Review - Rayman Raving Rabbids 2

I was looking forward to this one, since I like the feel and story of the original Raving Rabbids. But Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, in my opinion, isn’t quite as fun single player as the first one was. But, now it has tons of multiplayer games which are really fun. All in all, I didn’t like number two as much as number one (which I liked), but it does have the huge plus of having multiplayer games, so I think the come out about even.

The story is gone. No particular task or goal seems to exist. The menu seems to be in a mall, and you take various ‘trips’ which are groups of minigames. I don’t know when game producers are going to figure out that a game without a story is boring. Make anything up, I don’t care, better than nothing. Rayman Raving Rabbids was a little sparse on the details of the story, but because it had one I could enjoy doing the minigames (because I was accomplishing something, not just wasting time).

In any case, the multiplayer games are really fun. No split screen, all the games can be played without that. Many of them manage to tap perfectly into what makes multiplayer games fun. It really did manage to nail that part. The games are interactive, intuitive, and provide a lot of interaction between players.

If you are looking for a fun party game, something to play with friends, then Rayman Raving Rabbids is a really good choice. The games are quick, fun, and easy to jump into. Many of the themes boarder on the rude, which in my opinion is unnecessary, but whatever.

One of the main games is a shooter (similar to RRR1), but instead of 3D graphics they have real footage (with 3D bunnies coming at you). The effect is quite delightful, and really realistic. It was definitely odd to be shooting Raving Rabbids in Central Park thinking, “I’ve been here, weird.”

Like in the original, they kept a rhythm game. They took a leaf from Guitar Hero’s book and had the music of the instrument you choose actually effected by your performance. All in all though, I liked the original rhythm game better for some reason. This one had fewer goals (besides making points) and had an annoying shaking portion where you have to shake the controllers rapidly which I feel took away from the game.

All in all, thanks to the really nice multiplayer minigames, I give Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 a 8 out of 10. If number 3 had a good story and more multiplayer fun, it could get a 10 from me. The Raving Rabbis series was been selling alright, so they may very well decide to make a third, but they haven’t yet.

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