and I really hope they make it….
I suppose my title really says it all. It is customary to save the best until last, but as I have never been one for tradition I now bring you my Expo experience of Rabbids go home on the Wii. I must say at this point that I only had a very limited amount of time to play this game, so these are just initial thoughts. Rabbids, if your out there, please don’t hurt me…you scare me….
Firstly, and in the interests of fairness, I will say that this game has a very cute (and surprisingly logical) story line. In a nutshell the Rabbids come from the moon and want to go home. In order to do this they are running wild in the city, collecting all sorts of useless objects in their shopping trolly. They are then transporting these objects via the sewers to a secret location and using their spoils to build a massive pile of stuff which they hope will stretch all the way to the moon. ET eat your heart out. Though I generally did not get on with this game I have to admit that I found the story line and objectives refreshing. The game is as crazy and disturbing as its predecessors, with the Rabbids using pretty much any means to, run things down with their trolly, collect stuff and cause as much mayhem as possible along the way. Most of the demo was spent pushing a trolly madly around the city before using an old mattress in the sewers as a secret highway to new parts of the game. The bottomless shopping trolly allows you to pick up anything from furnishings to food and pets, all of which can be saved up and added to your ever growing mountain of random stuff. As the mountain gets bigger you are able to survey more of your surroundings, opening up more possibilities for exploring, scavenging or just running around knocking things over if you like. The game does have some specific objectives should you feel inclined. One challenge the game gave us during the demo was to stun and then pick-up a collection of Chiwawas to add to our trolly. Yes. This confirms it. This game is officially just as mad as ever. With the Rabbid characters the same odd mix between strangely frightening and somehow cute this game has the same feel as the rest of the series without simply being an add on. I feel that Ubisoft have been very brave in taking a step away from the popular Rabbid mini games, which can only be commended.
You may wonder at this point what my problem is with this game. So far I have spoken only positively about the story line and characters, so what could my problem possibly be? Well to be honest what really put me off this game was to poor positioning and tricky nature of the controls. Playing this game simply did not feel natural, and when compared to the slick, easy to use gameplay of other titles we sampled this year (such as Super mario Bro’s) Rabbids just does not cut it for me. Though this game makes full use of the motion aspects of the wii remote, the shopping trolly you push around the level feels as though It has a wonky wheel forcing it to constantly turn towards you. I’m serious, If you picked up this trolly in Tesco you would throw it back. Though players would probably adjust to the trollys wicked way in time, who needs the hassle? Especially seeing as the story line involves a lot of trolly dashes. Another thing which bothered me was the method of firing at enemies. In the demo we played we were able to fire other Rabbids from the safety of our trolly into enemies (Or the general public) to stun them. This seemed like a good feature, until we came to use it. In order to fire a Rabbid you have to aim the little dot on screen at the enimy with your left hand and then fire with your right hand trigger. Though this seems simple enough, It really doesn’t feel natural. I found myself wanting to hold my hands as if I had a rifle, and though this made shooting easier it made steering more difficult. I really don’t know whey the decision was made to separate the firing motion between two hands, perhaps there is a secret reason I am not aware of. Don’t get me wrong, this game isn’t the most complicated out there, its perfectly possible to play. Still, I feel that it would have made the game feel a lot smoother if they had kept it simple. This kind of game really relies on the fun factor, and with frustrating cointrols it is hard to have a lot of fun.
So in summery. This game is very cute, and a little disturbing but not one which I will be favoring this year. Its worth a play purely for seeing what destruction can be caused with a humble shopping trolly, but to me it is just not in the same league as some of its fellows. Perhaps after continual gameplay the controls would begin to feel natural, who knows. All I know is the entire team found it difficult to grasp, and this stopped any of us really being able to enjoy the game to the full. Which seeing as the concept of the Rabbids is so good is really a great shame. If you have a Wii here is my advice. Buy Super Mario Bro’s this christmas. Its easier to grasp and just as random as the Rabbids with added nostalgia value. A much better one to play with your friends and minus the Wonkey wheels. Rabbids…your cool…but go home…please…
Stay tuned for my christmas list!
GuitarGirl24
