Many people will be familiar with the Raving Rabbid franchise which started as a spin off series of Rayman. In recent years the series, created by Ubisoft, has only ever been developed for the Wii Console. Well now the developers have extended their reach with their seventh addition to the series Raving Rabbids Alive and Kicking exclusively for the Xbox 360 Kinect.
So have you heard of them? For those of you who have not where have you been these past few years! Raving Rabbids is a game that consists of mainly party games and some platform games that focuses on crazy looking rabbit like creatures whose antics leave a trail of mischief and destruction in their wake and are known well for yelling “BWAAAAHH!!!” during an adrenaline rush. Previous titles in the series see them attempt to invade earth in their space ships disguised as flying yellow submarines, getting hit by lightening and ending up inside the TV set and stealing anything and everything in an attempt to climb their way to the moon! As for intelligence, well let me tell you there is very little, which is very evident in the new Xbox 360 Kinect version.
The Kinect Sensor is very accurate at mimicking your actions and the slightest of movements will be noticed through the game play; if your foot is not placed in the right spot your meter will not fill up quite a quick as it should. In single player mode you will be given the chance to play with your very own Raving Rabbid, with which you are able to punch, slap, and kick him to heart’s desire. You can also dressyour Rabbid and take photos to advertise your mad creation, in a way it’s like having your very own virtual pet to punish anyway you feel. There is no story mode in Alive and Kicking only solo mode, this is not all that bad as you will have over 40 different mini games to play either by yourself or through the multiplayer mode. It would be very difficult for me to go through each and every activity you will come across in the game and no doubt will bore you. However as a brief idea you will get to swim, run, pose, whack, dance and spin making yourself extremely dizzy; try to avoid this if you have been drinking.
Raving Rabbids seems to take on previous releases of very old and popular games while giving a Rabbid spin to them. One of these is the whack a mole game, where the Kinect takes a picture of your room and you will then have to stomp on the Rabbids as they appear randomly in front of you. As time goes on they get faster and faster and you’ll soon build up a sweat with all the stomping going on.Another mini game is Lick the Face, where a Rabbid is caked in the face and you then must lick it clean before the time runs out. In order to do this you have to use your whole body as the tongue by jumping from side to side and crouching down. The mini game I especially enjoyed is one that has been taken from the original Wii Rabbids’ game and has been very effective in its transfer from remote controller to Kinect. The idea of this game is to use carrot juice to fill the diving masks of oncoming Rabbids who are intent on using random household objects to attack you. While standing on a single spot you use one hand to continually pump a pump and the other to aim and spray the juice at the Rabbits filling their masks so they drown.The appeal of this game is the remarks you get from your mates while doing this; they will surely have you laughing your way though the challenge.
Multiplayer Mode is where all the fun begins, grab yourself up to 4 players and then have a selection of games thrown at you or if you so choose, select them yourself and have a good laugh watching your mate’s make fools of themselves. (Perfect camera opportunity) There are 3 party modes to take advantage of, these are “Carrot Juice”, “The Kitty”, and last but no means least “Forfeit” where you take on challenges in a head to head battle with your mates and the one who fails the challenge will have to perform a forfeit in front of you all.The Kitty mode is basically a point’s mode, you take on challenges earning yourself points, but to enable you to proceed you must either gamble your points or bank them, this is entirely your choice. The player with the highest score is the overall winner and you must bow down to him/her.
The graphics in Raving Rabbids are of a very high standard; even though some of the game is performed in 2D the graphics are still nice and entertaining. Some of the games are tracked by body movements where your full body will appear on the screen in 3D which is pretty cool; you will also start to see some crazy little rabbids start to walk around your own front room.
The sound in Raving Rabbids is the usual sound you will hear from previous releases, screaming and laughing which they all seem to do a lot of .( I guess English is not there preferred language) Music in the game is somewhat boring and dull but still it does not affect the game in any way. You’re probably having too much fun to notice.
The overall opinion of the game will all depend on whether you are a party type person or a loner, as most of the fun is played in multiplayer. Single player mode can be a bit dull after a while and the game would do much better if Ubisoft had developed a story line like they had done in the Rabbid series for the Wii. Some of the games have been taken out of previous Wii releases but they have all been tweaked the fit in with the Kinect remote sensor just fine. The controls are pretty straight forward for even a newbie to join in as when you are told to jump obviously you jump simple as.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
