Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party - Bottom 12 - Top 13 Minigames
An alternate boxc cover for the game.
It looks creepier than the one used in the
preceding post.
Well, that Rabbid knows how to keep his
cool.
You
asked for it (not really), here it is (anyway)! As I was reviewing
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 for the Wii, I quickly realized I liked a LOT
of minigames that were in it. Whenever I make a list like this, I
make three columns: Minigames I like, minigames I find meh, and
minigames I don't like. The level of love or hatred for every
minigame will be decided later, once every minigame has been played
once. While I was playing, I found it was very difficult for me to
make these lists. I would frequently cross off one title from a column and put it in another, whether it's one in the “Bad” list
that winds up in the “Meh” list because I felt they weren't bad
enough to deserve being on the “Bad” list, or some from the “Meh” list that found themselves on the
“Good” list, or vice versa... Look, I'm just saying that making
this list wasn't easy, because almost every minigame had redeeming
features. They were almost all either fun to play, creative, simple
or hilarious. I ended up with not enough games on the “Bad”
list, a bit too many on the “Good” list, and also a few on
the “Meh” list, which mean I had to pick among the items in the
“Meh” list to fill the Bottom 12 list. As a result, you might
disagree strongly with me on many points on these two lists. You have
every right to. Just don't be a jerk about it in the comments, that's
all I'm asking. Okay, let's get this party started with the worst, so
that we can then move on to the best!
BOTTOM
12 MINIGAMES IN RAYMAN RAVING RABBIDS 2 WII
12.
Snake Charmer (Europe)
Keep a good beat or they'll beat you!
You
hold the Wiimote like a flute. You have to press the buttons as they
light up on the in-game remote. In Easy Mode, there's only A and 1,
but Normal Mode adds the 2 button to the mix. When you make long
series without failing, you get more points. If you fail one button,
the dancing snake bites the poor lil' Rabbid. It's a basic minigame,
but I don't criticize it because the buttons to press are selected at
random. I mean, the concept is fine, and there's a bit of funny –
oh wait, that's it. It's not funny enough. I just had that
revelation.
11.
Spitter Sells (USA)
Well, this is quite the spitting image of impoliteness.
AKA
Serial Spitter in RRR2DS. Yep, it makes the “Bottom 12” list once
again. I've got to admit that it's actually better than the one in
the DS version, but sadly, it seems it's still not good enough to
escape my judgment. You must shake the Wii remote to build up sputum,
and then rotate the Wii remote left or right to aim into the mugs of
the Rabbids below. The Rabbids on the edges of the screen give more
points. This one is actually better than its DS counterpart, because
you don't need to wait for the victims sleeping, arguing or yawning.
Nope. Just build up, aim, spit. And if you beat the high score, then
you can consider yourself a graduate from Jack Dawson's School of
Poor Mannerisms.
10.
Chess (Europe)
This is too complex for me. This minigame,
not chess, in case it wasn't clear.
Sometimes,
there are minigames you seem to hate for no reason. In Chess, the
four players are sitting around a chess board, which has only one
piece, and they seem to be concentrating... In fact, that's the
minigame: You're concentrating, by putting the Nunchuk and Wiimote on
both sides of your head. And that's all. But it's harder than it
seems, because there's a way to get more points, and if you want to
beat 12,000 points, you pretty much need to learn the trick. And I
never found it. Must you stay perfectly still? Must you make very
small movements on your temples? Must you rub your head? I never
found out. This is one of the few games that still baffle me. There HAS to be a trick! There has to. There has to.... t h e r e h a s t o . . .
9.
Dizzy Race (Tropics)
Enemy volcano used Eruption! Rabbid became Confused!
The
Rabbids have been playing too close to a volcano, so they've been
blown away when the volcano miraculously erupted, and now they're confused. And of course they want to go back
at the top of the volcano. There's just one problem. They're worse
than drunkards, they can't even make one step forward! Your job is to
control your own Rabbid to bring him to the top, without making it
hit wandering animals! Oh, and try to make it reach the finish line
first, too. The entire point of the minigame is that the controls are
unresponsive and the Rabbid keeps zig-zagging. Definitely not a
minigame I enjoy, but to be fair, it's really not the worst one of
the bunch. Hell no. Then again, this game is good training for the day you'll be trying to walk drnk on a straight line.
8.
Are We There Yet? (USA)
Aw, man! Some of 'em are crying! Here's a funny video!
Just.... please stop crying! I feel so awful right now...
