Fans of the Rayman franchise will be familiar with these fuzzy little critters. But rather than stop them, the tables have turned so we are now trying to help them go home. Grasping Wii controller tight players must direct the maniacal little rabbids through each level collecting anything that's not securely fastened down. The play style switches too, from the old minigame genre to more involved platforming fun.
Improving upon the visual style laid down in the previous Nintendo Wii outings, Rabbids Go Home has a distinct 70's feel to the environments and maintains its unique cartoony feel throughout. Along side this there is plenty of detail and textured animations; the rabbids and their interaction with humans are particularly well done.
Despite the well implemented cartoon style, and the high levels of detail, it's the size of each world that most impresses, with wide open environments to explore and vast amounts of objects to collect. You can pick-up anything from clothing to chests of drawers, runaway cows and more - it all gets a bit Katamari. This frantic item collection takes place in fifteen varied game areas, ranging from supermarkets to roof tops, airports and the Bayou.
Unsurprisingly for a game based around rabbit creatures stealing the kitchen sink, humour is never far from the table. As an erstwhile collector, your rabbids' basic attack scares the clothes right off the back of each human you meet, allowing you to collect them for use in the construction of your space tower.
With their roots in mini-game madness, Rabbids go Home on the Wii wouldn't be complete without the addition of a few of these frantic button mashers. Catch a ride on a jet engine or inside a giant bubble to take part in frantic mini games which include puzzles, races and more.
Even though using a shopping cart as your mode of transport might be zany enough for some, there are those that might want to mix things up a bit. Rabbids go Home is more than ready for you, allowing your furry little friends to upgrade their cart of doom with a jet-ski, airplane reactor or a hospital bubble bed allowing you to wreak even more havoc throughout the shopping obsessed world. These upgrades bring in varied gameplay as you must learn to pilot your cart while boosting, jumping, gliding and flying.
While this is one hell of a frantic video game, I was amazed at how easy it was to pick up and play. Despite the fast paced gameplay, the rabbids and their shopping cart are controlled rather effortlessly with the Nun-chuck, while you use the Wii-mote to grab passing items for your junk mountain. The stages are well put together, with a wealth of obstacles to traverse that I found very enjoyable. Mixing up your play style with jumps and glides, you have to make your way over or around ramps, jumps, tilting walkways and plenty of enemies in order to collect as much as possible on each level; of which there is a lot. You don't have to be perfect to finish the game - and believe me I wasn't - but there are a potential 400 items and a big bonus item to collect on each level, so there's plenty to keep you active during each play through.
Rabbids go Home is a fantastic break away title for the little vermin. They get their own adventure free from the smashing, floating fists of Rayman, and it's been executed on the Wii in fine fashion. Graphically the game is incredibly charming, and the action is easy to handle and becomes very rewarding. If you're looking for a platformer to tickle your fancy as the Christmas season rolls around, I'd buy this one.
If you liked Rabbids Go Hom, you should buy...
Easier: Scribblenauts and Kirby Super Ultra
Similar: Little Big Planet and Mushroom Men
Harder: Mirrors Edge and Splosion Man