Who would have thought that a Rayman title could be pulled off with out Rayman taking a huge part within the game, well Ubisoft have done and their latest Rayman title ‘Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party’ for the Nintendo DS does just this with little inclusion of Rayman himself. However have Ubisoft managed to pull it off successfully as being a title containing primary minigames there are already enough titles available on the DS that provide the same offering, but do they have the humour the Rabbids provide?

The whole idea of this game’s theme is to have minigames based around TV shows however this just isn’t the case. When I first popped the title into my DS I was surprised to discover that the actual layout the minigames were in was very similar to the Mario Party style how you move a certain amount of moves and once everyone moves a minigame pops up, this however was a more basic style. When one first starts the game you control Rayman, but it is really a picture of his face you move, and your opponent is well a Raving Rabbid. Gamers will find they will be placed on a board made up of yellow and blue squares, you can move only on yellow with the Rabbid able to move on both. After you move your maximum of ‘4′ moves the Rabbid always moves 2 spaces and your objective is to get to the TV first, which you have to do several times, to win.

Minigames however play a very vital role in this game of get to the TV first as once both you and the Rabbid have moved you will be greeted with a minigame, that most will find very simple. Minigames all vary in what you are actual to do as one minigame sees you drawing thousands of circles while another sees you using a Rabbid on a slingshot. Each minigame does have a time limit you must beat by doing getting a certain amount of points and depending on how many you get that will affect how many spaces you move to get to the TV, the maximum of course is 4 which I always got. Now if the gamer finds themselves to be really unlucky and the Rabbid beats them to the TV many would think they lose but all that happens is the TV is relocated. After a while gamers will realise this isn’t a game you can actually lose with very simple minigames and a very basic Mario Party game board layout.

The stylus is used for all minigames and most of the time you will find yourself drawing constant circles or pointing at things, an example would be when you pop bubble wrap as much as you can within a time limit. One of the most enjoyable minigames gamers will probably find though would be the dancing one that has a Guitar Hero kind of style to it with a somewhat catchy song that suits the title.

What makes the Raving Rabbids titles so good would have to be the humour, and although very limited in this title compared to the Wii version, the short CGI cutscenes you do get to view, although they become repetitive after a while, are quite funny and visually nice. Other than that however the minigames aren’t that well polished containing graphics that are quite average for a DS game with nothing, other than the cutscenes, standing out.

The game surprisingly contains some covers of some great songs, such as ‘Another one bites the dust’ which are used for certain minigames but other than that menu songs or the sounds the Rabbids constantly make do become somewhat of an annoyance to hear after a while.

Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party on the Nintendo DS is no where near as good as the Wii version,  which some gamers will find. Containing very few minigames, with some repetitive, even the humor isn’t that strong within this title which is what has made the series what it is. The whole Mario Party board layout is also painful to play due to the fact that you can never move more than 4 spaces and techinically can’t lose also takes the challenge away. This is a game I can only recommend to those hardcore fans of Rabbids, or young children, and will only have the chance to play TV Party on the DS otherwise pick this game up on the Nintendo Wii.

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