR Xtreme beach volleyball

Thank you for reading my review - this review is already posted on ciao under my username labellavita1992