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IGN Review of Rayman Raving Rabbids
Rayman, ever since his creation on 2D-centric, high-color capable systems like the Atari Jaguar, PlayStation, and Sega Saturn more than ten years ago, has been about style as well as substance. At the very least, the Rayman games looked absolutely gorgeous. He's had his highs and lows in gameplay but the visual appeal is something you could always depend on. Which is why it's so damn conflicting to play Rayman Raving Rabbids on the Nintendo DS. This original platform is absolutely ugly as sin with some of the sloppiest and incompetent 3D programming seen on the system. It's like a fly-by-night programmer worked on the visual aspects of the game. But, we have to say it within the same breath: looks aren't everything. Rayman Raving Rabbids is a platformer with some good ideas hidden underneath the ugly. If we were going exclusively by gameplay the game would have scored higher, but as a final product Rayman is only passable.
It's strange that, for a game that's been a bunch of party games on the console, that the handheld team decided to head down the path of a more traditional platform design for the Nintendo DS product. After all, DS games seem more at home as quick-shot mini-game collections and yet Ubisoft went back to Rayman's side-scrolling roots for Rayman Raving Rabbids on the DS. The concept still remains the same: insane alien bunnies are running amok in Rayman's world, and Rayman must play the hero once again to eliminate the rodent threat.
The game's story is, admittedly a little confusing on the Nintendo DS as the handheld doesn't really have the luxury of media space to provide the same presentation as the console games. You're better off tracking down the original design on the Wii or the other bigger systems if you want to know what's really going down in Rayman's world. This game's really just supplemental to the full-on console product. All you're really going to get on the DS is the fact that Rabbids are completely out of their minds.
Right from the start you're going to be faced with the one problem with the Nintendo DS version of Rayman Raving Rabbids: the game is downright ugly. It's a huge deal because Rayman's always been about visual style and beauty, and to see the chuggy framerate, low resolution textures, and graphical glitches galore, it just does a complete disservice to the entire Rayman franchise. Ubisoft already screwed up the series on the Nintendo DS with the sloppy, sluggish port of the Nintendo 64 Rayman 2 released near the launch of the system. This one looks even worse, gang -- characters animate with choppy motions, and characters, items and background objects are constructed of such low quality graphics that they come off as near unrecognizable blobs of pixels half the time.
This is an unbelievable shame because there's a decent game design hidden within this ugly-as-sin product. The designers stuck with a lot of tried-and-true Rayman platform mechanics to establish its core gameplay. Lots of jumping, lots of punching with your extendable armless fist, and lots of extra abilities that you collect along the way, like a climbing ability where you can swing end over end or up a wall to gain access. It's this "collectible" aspect that adds to the game's extended play as you'll have to visit levels multiple times to reach the different goals. Rayman's alternate forms, an element established in the console games, come into play in the DS version, but they're more used to give players a new item in the platformer. Like the ability to call up a boulder at a specific location. Or to carry a bomb that can take out a doorway blocking a path.
Along with the standard platforming levels are challenges that are anything but standard: these levels have a very "Yoshi's Touch and Go" flavor as they're controlled via the touch screen almost exclusively. Players don't have direct control over Rayman in these levels; instead, they're keeping him moving by manipulating the world around him. The stylus is used to tap away obstacle blocks and to flick catapults to fling the poor guy from point A to B at specific times. The addition of Rayman's extra forms comes into play heavily in these levels, moreso than in the platformer challenges since the stylus can only do certain things while Rayman's in a particular form. By pushing up, down, left or right on the D-pad in these challenges Rayman will take on the form designated by that direction, which will give players the specific abilities of that form. This element adds beefs up the intensity just a bit since players have to keep shifting Rayman's form in order to get him to the exit in these challenges. It's a neat portion of the gameplay that makes thing a little more "rapid fire".
The game also has a very festive flavor thanks to the addition of the music licensed for the console games. Hearing "La Bamba" and "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" played at a faster RPM might sound a little cheesy in concept, but it actually works to make the levels feel more energetic and fun.
But man, why does the game have to look so damn awful?
©2007, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
It's strange that, for a game that's been a bunch of party games on the console, that the handheld team decided to head down the path of a more traditional platform design for the Nintendo DS product. After all, DS games seem more at home as quick-shot mini-game collections and yet Ubisoft went back to Rayman's side-scrolling roots for Rayman Raving Rabbids on the DS. The concept still remains the same: insane alien bunnies are running amok in Rayman's world, and Rayman must play the hero once again to eliminate the rodent threat.
The game's story is, admittedly a little confusing on the Nintendo DS as the handheld doesn't really have the luxury of media space to provide the same presentation as the console games. You're better off tracking down the original design on the Wii or the other bigger systems if you want to know what's really going down in Rayman's world. This game's really just supplemental to the full-on console product. All you're really going to get on the DS is the fact that Rabbids are completely out of their minds.
Right from the start you're going to be faced with the one problem with the Nintendo DS version of Rayman Raving Rabbids: the game is downright ugly. It's a huge deal because Rayman's always been about visual style and beauty, and to see the chuggy framerate, low resolution textures, and graphical glitches galore, it just does a complete disservice to the entire Rayman franchise. Ubisoft already screwed up the series on the Nintendo DS with the sloppy, sluggish port of the Nintendo 64 Rayman 2 released near the launch of the system. This one looks even worse, gang -- characters animate with choppy motions, and characters, items and background objects are constructed of such low quality graphics that they come off as near unrecognizable blobs of pixels half the time.
This is an unbelievable shame because there's a decent game design hidden within this ugly-as-sin product. The designers stuck with a lot of tried-and-true Rayman platform mechanics to establish its core gameplay. Lots of jumping, lots of punching with your extendable armless fist, and lots of extra abilities that you collect along the way, like a climbing ability where you can swing end over end or up a wall to gain access. It's this "collectible" aspect that adds to the game's extended play as you'll have to visit levels multiple times to reach the different goals. Rayman's alternate forms, an element established in the console games, come into play in the DS version, but they're more used to give players a new item in the platformer. Like the ability to call up a boulder at a specific location. Or to carry a bomb that can take out a doorway blocking a path.
Along with the standard platforming levels are challenges that are anything but standard: these levels have a very "Yoshi's Touch and Go" flavor as they're controlled via the touch screen almost exclusively. Players don't have direct control over Rayman in these levels; instead, they're keeping him moving by manipulating the world around him. The stylus is used to tap away obstacle blocks and to flick catapults to fling the poor guy from point A to B at specific times. The addition of Rayman's extra forms comes into play heavily in these levels, moreso than in the platformer challenges since the stylus can only do certain things while Rayman's in a particular form. By pushing up, down, left or right on the D-pad in these challenges Rayman will take on the form designated by that direction, which will give players the specific abilities of that form. This element adds beefs up the intensity just a bit since players have to keep shifting Rayman's form in order to get him to the exit in these challenges. It's a neat portion of the gameplay that makes thing a little more "rapid fire".
The game also has a very festive flavor thanks to the addition of the music licensed for the console games. Hearing "La Bamba" and "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" played at a faster RPM might sound a little cheesy in concept, but it actually works to make the levels feel more energetic and fun.
But man, why does the game have to look so damn awful?
©2007, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved