Ubisoft have made a number of mistakes in their 31 year history like Uplay, making Watch Dogs graphically inferior on all consoles except PC, having Assassin's Creed Unity be a complete mess and implementing micro-transactions among other things. But before all of that, their former mascot Rayman, was at the top of his prime. He had a number of great platforming games and for a while, seemed to be a match for the likes of Nintendo's Mario, SEGA's Sonic and Sony's Crash. But when it came to the development of Rayman 4 which was said to be a launch title for the Wii, we never got a Rayman 4 and the teaser for such was a lie. Instead, we got the Raving Rabbids which as appealing to children as they are, it almost killed the Rayman franchise, but ultimately lost him the rank of mascot for Ubisoft. Why you may ask? Well its time to find out as I review not all, but most of the Rabbids games (ones I've played and haven't reviewed yet):
Rayman Raving Rabbids
Originally going to be Rayman 4, the first of these games is a minigame compilation where Rayman and 3 Globox kids are kidnapped by the titular Rabbids with Rayman being put into an arena where he is forced to compete in many challenges in the hopes to escape. So in each arena stage, there are 5 minigames all of which involve the Rabbids and Rayman in some shape or form. Some of them are largely repetitive as you get variants of them as the game continues on. But depending on what platform you have the game on (the Wii version isn't the only version of the game), you'll be using the controls a lot and at times it can be frustrating, but you get rewards in the process such as music, things to spice up Rayman's cell, outfits for Rayman and more. This was one of the first Wii games I got and I can honestly say that while its no Rayman 4, its actually pretty fun. It is repetitive and can be frustrating and also very short too, but its a great game to be used at parties so you can't go wrong there. 7/10
2
In the second game (released literally a year later, but more Nintendo and PC exclusive this time), the Rabbids enter the real world and start invading various continents, unaware that Rayman has infiltrated their ranks. So the game is largely the same where you play through various minigames that are based in various areas of the world, but in addition to Rayman, you can also play as the Rabbids and customise them both. So its neither an improvement nor a step down from the last game, but it does have some fun minigames even if some of them are repetitive and culturally inconsistent. 7/10
TV Party
In the third game (and the last to feature Rayman), Rayman runs away from a group of Rabbids to some kind of house where they are then electrocuted by thunder and lightning and end up on Rayman's TV where they attempt to reenact various TV shows, events, advertisements and films much to the annoyance of Rayman. So the game plays out over the course of an in game week where Rayman tunes into various channels, each one having the Rabbids do stuff to entertain him or in this case, annoy him. This can be things like parodies of things like Godzilla and Jackass as well as gardening shows, sport events, talent shows, fitness shows and many others. Its also the first in the series to make use of the Wii Balance Board which at the time was relatively new and it kind of works well here. Of the three games to feature Rayman, this is probably the most entertaining one, mainly because of the pop culture references it brings into it. It is better than the second game, but as for how long it can be played for, not very long as its once again, very short. 7/10
So that was the original trilogy of Rabbids games and honestly at least until the Minions came along, they were very popular. But if I were in charge, I think there are far better ways to introduce them than in the Rayman games because if it was done that way, we would've got the Rayman 4 we wanted. Of course the Rabbids wouldn't have gotten popular than they did that way, but I'd say everyone would be happy. 7/10
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