Rabbids Go Home Preview page 2

15 Oct 2009 at 14:00:45 by John Robertson

There are similarities between stages, though. Both stages had time trial areas built into them, challenging you to navigate through a set area in a certain time. These sections take place within the levels themselves (as opposed to being warped away to some special arena) and seem to do a commendable job of breaking up the play, giving you a break from collecting for a moment to concentrate on pure speed.

Once you've collected as much construction material as you can manage for one level it's time to transport it, and yourself, back to base to regroup and plan out where it is you need to go next. The exit point for each area is a toilet. Yes, a toilet. Find the toilet, flush your goodies down it (trolley and all) and then hop in yourself for a quick ride back to the garbage dump (literally) that Rabbids call home. Exiting a level via such a device is something completely new for me (as far as I can remember), the Raving Rabbids making it look simultaneously disgusting and fun in equal measures.

You're free to customise your Rabbids as you please prior to setting out on your journey. Alterations can be made to its size and shape, and you can apply any accessories (hats, mostly) or colours on offer. The customisation tools are hardly groundbreaking by any means, but it's a simple system that utilises the Wiimote in the same way as you'd used a mouse, giving anyone with a smidge of artistic flair the potential to put it to good effect. Rather charmingly, the customisation takes place within a virtual Wiimote that reacts to your inputs, with your Rabbid being flung from side to side if you shake it or bouncing up into the air if you hit the B button on the underside of the controller.

Rabbids Go Home is obviously aimed at the Wii's lucrative family game market. Despite being a predominantly single player game, the relatively short levels and time trial areas should result in a lot of passing the controller back and forth until the tower reaches regulation height. Multiplayer consists of what sounds like a Super Mario Galaxy style set-up in which the second player takes out obstacles by shaking the controller at them rather than being given direct control over a second character. The short amount of time we spent with the game was satisfyingly amusing, but whether it has enough content and variation to warrant playing much past its 6 November launch date is a question that few games of this ilk can answer on a positive note. Anyway, at least the bloody Rabbids are finally going home.

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