Video games are fun. Parties are fun. So you’d think video games at parties would be fun, right? Well, not always. First off, you have to cut out all the one player only games. Then, take out all the long ones, because some people might just stand around complaining they haven’t had a turn, and frustrating ones to avoid fights. Also, you don’t want anything too different from the party mood to distract people from it or not want to play the game. And something as fun to watch as it is to play would be preferred. With such a conundrum, it’s no wonder the aptly named “Party games” category has received a fair bit of attention over the past few years (the release of the Wii also helped). So I’ve decided to throw a party of my own with Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 for the Wii. Let’s me talk about it before the guests arrive.
This game seems to say “Meh, you don’t need to know the plot” to anyone who plays it. I guess it is appropriate since with most party games, you’ll want to get right to playing, but still you think they’d make it more obvious since they bothered with it. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even know there was a plot until I started doing research for this review. See, during the starting credits, the Ubisoft video comes up (sfx plays) since they made this game. Now, if you’re like me, when you see credits and stuff at the start of games, you just press A or start to get to either a startup video clip or the game. It turns out when the Ubisoft animation thing comes up you wait, static will come in (static) and it will “cut” to a news cast for the plot for the game. Seriously, is it just me, or did they try to hide the plot? I mean, this is the only way to see it and it’s very skippable. Why even include a plot if you’re going to hide it?
At this point you’re probably thinking “oh just get on with it”, so I’ll just tell you what it is. We learn from the news cast that the Rabbids (who are hyperactive rabbit looking creatures) are taking over the world. Wanting revenge from the events of the last game (which I’m not going to explain more of not to activate another spoiler alert), Rayman sneaks into their HQ to find out their plan. He dons on fake ears and eyes to and puffs a balloon of helium to sound like them (though really it’s so all the characters sound the same, since you mostly play as Rabbids in this game). While spying, on them, Rayman sees the Rabbids plan to take over the world so they can do things like… eat burgers, play baseball, watch movies and be rock stars… Ok, why they felt the need to take over the world for this is beyond me, but whatever. After crashing through the roof and successfully convincing the Rabbids he’s one of them, Rayman is sent off with them to 5 locations to take them down from the inside. Exaggerated? Yes. Pointless? Yes, but whatever, it’s a party game.
The games themselves are pretty fun. They’re basic enough that anyone with two working arms and a sense of coordination and timing should be able to well at them. They range from a shaking a can pop to get the biggest burp, to being the first one to correctly identify a criminal to having to play a song at the end of each area by shaking either wii-mote or nunchuck at the right time (kind of like an even simpler Battle of the Bands). By the way, though I like those song games, the song selection could have been done better; I didn’t need to hear Smoke on the Water in chipmunk voices. Unlike the last game, you can play two players right from the start. Though you can’t chose to play any game you want, you can still take on the areas two players to unlock them the same way you would one person. This is a great improvement over the last game, where one person had to play before anyone else to get the multiplayer available. All and all, this is just a pretty fun mini-game collection.
This game is all around enjoyable. Though the plot suffers from the fact that it’s a party game, it’s a party game, so no one will really care. The games are fun and easy, the graphics are really well done with what looks like real photos used in certain places and the game makers actually made me want to unlock most of the stuff in the game, which there is a lot of. I think this is a good game by yourself, but get together with some friends and it becomes great fun. I give Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 for the Nintendo Wii 8.5 Levels out of 10.
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