Cert: 7+
Platform: Wii
Genre: Comedy Adventure
In Rabbid's Go Home, Ubisoft Montpelier's hyper-active rabbit-like creatures have decided they're going to the moon, and they're going to do it by building a pile of rubbish stolen from the city. You control 2 Rabbids in a supermarket trolley and one in your wii-mote, shouting at people until their clothes fall off, fighting various exterminators and generally stealing everything that isn't nailed down, giving it to a Rabbid playing a Tuba, and then moving on to steal more stuff until you steal the big thing at the end of each level and are rewarded with a Rabbid marching band.
At heart this is a simple collect everything platformer, and it does the basics really well. The graphics are brilliant, everything has a bright and cheerful claymation quality that fits with the Rabbid's perfectly. The level design is great. The puzzles require a little bit of planning to beat them on the first try but you're never stuck. Some levels have you racing against a secretary through an office, in others you break one of the engines off a jet and ride it through the airport to the sewers. It's always clever, cutesy and completely insane.
The game-play is rewarding. Short stages keep you moving between racing segments, fights with exterminators and standard collect everything areas. The controls are simple and responsive, the levels are easy to navigate and everything is just challenging enough to be fun. Repetition is a problem, the final big items you have to collect are repeated too often and I felt cheated that I was going after ANOTHER jet engine so soon after the first. You've no control over the camera and this can turn into a real problem, normally it's willing to play along and show you the part of the world you actually want to look at, but every now and then it decides to only show what's behind you making every inch forward a leap of faith.
The Rabbid's take the game from good platformer to great one. Their psychotic glee is hilarious. Every now and then the Rabbid's find something special like an answering machine or a squid and a funny little cut-scene plays out. Normally I'd be annoyed that the cut-scene was getting in the way but they're so funny they add to the charm of the game. You couldn't possibly take this game seriously, it's about Rabbits going to the moon. The designers chucked the logic out the door and just went for comedy and I loved it. Rabbid's go home is fantastic, it looks great, it plays great and I laughed almost all the way through it. The repetition kind of drags it down but it's a game well worth buying.
Rent or Buy: Rent
Graphics: 4/5
Game Play: 5/5
Replay Value: 4/5
Overall: 5/5
Reviewed By: Tony O'Hare
