Rabbids Go Home – WII – Review

The spaced-out, whacked-out, and
generally insane Rabbids are back again on the Wii but this time in a different
type of setting. Instead of another collection of mind-numbing mini-games,
Rabbids Go Home is an actual game. Now it’s hard to pigeonhole Go Home into just
one gameplay genre. Instead Rabbids Go Home takes several prominent gameplay
elements and shoves them into a blender to make its own frenzied concoction.

The premise of Go Home is simple
enough that it’s exactly what you think the Rabbids would want to do. They want
to go to the moon. Yep the moon. Not by a rocket, nope, they want to scrape
together the biggest pile of junk that can reach the moon. It seems that by
hanging out in the junkyard that the Rabbids honestly believe they can reach the
moon by climbing a pile of junk.

The gameplay almost immediately
reminded me of Katamari Damacy since you’re running around collecting as much
junk as you can. You control two Rabbids: one who’s pushing a shopping cart
while the other is inside the shopping cart. Items that you can collect will
have a circle around them as they are scattered and hidden across various parts
of each stage. The items you can collect could be anything you see, such as
dogs, caution cones or even the clothes from the humans running around.
Unfortunately the items you collect will disappear from the screen after a while
so you don’t get the satisfying image of a shopping cart controlled by two crazy
rabbits with hundreds of items. The items remain in your inventory and you can
drop them for storage at certain spots on the stages.

Part of the game is played out in a
semi-open world-type of environment. This is the city portion of the game where
you can run around collecting as many items as you want. But there are key
stages that you need to play through that can be accessed via the main city. The
city will have markers located on the map that will lead you to the next
entrance for the next stage. But again, you’re free to run around and collect as
many items as you want on the city map before you move to the next stage.

Even though you’re collecting items
in Go Home there are still additional elements to the gameplay that might
surprise you. As you’re running around and picking up items, the game will start
to feel like a racing game. Then the game will slowly throw some platforming
elements in your direction. Then later on the game will change things up again
by introducing some puzzle elements. All the while the game will still keep you
running around frantically picking up as many items as you can find. Yet then
the next stage will change things up again by getting you out of the shopping
cart and on to a jet engine as you fly around sucking up items in your turbine.
The game will repeat some of these elements from time to time but you never know
what type of twist could be coming up on the next stage.

As you keep progressing in the game
the skills of your Rabbids will slowly change as well. You’ll soon have your
shopping cart ramming through loads of boxes, skimming over water or performing
moves usually associated with a skateboard. These news skills will also help you
find new areas in the city that were previously locked. You can also replay
earlier stages if you want to see if you can find different areas previously
unavailable. All of these upgrades help to keep you guessing as to what the game
will throw at you next.

Just as in the previous Rabbids
game, comedy is the really the key focus point of Go Home. I don’t see how
anyone can’t laugh at loud at some of the moments in this game. How can you not
laugh at picking up a cow or jet engine and trying to flush it down a toilet?
The voice acting does a tremendous job of keeping the laughs going as well with
some excellent one liners coming out of everywhere. Finally the music adds to
the humor simply because of the ridiculous brass band the Rabbids have put
together. The item collection points in the game I mentioned earlier? It’s the
tuba player. You get to shove all the smaller items you collect down the tuba.

While this isn’t the typical Rabbids
game we’ve come to expect over the last few years that doesn’t mean Go Home is a
disappointment. Instead Go Home feels like a breath of fresh air for the Rabbids
franchise. All the silliness you expect remains intact but the gameplay finally
grows up. Instead of mindless mini-games we get a solid single-player game
composed of multiple gameplay elements. If you’re looking for something unique
for the Wii then you shouldn’t miss out on Rabbids Go Home. You’ll be hard
pressed to find a game this funny with so many different gameplay elements all
rolled into one.

Gameplay: 8.0
The core gameplay is all about item collecting. Even with the changes from stage
to stage in how you’re playing the game you’re still collecting items. But don’t
get me wrong I was pleasantly surprised with how many ways the game changed
things up.

Graphics: 7.0
While the art style will remind you of a cartoon there wasn’t a ton of detail to
make you swoon about the visuals. There were some elements of screen tearing
that I noticed from time to time.

Sound: 8.5
I loved the music in the game. You get a nice assortment of music from reggae,
oldies to big band music to keep you humming along. The voice acting in the game
was tremendous with some hilarious one-liners.

Concept: 8.5
Kudos to Ubisoft for trying to do something different with the Rabbids
franchise. Go Home keeps you guessing as to what’s going to come next in
gameplay and even comedy. You’ll unlock plenty of items that you can use to
customize the look of your Rabbid as well.

Multiplayer: 7.8
The multiplayer experience is similar to the Super Mario Galaxy setup where the
second player can “play” by using another Wii-mote to pick up items on the
stage. However the second player can also launch a Rabbid at the
screen to activate certain items in the game or hit humans. There is a WiFi
mode that allows you to compete against other players around the world in a
competition to have the most tricked-out Rabbid. You’ll install a Rabbid Channel
and each week there will be a contest with a theme that you can compete in to
deck out your Rabbid in.

Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Nothing too hard or challenging in the beginning of the game. However, later
stages might require more precious movements than younger players might not be
able to handle.

Overall: 8.0
Rabbids Go Home is a solid addition to almost everyone’s Wii library. The humor
and ever changing gameplay provides a rip-roaring experience that you’ll be hard
pressed to find in another game. Remember games are supposed to be fun and
Rabbids Go Home is a fun-filled experience that shouldn’t be missed regardless
of the score.