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February 23, 2015

RABBIDS MONTH: Bottom 12 / Top 12 Minigames in Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (Wii)

Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 Wii - Bottom 12 / Top 12 Minigames
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.
And now, the best!

TOP 12 MINIGAMES IN RAYMAN RAVING RABBIDS 2 WII

12. Singing In The Rain (USA)
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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