At a certain point you get compelled to think why the developers would be constrained to put Rayman’s name on its Raving Rabbits titles. As with the other platforms, the Rayman Raving Rabbits 2 for the DS does not even feature the limbless frenchy guy, instead it’s the mentally deranged rabbits that take much of the screen space. If only they had the concern to provide lots of fun mini games, the gamers would have been raving too. It is fun to watch the rabbits twitch and go insane whacking each other with hammers, all the while screaming incomprehensibly at the top of their lungs, but the game on the whole feels flimsy.
There simply aren’t enough minigames and that’s like a huge demerit. Rayman Raving Rabbits 2 operates under the premises of the rabbits, having a roughshod across, Rayman’s world have come to Earth. This means that the mini games gets a regional window dressing, the single player adventure feels like a Carmen Sandiego adventure, you go trotting across the world in search of different rabbit-filled miniholes. While there are no real shortage of rabbits you always get the feeling that you could do with a little more of minigames.
Expect plenty of repetition as the minigames do not exactly vary from location to location. Also the fifth mini game in every location is a dumb four button smashing rhythm game complimented by dumber versions of goofy songs like “Funkytown” and “Smoke on the Water”. Anyway you don’t have to play the songs or anything, just tap the buttons to trigger the candy sound effect in a rhythmic fashion. The game is designed in such a way that you’ll need to play the minigames quite repeatedly in order to advance and also to unlock the weird extras. The repetition would not have been too evident if the minigames had been a bit deeper and more consistent .The game fully embraces the DS touch screen functionality, and the simple gameplay is sprinkled with some pretty funny gags. You’ll spit into another rabbit’s milk shake when he’s not looking; you’ll rapidly consume half a dozen red hot chilies and use the ensuing flames to propel yourself into air.
Unfortunately a lot of the mini-games just seem to involve scribbling really fast or simply matching images real quick. There are a few minigames that let you use the mic, which can be pretty fun if you can overlook the embarrassing and frustrating alternatives. After you beat the game in the adventure mode, you can revisit it in the score mode, which generally offers higher score requirements. The multiplayer, which can be played locally, includes single and multi-cart play. You can create a flurry of costume pieces by fixing and matching costume pieces. The bunnies look pretty good and the game’s mechanics does a good job of blending the 2D and 3D elements. The sounds are comprised of poorly recorded shrieks and squeals. Maybe the onslaught of minigames collections for the Wii last year has led to the reduced quality of the game. For those in serious need of a rabbit fix, Raving Rabbids 2 will feed the addiction as for the rest its better serves as a rental than something to add to your collection.
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