Rabbids Travel in Time (Wii) - Review by Chris

Introduction

Since their first appearance alongside the Wii's launch back in 2006, the Rabbids have quickly become one of Ubisoft's biggest gaming franchises and each title continues to pull in substantial income for the publisher and developer. And while Rayman, who fronted that very first title, eagerly awaits his big platforming return presumably at some point this coming year, the Rabbids return once again without him in a brand new game which takes them back to their former pastures. But after the success of Rabbids Go Home, is a new mini-game collection really the best move?

Gameplay

After last year's adventure endeavour with Rabbids Go Home, the Rabbids return this year to the gameplay which made them who they are in the first place: mini-games. No doubt this will be a disappointment for many who played the enjoyable adventure title of last year and hopefully it doesn't mean we won't see another but for now, it's back into the foray of mini-games that the Rabbids start with and this time, their conducting them throughout time and history, causing a mess along the way.

Centred around a museum which acts as a central hub for all of your activities, the Rabbids arrive in a time travelling washing machine and use it to head to various scenes of history depicted throughout the museum to enact their insidious and humorous antics. Primarily, the game has split up the main mini-game types into 5 areas within the museum, each of which has its own gameplay type theme, be it shooting, flying, hooking, bouncing, or running. Each of these areas teleports the mischievous creatures to a section of the museum where they'll be able to travel to periods in time and take part in mini-games that fall in line with the general theme of what is going on in that area. For example, in the running games you could be asked to race against another group of Rabbids and be the first to cross the line while in the shooting area you may have to duke it out against an opponent in a boulder shooting contest to gain as many points as possible over the course of three rounds.

Each of these 5 main areas house very different gameplay types, each of which offers a varying number of mini-games for you to play and each of these also provides a variation on the overall gameplay theme for the area. Yet, while there is variation in the game's main offerings along with plenty of humour to keep things entertaining, the mini-games just don't quite match the same standards we've seen in other games. They feel mediocre this time around with little in the way of the unique and weird ideas which became mini-games in the previous games making a return here resulting in some very by-the-books games which don't quite excite as much as they could have. Luckily, the hub area is filled to the brim with mini-games away from these 5 areas, and these show that a little more thought has gone into them. While they may only be there to simply elongate the game time and allow you to create a high score, they can be genuinely enjoyable with a game of whack-a-mole played with a precious gem in a glass case and a bouncing game on a rocking platform being two which continued to entertain throughout. There are even mini-games which have been based on other games, such as a Guitar Hero-esque music game and a Just Dance dancing game.

It all helps to pad out and elevate what would generally be an average experience into something which is still enjoyable, be it as a single player experience or as a multiplayer experience, where things really are as fun as they have always been. Uploading your high scores for ranking online returns as a feature this time around, as you'll be able to see constant benchmarks which have been uploaded by players from around the world as you try to set your own scores. Ubisoft have, however, taken it one step further with the online this time around and allowed for 4 player online matchmaking which is a fantastic inclusion to the series and is provides some serious fun for those looking to invest the time in what is a largely smooth experience. Just be prepared to wait around a little while, however, as sorting out what game to play with other can take some time to sort out as you have free reign to run about the museum to pick your games so keeping track of where everyone is so as to come to a compromise can be a little tricky.

Controls

As you'd expect from the Rabbid series of games, you'll be making use of quite a lot of motion gestures throughout all of the mini-games although there are a good helping of ones where motion is kept to the bare minimal and can be skipped altogether. Of course, your means of control are primarily the Wii-mote and Nunchuk setup and both of these are used for motion gestures at points and work extremely well. It's little wonder considering how long the developers have been working with motion controls for these games. There are some slight gesture issues when playing the flying games, as the Nunchuk doesn't have the same accuracy as the Wii-mote so things can be a little tricky, but everything else works well.

Wii MotionPlus functionality has been added for a small selection of specific mini-games that you can skip if you don't have the attachment, or the new Wii Remote Plus, and while it's nice to see if incorporated, the fishing games that it is used for really don't do the added functionality justice, rather making it a more frustrating experience than you'll find in other games which have included a fishing mini-game.

Graphics

The colourful and bright cel-shaded visuals of the previous titles continue their work here and while some of the game's other aspects may feel slightly tired, the visuals feel far from it, once again creating a great looking title. Locations, both those themed on the various times you'll travel to for the mini-games and the actual museum hub areas, are extremely well designed and look fantastic, showcasing some great effects such as the light reflection and refraction through ice and the water effects.

The character models retain their own unique style and humour, putting on some laughable moments in both the game's in game and CG cutscenes, and the ability to dress them up in various period costumes definitely adds to the game's humour. Again, throughout all of their belches and other toilet humour traits and activities, they are animated extremely well and can definitely take a lot of abuse and still bounce back from it, literally in the case of some of the mini-games. In all, it's a great looking game that runs at a smooth and steady frame rate throughout.

Sound

Audio falls closely in line with what we've seen in the previous Rabbids titles, with plenty of screams from the little creatures as well as belches and other sounds repeatedly doing the rounds. It's part of their character and although it can be amusing to begin with, this is the 5th Rabbids game and it will quickly irritate most. The music is suitably themed to the time periods within which the mini-games are situated and generally sound nice, with some licensed tracks in there for the dancing games as always but it's the original pieces with speak more for the game and do the most to create the game's atmosphere.

Final comments

Although easily managing to maintain the series' sense of humour and fun, Raving Rabbids Travel in Time doesn't quite hit any of the same notes as the previous mini-game experience. It feels a little tired, with little in the way of true imagination having gone into creating the kind of weird and wonderful mini-games that the series has been known to produce. The presentation and humour certainly makes up for the drop in mini-game quality but it is disappointing that the adventure style gameplay was dropped to return to the mini-games. Still, there are worse mini-game collections out there and the Rabbids still put on an enjoyable and humorous display. It's just the earlier games are better.

Pro: Still conveys a good sense of humour, presentation is still great, gameplay is still fun, online multiplayer
Con: MotionPlus mini-games don't do the attachment justice, mini-games generally feel tired with little variety, sound effects and music can be irritating
Final score: 7

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