Rayman Raving Rabbids

Today I dusted off my X-Box, packed it up with the four games I had for it, and took it to Gamestop for a lousy trade - in deal. The X-Box, no longer supported nor desired, it worth jack squat. In fact, it barely covered the cost of my newest Wii game, Rayman Raving Rabbids.

I was really torn on what to get. I went back and forth between the meager Wii selection, contemplating Cooking Mama, Scarface, Godfather Blackhand Edition, Excite Truck, and a few other Wii options, and the PC and Playstation 2 choices I had. Since I've had so much bad luck with more hardcore games lately, and I've heard good things about Rayman Raving Rabbids, I finally settled on it.

It's a very weird selection of mini games. In the story mode, which I apparently MUST finish to open the multiplayer stuff, Rayman is imprisoned by the rabid bunnies in a gladiatorial arena, and must complete at least three out of four mini-games to unlock the main game of the day. They range from shooting carrot juice to running fast to milking cows to a frequent dance game. The main game of each day is often the coolest part of the whole package - usually a first person rail shooter using a plunger-gun.

The difficulty varies and the instructions before each mini-game are often not enough. One must go in and play the game a few times to even make sense of what is to be done. At the successful completion of each day, Rayman is tossed back in his cell with his only reward - a plunger. With each day's new plunger, Rayman is building a ladder in his cell to reach a really high window to presumably escape.

There are lots of unlockable things, like videos, songs for the jukebox in his cell, and costumes. In today's sessions I've reached day 6 and had gotten over a third the way through the game. It's not a bad game, but I sort of wish that most of the game was the first-person plunger shooter and that the other mini-games were less important. I really, really hate the dance - off game, which comes up just about every day.

Oh well, I'm stuck with this game now. Hopefully, once I finish the story mode, I'll have a few new multiplayer games that Monique and I can enjoy. I suspect she's going to give me some weird looks when she sees this game, and is probably going to question my decision to get this game rather than Cooking Mama or Bust a Move.