Review: Rabbids Alive & Kicking (Xbox 360)

By Wayne Webb

This game makes little sense to anyone – even if you’ve had the advantage of playing the previous incarnations the whole concept is ridiculous.

The plot is ostensibly about a swarm of rabid rabbits (Rabbids – get it?) that are over running the virtual town where you live. Through a series of silly mini games aimed at the puerile and childish among us (which is not always children of course) you fight your way through the tasks and hold back the tide of Rabbids. No, it doesn’t make a lot of sense and it is not supposed to, this is a nonsense game and celebrates the silly and ludicrousness nature of the premise in its game play.

The game itself is a collection of short, silly and physically demanding mini games that require you to all sorts of motion on the Kinect system. That’s the game’s saving grace in that your body gets a work out. The requirements are simple and the results equally so. The graphics are ill defined, cartoony and childish – but that’s not the point. Running on the spot and flailing your arms wildly to defend your position or swim against the tide or even ride a pretend horse is all great for the heart rate and fun for kids.

The camera detection works well despite the limited graphics, manages to pull off some visual niceties likes zooming in on a hi-rise building, picking a window and flying into a picture of the room your Kinect can see. This is a nice touch and the Kinect seemed to have little difficulty detecting me and my children and our various movements. Add in a bunch of varying games modes and more mini variations than you can chuck a stick at and you have a halfway decent game that is deceptively low tech in its design.

The main problem is that with so many little contests broken into short and repetitive motions, the games seem to repeat themselves a lot and it can get boring and less than challenging after a short period. The kids loved it a lot, but I would often leave them to play and wonder when I’d get the control back to play something else.

Pros: good cardio vascular workout, top-end camera detection, sense of humour, different game modes
Cons: Repetitive and shallow, for children mainly.

3.5 Shacks out of 5