Eight
Rabbids take place in a big car, and they keep getting excited. You,
as the driver (or, well, as someone in the front seat), must calm
down the excited bunnies and knock some sense into them... by
knocking them in the face. You hover the cursor over the excited
Rabbid with the Wii remote, and then slap with a quick flick of the
Nunchuk. (By the way, one of the Rabbids is Professor Barranco!) If
you slap a calm Rabbid accidentally, he'll cry. Aw... I don't wanna
make a Rabbid cry! It's not natural! Rabbids don't cry! They yell, they fight, they're gross, but they don't cry! It's, like, not in their psychology to cry! This minigame
is hard, mostly because the risk of hitting an innocent Rabbid is
high, and near the end too many Rabbids are excited at once. Oh, it's
got creativity and challenge, but each time I play this one I feel
terrible. Why must I be slapping bunnnies?
7.
Usual Rabbids (USA)
"I don't remember who stomped on me. I just remember he
wore a red cap, overalls and brown shoes."
You
are presented little clips of a Rabbid committing felonies (stealing
the frame around the Mona Lisa, as an example). You must pay
attention to what the Rabbbid is wearing, its fur color, etc. After
that, you're brought to four suspects. Select the one that is
identical to the criminal Rabbid in the pictures. In Easy Mode, it's
pretty simple, but in Normal Mode, the Rabbids will frequently look
alike, so it gets difficult to pick the right one. And it's
especially annoying because we don't see the criminal
Rabbid too clearly in the pictures. We aren't given enough time to
see all of the details. That's why I'm not a fan of this minigame.
Though, to be fair, the animated sequences are very funny. Once again, the Rabbids fail to understand humans. Kudos to the one who manages to steal the Statue of Liberty's torch, though... That thing must be pretty heavy to carry around.
6.
Spicy Chicken (Japan)
Burn, bunny burn! Tummyaches all day after this minigame!
The
Rabbids are cooking chicken in their own twisted way: By eating hot
peppers and breathing fire. Your Rabbid picks up a pepper (green,
yellow or red), and you can make your Rabbid eat it or toss it away.
There's a bar at the bottom of the screen indicating how hot the
Rabbid feels. The chicken will be cooked by the Rabbid's fire breath
if you choose to make it release the built-up fire when the bar is
almost full. If the bar is not filled enough, you won't get as many
points, and if you go beyond the bar, the Rabbid will burn the
chicken. Could be a funny minigame, as the idea is great, the
challenge is there, but you need to rely on the peppers your Rabbid
will pick up, and if you're unlucky, that can cost you the victory
pretty easily...
5.
Rodeo (South America)
The true contest here is which one gets flung the farthest.
Oh
hey, this one was in the DS version! And I hated it there as well...
In this minigame, you have to move the Wii remote like shown on the
screen. You need to go at about the same rhythm as it is on the
screen. If you do it correctly, your Rabbid will get one Hell of a
ride on a mechanical bull. I hate this minigame because it's almost
impossible to beat 12,000 points. For some reason, no matter how much
I try, even if I go perfectly in sync with the Wii remote on the
screen, I am not able to get the required amount of points! I don't
think it's caused by a glitch. It's still extremely annoying.
Therefore, I hate this one. I don't even get to enjoy the comedy in
it! I don't know if me going on a real mechanical bull would be any more enjoyable... well, it would be just as much of an epic failure.
4.
Voodoo Rabbids (Tropics)
Somehow the earth comes out with colors!
Now
we're getting to the minigames I really despise. In Voodoo Rabbids,
the Rabbids seem to understand that they need to dig. And since none
of them wants their opponents to succeed, they throw the sand into
the other Rabbids' holes. The goal? Keep on digging, and halt the
other Rabbids' progression by tossing your sand in their holes! To do
that, keep A pressed while digging, send the cursor over
another hole and release A. At the end, whoever has dug the deepest wins.
Personally, I've never been able to get the Gold medal on this one,
because the CPUs ALWAYS toss their dirt my way. Don't you hate it
when the CPU characters team up against the human? I do. A lot.
3.
Yummy Butterflies (South America)
Meh. Butterflies don't taste too good.
...I suppose. I never tried it.
Rabbids
go butterfly-catching... except they still got everything wrong. They
instead EAT the butterflies and smack the opponents with the nets to
make them spit out their butterflies. Note that you can't smack other
Rabbids while your character's mouth is wide open, as it's trying to
eat butterflies. Also, for some reason, the smaller butterflies are
easy to eat, but the larger ones, which give more points, will be
almost impossible to get. Gosh! Oh, and let's not talk about the
Rabbids whacking you with their nets! I was never able to beat the
high score in this minigame. Maybe there's something I don't get.
