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The original Rayman: Raving Rabbids combined a great sense of style with a somewhat hit-or-miss selection of mini-games. The sequel expands on the original with more mini-games, more screaming, deformed rabbids, and fixes for some of the more annoying problems with the original.
For starters, most of the mini-games this time around will include a simultaneous multiplayer option, meaning less standing around waiting to play at your next Rabbids party. What's more, players will no longer have to break an arbitrary high score to unlock each game -- one playthrough in the campaign mode is enough to make any minigame fully selectable. Campaign mode games can also be played with friends, meaning there's no need to ever play solo. The character customization options from the original have been greatly expanded -- you can now play dress up with the rabbids, arraying them in a range of unlockable hats, shirts and accessories.
Read on for impressions of the five mini-games shown off at the show.
Listed roughly in descending order of fun:
Football
The Ubisoft representative asked if I knew how to play American football before we played this game. When I said yes, he told me "Good, because this has nothing to with that." True to his word, the game more resembles the schoolyard game smear the queer. Basically, everyone chases whoever has the ball using the Nunchuk analog stick to move and a flick of the remote to make a diving tackle. The ball carrier runs a little slower to give everyone else a chance, but missed tackles result in long, hilarious slides on the muddy field. The action was quick and constantly shifting, making this the most fun minigame on display by far.
Dance
Building on the popular dancing minigame of the original, the new version takes a page from Rock Band's book by allowing four players to perform different parts simultaneously. Each part plays pretty much the same, though -- Nunchuks and Remote icons float down from the top of the screen; players shake the appropriate controller as they reach the bottom. When your instrument has a break, the game shows you how to do a simple dance with the Nunchuk and Remote -- do it fervently enough and you get some bonus points. A hilarious rabbid-sung version of "Smoke on the Water" was on display in the demo, and the Ubisoft representative said there would be five more in the final game.
Laundry
Endless pairs of dirty shorts greet you in this mini-game. Wash them in the river with a back and forth swishing motion of the Nunchuk and Remote, then lift them to check the cleanliness. Lift too soon and you waste precious time looking, but wait too long and the shorts will be cleaned to shreds. With practice you can supposedly get good enough to time out the cleaning exactly, but for beginners it's just another excuse to get moving.
Nine to Five Rabbid
This one was pretty simple, if a little wacky. Wave around the remote and Nunchuk as fast as possible to make your office-worker Rabbid dance while the boss is away. When the boss returns, stand absolutely still as your rabbid listlessly pretends to work. "Just like in real life," the Ubisoft representative told me. No real strategy, but again, a silly excuse to dance around like an idiot.
Swimming
A comparatively simple game. Follow the on-screen instructions and waggle the Nunchuk and Remote as fast as possible to swim laps. Speed, not form, seems to be the key here, and the constant waggling provides a good, if spastic, workout.
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Anyway, yay for even more mindless, substanceless minigames.
The Wii: its like eating a bag of sugar for dinner.
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Considering the rabbit diving AWAY from the ball, I'd have to say it is. =\
Because a bag of sugar is sweet for a while, then it starts to make you sick. It provides not nutrition and ends up filling you up without doing anything to really nourish you.
The point is that gaming will never grow as a true art form until we move past these retarded minigames and into games with some sort of feeling and meaning.
I've said it several times before but we need a designer willing to take a Brechtian approach to video games, a Jean-Luc Godard if you will. Games have so much potential to be more than simply fun.
Anyway, there are plenty of games that aren't fun already. Those are the ones that no one buys because of game-crippling bugs and whatnot. Sure, that's not what you were talking about, but I'm just throwing it out there.
However, the Wii being the top selling console continuing to pander to cheap and easy culinary entertainment will do more to hurt video game's artistic credibility than any external force ever could.
The Wii is proving Roger Ebert right, and no one wants that.
That last comment on how videogames could evolve into a true art form was a great one, despite the French government already allowing videogame designers to be eligible for the "Ordre des Arts et des Lettres".
It reminds me how on CNN the other day, they were discussing a bit about the Future Summit in Singapore, of which the theme was "Virtual Worlds". Basically, the various experts' opinions point out that within the future (of indeterminate amount of time) the distinction between movies and games would be extremely slim, heck null, because we already have created the tools to invent a virtual world real enough for users, meaning that the real question is how they're going to be used and to tell what story. Movies are already considered as a true art form, yet from a personal standpoint, I believe that some games already fit that category.
