Impressions- Raving Rabbids: Alive & Kicking

The Rabbids have returned, and where there are Rabbids, hilarity is sure to follow.  This time, they bring their weird faces and wacky shenanigans to the Kinect in the upcoming title Raving Rabbids: Alive & Kicking.  If you have not had the Rabbids experience, the perfect time has presented itself.  After checking out the 3 mini games included in the demo, it seems that I will have another party game to add to my shelf.

First, I played the Guitar Hero-style game.  The Kinect utilizes its camera to provide a video feed of you!  A guitar appears in your hands on screen and music begins.  You move your hand up and down like you would on the frets of a real guitar to match colored bars that fall from the top of the screen.  When the bar crosses the guitar, you use your other hand to make a strumming motion.  The more notes you hit in a row, the higher your combo count and the more Rabbids will attend your jam session.  Music will be played, Rabbids will dance, and you will look completely ridiculous.  At the end, your points are added up (based on your final score and combo) and you are rewarded accordingly with pink toilet-paper- looking money.  The money actually wasn’t explained in the demo nor was there a shop where I could spend my hard-earned cash, but I am sure one will be implemented in the final cut of the game.

I then moved on to a little game called Whack-A-Rabbid.  Again, a video feed of me in my room was displayed and little holes started being cut in my floor (on-screen, of course).  Rabbids would pop up through these holes and I was instructed to jump on them.  At first, this seemed slightly morbid to me.  I was stomping on living creatures popping up from my carpet.  Despite this strange approach, it made me move and I was quickly captivated.  They popped up, I jumped, they squished, I cheered, and points were given.  Once the round finished, the same points-system as earlier took affect and I earned more toilet-paper money.  I then moved onto the final game.

This was a sort of shadow-puppet game where I used my whole body.  The Rabbids would try to sneak up on me (you are in the shower in this game) and I had to assume the shape of what the Rabbids were afraid of to scare them off.  This was relatively easy, I found myself contorting into blob-like shapes in order to fill a lot of the outlines given.  This mini-game was timed; when the time ran out, scores and money were given!  I found this game to be rather short and a bit dry (which is funny because I was supposed to be in a shower) – if, for example, it required more than just filling in a simple shape, I’m sure it would be more fun.

Overall though, I had a good time with the demo.  It is clearly meant to be played in a family or party setting where you can all laugh at each other’s goofiness.  The Whack-A-Rabbid was by far the most fun.  I feel like I could play it over and over, provided I clear a little more room on my floor to jump around.  The Guitar Hero-esque game has a lot of potential as long as it has an expanded song list (only one song was shown in the demo).  I say pick it up and try it out for the holidays.  You typically can never go wrong with the Rabbids, and Raving Rabbids: Alive & Kicking is sure to be a hit with families everywhere!