Rabbids Johnny! There are Rabbids everywhere! Rayman has always been a secondary character in the industry, that’s a sad fact. While Nintendo and Sega had Mario and Sonic, Ubisoft had Rayman.
But it’s when Rayman becomes a secondary character in its own games that you just can’t go any lower... but who could resist those darn psychotic rabbids and their random shouted "DAHHHHHH"? They are back, and they are funnier!
Truth be told, I’m not a fan of the first game, I actually bought it at Wii’s launch window and I thought it was the worst game from the ones I bought, a weak minigame collection. Things changed a lot with the sequel, the concepts are stronger and the presentation helped a lot to make the game much more respectable.
The rabbids! Everything comes down to those crazy and charismatic Rabbids! If they were invading Rayman’s world in Rayman Raving Rabbids, now they are invading our world! The minigames selection works like a travel agency trought which we travel all around the world while playing minigames with the rabbids.
Rayman is in the game too, but he’s actually just a substitute for the rabbids, and that hurts the character a lot, acting in ways that he wouldn’t usually. In the end, they are the stars, everyone knew that, Rayman just let them use his name in the game.
The minigames are funnier and the rabbids too, there are more parodies of famous characters (Spider Rabbid, anyone?) that brings sensational minigames. Some others are not as fun to play, but you will still laugh of a rabbit impersonating Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain.
Each trip has a number of minigames and they can’t be all accessed once, being that you’ll need to play at least two times to unlock those.
The musical minigames are still there, but they are now based on instruments that you can chose, no longer you dance, you play, in what looks like a parody of Rock Band. The mechanics are mostly the same, balacing your Wii Remote and Nunchuk in a Dance Dance Revolution clone. A mistake they made was to forget to place a black bar behind the icons, sometimes you can’t see the next "notes", mixed in the background.
The shoting game also stayed with us, a lot more fun this time, with filmed sequences of streets and the rabbids are placed like as if they were filmed invading the world, it’s hilarious, reminding us of the famous video where Michael Ancel was attacked by the rabbids.
The graphics are simple, usually better than the first game, but they sure weren’t the focus. The rabbids voices are the same, still funny, with their usual "DAHHHHH". Good idea: put musical minigames with nice songs. Bad idea: make rabbids sing it... they are just plain annoying.
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 is even funnier than the original, with more parodies, funnier minigames and some better gameplay. That aside, it’s time that Rayman gets some space in its own game, if would be nice if the rabbids invasion would ever become his adventure against them like promised when first showed.