But I have to slightly object with that prediction, because I think that there's still going to be space and time for more senseless types of games, more specifically the arcade type which us hardcore gamers like to call "casual"... after all, if a game isn't fun, it kills the whole point, don't you think?
I think that videogaming will develop even further as a "true art form" whenever a "virtual world" is concerned, whether it be realistically gloomy or manga-styled humourous, because to be able to conceive, design and create something inciting various emotions and thought (even dreams) is art. Arcade gaming would be slightly debatable though, because they too incite emotions.
To all the people who feel like they need to make analogies to get their point across:
WE GET IT. You don't like the Wii. That's fine. Noone's forcing you to buy it. You don't need to make up some sort of silly analogy to make yourself look witty and wise for your hate.
As far as mini-games go? Once again, noone's forcing you to buy. Do your part as a customer in the mass market and vote with your wallet.
It's similar to the movie industry; sometimes you just want to go see a cheesy popcorn flick and have some stupid fun/laughs.
See how that works? Get a life. It's a GAME. They call it a GAME for a reason.
Fun is as valid a reason to exist as artistic value. The world would be a pretty dull place if all we got were the serious, worthy movies and games.
(though NO game has really yet managed to approach a mature (eg: grown up) storyline.
I happen to love great stories in games.. buti also happen to want FUN in games. Infact given the choice, i'd take fun over a non-fun game with substance.
Plus, i want games to play with my girlfriend, and since she thinks (usually correctly) that all video game plots are misogynistic, stereotypical trash... video games with no plot are a lot more fun for two as well.
i did like the dancing and plunger shooting games though
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its not the kind of game you "beat", its the kind of game you play when friends come over for a beer, or with your family, or with your girlfriend.
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"the wee wee is for kiddiez" or
"more mini games is the suxxors"
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hell, a lot of times the threads that have nothing to do with Wii at all devolve into flame wars about how its "cheapening the industry"
Also does anyone know wtf the smash bros website update means today??
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It's a kinda bleak and dark story for a Nintendo game, huh? The Smash Bros are no different from gladiators of ancient Rome.
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There needs to be a change in the culture of video games. The scene needs to start growing up and demanding more fully realized expressions of intent.
an arty game is no fun on xmas day when your whole family is round... or when you wanna play against your computer-game-phobic girlfriend without explaining the plot and controller for 20 minutes til she gets bored.
I said it once and I'll say it again. Hardcore gamers don't like the idea of "outsiders" in their "exclusive club".
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Words of wisdom Brian...words of wisdom.
That is a very good point, there are several works that can be evaluated alongside movies and even go beyond what a film can do. I'm mainly worried that quick, easy entertainment will cause this to take a step back and make it even harder for those types of games to really enter the mainstream.
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Never will happen unless two things change:
1) Video games stop being so fucking basic even when compared to basic been-there-done-that movies. Name one video game that has the depth and the emotion of Shindlers List? Yea, thought so. Lets get back to saving aliens and blowing up monsters.
2) Game Producers and Game Reviewers stop treating them like products and like art forms. What do games focus on more? The engaging relationship between the Dan sailor character stuck at sea writing letters to his wife at home....or how fucking shiny the foreheads are of the nazi alien demons from hell are?
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These games, different games, casual games aren't holding the medium back. What they HAVE done is they've established a legitimate chunk of the store shelves. If some excellent serious work strikes it rich, you can bet there will be a dozen high drama games in EB by the following year.
Besides, we are actually taking baby steps towards dramatically grounded games. I hope Alan Wake, Heavy Rain, Mass Effect and other upcoming titles follow in the footsteps of titles like Ico and Indigo Prophecy. I honestly don't know if their takes on interaction and conversation will succeed, artistically or commercially, but I'm definitely watching.
Wow, I'm sorry - this rant keeps getting bigger and bigger. Want to just play some Rabbids Football?
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End of discussion.
WiNG: 1, Internets: 0
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But the way it shows those two trophies "cooperating" when they clasp hands before Meta-Knight's ship comes in possibly implies adventure mode co-op (whether local or online w/friends is yet to be seen, of course)
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The winners will keep making them, but the loser majority will smarten up and go back to making games with effort behind them (whether that be for Wii or other consoles).
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