Either way, this one sucks.
2.
Little Chemist (Europe)
A.R.G.H.
A
Rabbid is attached to a plank on the screen, and there are 12
bottles, each containing an elixir. All the elixirs are represented
by symbols (three different symbols, in fact) and a color (yellow or
purple), for a total of 6 different combinations, and thus each
combination appears on two bottles. Under the Rabbid, you see three
symbols with colors. You need to find three bottles, each containing
an elixir with any of those symbols (including the right color), and
force the Rabbid to drink it. The catch? You need to shake the
bottles to see what's in them, which takes time. Also, if you get one
symbol wrong, you have to start over with a new selection of three
symbols. I never managed to beat the high score for this game. Heck,
I can barely reach 6,000 points! This minigame is extremely annoying.
I hate it. And I will probably never be able to beat it. Goddamnit.
1.
Burgerinni / Burgeritos (Europe / South America)
Godfuckindammit!
Not
only does this one suck, but there's two of them! Urgh. A Rabbid has
to serve a towering sandwich to a big boss bunny waiting at a table.
The catch? The sandwich is so large that it might fall if you go too
fast in a direction. And in fact, it CAN fall, and if you proceed without caution, it WILL fall, piece by piece. In Burgerinni, the
Rabbid has to deliver the sandwich to a single Rabbid boss, but in
Burgeritos, he has to deliver it to the boss bunny who's located on
the other side of the screen... and in order to reach it, you have to
travel across a thin platform between two building roofs. I never, ever,
ever managed to beat the high score for those two games. The
mechanics are terrible, the damn sandwich is almost always gonna lose
pieces before you reach the client, and you are going to swear,
especially if your Rabbid falls in a pit. (Also, who the Hell designs a restaurant on rooftops? ...Oh wait, I just remembered we're talking about the Rabbids here.) Those two are the worst
minigames in Rayman Raving Rabbids 2.
Remember, backup dancers. If you fail,
we'll beat you up.
I
said I was tired of Simon Says, but I actually enjoy when the old,
tired formula is done differently. Here, you are given a sequence and
you must repeat it, but no, you don't just have to click on
characters making sounds; No, here, a Rabbid does a little dance with
three different movements (flicking the Wii remote, pressing A or
flicking the Nunchuk), and then you must repeat it. The game asks you
to work a little more than regular Simon Says minigames do. And you
are allowed three mistakes before losing! So much, much, much better
than the cheap Simon Says from RRR1Wii... or the one in RRR2DS...
11.
Rolling Stone (South America)
RUN! WHY ARE YOU STILL SITTING AT YOUR
COMPUTER? RUN, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE! IT'S COMING
TOWARDS YOU! STOP READING AND RUN!
When
you play Indy, you better prepare for giant stone spheres rolling
your way. It's as normal as flying in front of a giant moon on a
bicycle when you have an alien traveling with you. So, the
adventurous Rabbids have triggered the trap and are now escaping from
a rolling stone! Probably Keith Moon. I heard he's kind of dangerous.
Okay, joke aside, there is only one thing to do in this minigame:
Shake the Wii remote and Nunchuk very quickly, and your Rabbid will
run accordingly. Loose too much speed and your Rabbid will become a carpet or a stone decoration. It's a simple but funny minigame that also manages to be
challenging, even if the idea of running by shaking the remotes is
nothing new (wasn't it also in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic
Games? And in Wii Sports Resort?). Ah, whatever. I still enjoy this
one.
10.
The China House (Japan)
You have to keep the balance!
Raving
Rabbids: The only game in which you can break expensive porcelain
plates with no repercussions! ...Except maybe losing points. You have
to spin the Wii remote vertically, not too fast, not too slowly, to
keep a Chinese plate balanced on a stick. A Rabbid gradually adds
more and more plates over the first one, which means you have to be
increasingly careful. However, it is possible to spend the whole
minigame without ever dropping the plates. And since you score
increases faster when you've got more plates balancing at once, you better
try not to drop them! I like the minigame because it's a great idea,
and it offers a pretty good challenge, though I can kinda see why
other people might not like it. Well, it isn't the funniest game,
true, but I dunno, I just like the concept. Maybe because I've had
circus classes in the past. (That was in fifth grade, so in my
defense, it was a LOOOOOONG time ago.)
