He and his friends are
kept on an extremely tight leash by his creators. He’s
super-serious, incredibly heroic and just gets stuff done. So, what
happens when he gets to hang out with some of the most fun loving
and seriously anarchic creatures ever created?
Umm, he still
has a pole inserted right up his bottom.
It’s impressive that
Nintendo let their family have a playdate with Ubisoft’s Rabbids –
and even more impressive that they let them get away with what
they’ve come up with.
Due to the Rabbids haphazardly
commandeering a mixinator kind of doobrie, they’ve landed in the
midst of the Mushroom Kingdom via a massive warp. As well as all
manner of typically whacked-out Rabbids, Nintendo’s Fantastic Four
of Mario, Luigi, Peach and Yoshi also have floppy-eared variants to
deal with. Mercifully these characters are unencumbered by rules –
and they absolutely revel in it.
As for the game? It’s a
turn-based strategy battle, just with cute characters. Defeat bad
Rabbids, get to the other side, escort a toad – varied missions and
a bunch of gradually unlocked power-ups make for some play
variation. There are collectibles aplenty, from weapon-bulging
treasure chests to coins and even taking photos of Rabbids in
compromising positions.
But ever since hearing of the game
we’ve been unable to comprehend why you’d take two of the most
kid-loved franchises in history and jam them together in an outing that
just isn’t for children. It seems an almost wilfully peculiar
decision. We type this with the anguished cries of our
six-year-old nephew – who, upon seeing the home screen icon, couldn’t wait to play
- still ringing in our ears after he boldly soldiered on through the first
handful of levels unaided, before hitting a wall of repeated death.
Don’t get us wrong, while it’s no kids game, M+RKB is a
great gift for older strategy-loving types, and Ubisoft have really
nailed things visually and sonically. When it comes to creating
Nintendo-equivalent look and feel you might even say that they’ve
really raised the BWAH!
