

It's not much of a setup, and the rabbids don't get nearly enough screen time here. These rabbids are out to take over the world for some reason, and you have to stop them by traveling through a series of stages, collecting trophies and finding hidden exits as you go. They're rabbitlike creatures with a penchant for self-injuring antics, plungers, and high-pitched screams that are equal parts adorable and frightening. Like the console and GBA games before it, Raving Rabbids on the DS has Ubisoft's armless and legless hero up against an invasion of brain-dead rabbids. Rayman's back at his old platforming antics in Raving Rabbids for the DS-pity it's not a better adventure. Certainly, there is the boon of those creepy, cuddly rabbids to the game's credit, but even they aren't quite enough to pull Rayman's latest DS adventure out of mediocrity. It also must be said that Raving Rabbids for the DS is a rather middling platformer that relies more on repetition and backtracking than it does solid controls or an interesting adventure. This is a pure and simple side-scrolling platformer with a few touch-screen-oriented minigames sprinkled in-not a minigame collection, as was the case with all of the console versions of Raving Rabbids. Minigames in TV Party include the racing game “Monster Tractors,” several lightgun shoot-em-ups such as “Night of the Zombies,” “Star Worse,” and “Rabzilla,” the burger-cooking-and-walrus-feeding-sim “Flippin’ Burgers,” the coin-collecting platformer “Mega Balls,” and a few rhythm games that are similar to Guitar Hero, among other games.Rayman Raving Rabbids for the Nintendo DS has a lot more in common with the Game Boy Advance version of Raving Rabbids than any of its console counterparts. In the game’s mode, with just one player, the player must compete and win the many minigames to unlock new ones. During each of these minigames, the player can be interrupted by an advertisement microgame in the style of WarioWare. The game’s multiplayer mode consists of a series of randomly picked minigames resembling television shows or movies. TV Party is a compilation of different party-based minigames differentiated by their television-based theme, use of 2D artwork, and compatibility with the Wii Balance Board for specific minigames.

Rayman Raving Rabbids follows in the footsteps of the first two Rabbids video games in a significant way.