9.
Swimsuit Edition (Tropics)
The Rabbidlympics!
In
this minigame, the Rabbids have to swim back and forth in a pool,
twice. Every time they go from a side to the other, their swimming
style changes, and so do your movements with the Wii remote and
Nunchuk. Another minigame similar to things we've seen in other games
(again, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games), but this one is
pretty good in that you must always check which swimming style is
being used, since the Rabbids go through four different swimming styles. Also, it's kinda funny to see Rabbids doing something
right for once, don't you think? My only point of criticism is that
in Normal Mode, your score starts at 20,000 and then decreases, only
to stop once your Rabbid completes the four lengths in the pool. The
number when it stopped is your final score. As a result, you have to
shake like crazy if you want to beat 12,000 points. Oh well.
8.
Anesthetics (USA)
The patient is in dire need of a brain graft.
...Okay, that joke was mean.
A
Rabbid needs a surgery... I guess... so the others have to use anesthetics. But their knowledge of anesthetics is limited; it basically
amounts to “beating the patient senseless until it falls asleep”.
Each player takes a turn to slap the Rabbid. When you are about to
hit the Rabbid, a meter shows up, and it keeps increasing and
decreasing; you can choose to swing the remote when the meter is
almost empty, which will give the excited Rabbid “patient” a
light tap, or wait till it's full and give the Rabbid a powerful
whack. Whoever is the last one to hit the Rabbid and puts it to sleep
is declared the winner. Unlike all the other minigames in the
collection, this one is a true win-or-lose minigame; only the winner
gets anything. And you kinda need luck to win, but you can tip the
odds in your favor. It's a fine balance of strategy and actual luck,
which makes this minigame more enjoyable than luck-only minigames,
and less predictable than strategy-only minigames.
7.
OK Corral (South America)
Bucky Luke versus the Bwaaaahltons!
You
are facing a cowboy Rabbid challenging you to a shootout. Well, of
course you're using a plunger gun (real guns would just be too
T-rated for a Rabbids game). You keep the remote pointing down, and
you have to wait for the opponent to start aiming. But of course, the
opponent Rabbid has a few issues with his plunger gun, so you have a
few seconds to shoot it in the face. When the Rabbid starts moving,
just hurry and be the first to pull the trigger! This minigame is
great, because it requires you to be quick, and yet most of it is
spent waiting for the opponent to do anything. Clever. And you feel
the stress of western shoot-outs, though admittedly not as much as
you would in the real deal, because you know your opponent is a
Rabbid. And if you've played this game even a little, you know how
Rabbids are. And there's no need to state that a plunger to the face is less harmful than a bullet in the chest.
6.
American Football (USA)
So it's raining, we barely see the bunnies, and that's kinda
sad because this minigame is just great.
I
usually dislike sports, but for some odd reason, I really like sport
games on the Wii. On the other hand, don't expect normal sport
minigames from the Raving Rabbids! (Well, except maybe Swimsuit
Edition, but that's beside the point.) In this one, the Rabbids show
their messed-up understanding of football. At the beginning of the
game, players run to the football. Whoever has it must now run around
the field, while the other three must try to ram into the ball's
holder to steal it from them. When you don't have the ball, you can
shake the Wii remote to ram into another player. At the end of the
minigame, whoever had the ball for the longest time wins. It's a
great minigame, kind of like an opposite game of It. Great concept!
And the result is a very enjoyable minigame.
5.
Snail Race (Tropics)
"I called mine Rotor. You?" "I called it Sonic! You?"
"I called it Slow Moe. ... ...What?"
This
one's just plain weird. The intro implies that toxic waste mutated
snails so that they'd become giant. So big, in fact, that Rabbids can
ride them. And they can race on them! Sure, the snails are slow, but
they speed up just a wee bit when cheered by the Rabbid riding them,
so the entire point of the minigame is to “cheer” for your
Rabbid's snail (by shaking the Wiimote). Whichever snail reaches the
finish line first wins. And hilariously, the snails have to travel,
maybe, four or five feet only! Talk about a short race. We're not
talking about Turbo here! That idea... God, that idea. Yes, the game
is simple and fun, but that idea is just so friggin' hilarious, I
just can't not laugh when I think about this minigame.
4.
TNT (Tropics)
Man, if we miss out shot, this is gonna blow so much!
Well, at least we won't go out with a bang.
