Lunar Lapines- Rabbids Go Home Review

Many gamers have described the sporadic nightmare induced by a late-night gaming session. Although, I’ve typically been immune to the condition, one recent evening’s nocturnal hours were filled with Ubisoft’s rabbids. It’s not that the long eared creatures were frightening, I probably just couldn’t wrap my head around Rabbids Go Home’s post-modern mixing of saccharine cuteness, consumerist caveats, and John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads”. While many titles have tried for the overtly absurd, few have approached the level of weirdness displayed by the rabbids.

With an amalgam as delightful convoluted as this, one might think the game’s mechanics would be woefully impenetrable. But like the guillotine master once said, it’s all in the execution. Rabbids Go Home’s gameplay is sublimely simple- push a shopping cart around, and collect the highlighted items which are littered across urban environments. The title offers enough polish and silliness to maintain a player’s interest through its eight hour playtime, although some might bemoan the title’s general lack of diversity.

Rabbid’s Go Home plotline is just as brilliantly nonsensical as the rest of the game. Tired of the cacophony of their suburban outpost, the energetic creatures decide that the moon would offer a more tranquil environment. Without a space shuttle at their disposal, the rabbids resolve to make an intragalactic ladder build from the useless ‘junk’ humans use every day. The rabbids must believe people don’t need, or simply don’t care about items like clothes, television antennas, and chihuahuas.

Players guide the game’s two protagonists around each environment using the nunchuck’s analog stick, while shaking the Wiimote initiates an enemy-paralyzing scream. The shriek attack is loot humans, pacify dogs, and well as shake a suspicious bush down for hidden loot. Infrequently, players will use the Wiimote’s pointing ability to choose a location to hurl one of the rabbids, which is used to open door and passageways in some of the stages. Enemies are surprisingly few, but when a robotic custodian appears, players are tasked with solving some light puzzling elements.

Graphically, Rabbids Go Home is an impressive title, with a host of impressive visual effects that range from heat distortion, water reflections, to the sporadic particle effect. Each of the game’s forty missions take place over fifteen environments- from hospitals, rooftops, and shopping malls. Stages are unified by a distinctive architectural style that evokes a modern vibe, with wide open spaces for unimpeded havoc-wrecking. Each song of the title’s wonderfully diverse soundtrack gently fades in and out, adding to the game’s ambience, without obnoxiously averting attention away from the game’s action. Any game that seamlessly incorporates both Santana’s “Oye Como Va” and UB40’s “Kingstown Town” borders on aural brilliance.

While I thoroughly enjoyed Rabbid’s lunar journey, others may be discouraged with two aspects of the title. First, the game’s difficultly level is unwavering, and never rises above a modest level of challenge. Clearly, this was a progressive design decision which allows players of all skill levels to avoid frustration with the title. Secondly, gamers picking up the title accustomed to the diversity of play mechanics found in the Raving Rabbids mini-game compilations may have difficulty adjusting to Go Home’s homogeneity of tasks. Beyond collecting scrap items, players have the ability to modify the look of each rabbid in the game’s elaborate customization mode. Depending on the amount of material collected in each level, gamers are rewarded with tattoos, accessories, and rabbid torturing toys; additionally, the creatures can be drawn on with a surprisingly sophisticated painting feature.