Rabbids
and explosives. You know this is going to lead to someone getting
seriously hurt. Or at the very least, a great bit of slapstick.
Rabbids don't seem to understand that the explosive charges must be
away from the detonator. Therefore, when they push down, the
explosives blow up in their faces. Here, you hold the Wii remote
horizontally and must lower it quickly for the Rabbid onscreen to
detonate the explosives. There's a countdown on the screen, starting
at 10 seconds and going all the way to 0. The closest you are to 0
when you pull down the Wii remote, the more points you get. Kinda
like OK Corral, this minigame is spent waiting to do one thing, but
you have to be quick when the time comes to actually do something.
It's a minigame that requires great reflexes. Good one.
3.
The music minigames (All 5 + 1)
Well,
of course those were gonna make the list. There's one in every
continent, and there's a bonus music minigame that you unlock once
you've played every minigame at least once. I actually think this version of the music minigame is better than the one in RRR1Wii, even though the
concept is almost identical: A Guitar Hero thingy on the screen, with
a Nunchuk on the left and a Wii remote on the right. The symbols go
from the top of the screen to the bottom, reaching two squares, one
for each side. You have to flick either remote when its symbol
reaches the square at the bottom. Sometimes you might have to flick
both at the same time. Build up your score multiplier and try not to
miss any note! What I really like about this minigame is that every
song has 4 instruments, so 4 players can play at once, and everyone
will have to select an instrument. What I also like is that
sometimes, in the middle of a song, you'll be asked to make some
movements with the remotes, like shaking them. That's your chance to
make a lot of points! Oh, and above all this, the screen shows a
large cutscene of the four Rabbids playing music in a restaurant or a
night club, and you can see Rabbids dancing, applauding the band, or
just being ecstatic. IT'S SO ADORABLE. I'm having such a male-squee right now. So yeah, I may be complaining
about bad minigames here and there in the Raving Rabbids series, the
music minigames still hit the nail on the head. They're just great.
By the way, here are the aix songs:
USA:
Papa's Got A Brand New Bag
Europe:
Satisfaction
South
America: Celebration
Japan:
Smoke On The Water
Tropics:
Teenager In Love
Bonus:
Funkytown
In the second video, take a look at the bunnies dancing to the music. Daaaaawwwwwwwwwww~!
2.
Baseball (Japan)
Rabbid A, ready to run. Rabbid B, ready to swing.
Rabbid A will jump and get sent flying!
Another
sport-based minigame? Huh. First, you control a Rabbid running around
a baseball diamond; you shake the Wii remote and Nunchuk to make it
run. Keep going, and once it reaches the third base, the Rabbid will
jump. Now, get ready... get ready... and when the Rabbid is close,
SWING! The Rabbid will be sent flying far, far away, and whoever sent
their Rabbid flying the farthest is the winner. First off, this is a
great idea. Second, the game works very well. The result is an
amazing, fun, enjoyable experience that requires quick movements and
timing. Is it me or most minigames in the “Good” list today are
either about quick reflexes or fast remote-shaking?
1.
Burp (Europe)
God
I'm so immature. I complain about gross minigames, sure, but that's
because sometimes, gross minigames don't even have that bit of actual
comedy that make the gross-out portion worth it. Think about Bunnies
Don't Use Toothpaste (*shudders in disgust*) or Bunnies Are Ticklish. However, no
matter how gross this one is, it's actually VERY funny. You have to
shake the Wii remote as fast as possible, and the Rabbid on the
screen will shake a soda can. In Nomal Mode, you also have to make it
open the can (by pressing A) and then drinking it (by lifting the
remote and pointing it downwards). The Rabbid, who's standing on top
of the Arc de Triomphe, will drink down the entire can, and then
unleash a belch that would make Barney Gumble proud. Beat 12,000
points and see all the destruction caused by the burp. It's
impressive. Heck, if you beat 15,000 points? We get a shot of Earth,
and then we see Europe exploding in a blast of green gas. Now that is HILARIOUS. Simple yet
challenging, funny, memorable, all the qualities that make a great
Raving Rabbids minigame. I declare it the best minigame in Rayman
Raving Rabbids 2 on the Wii.
You can see it in this video. Sorry for the low quality, it's still the best one I could find that had Europe destroyed by the Rabbid's belch.
Well,
I think that's all I had to say for this one. As of now, three out of
four Rabbids games have been reviewed. It's soon going to be time to
review the last one: TV Party. Am I going to like it? We'll see...
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