Rabbids Go Home



This is a strange game.

A very, very, very strange game.

Rabbids Go Home is the latest game from the Ubisoft Montpiller studio, home of game design guru Michel Ancel. This game features the Rabbids of Rayman fame -- specifically, more fame than Rayman -- but with Ubisoft having heard the complaints over the Rabbids' spotlight stealing, this isn't a Rayman game; Rayman himself is completely absent. It forgoes the semblance of Rayman's weird, dreamlike homeland and instead takes place in something resembling the "real" world (for certain values of "real").

The Rabbids live in a junkyard, where they spend their days "DAAAAAAH!"-ing and, um, playing oompah music. But they get it into their heads one day to "go home!" And where is their home? Well, since they're patently ridiculous, it must be the moon! (Which has some interesting implications from a mythological standpoint, but that could be accidental.) But the Rabbids aren't generally so good at flying spaceships. So, instead, they decide to reach the moon by... building a giant pile of stuff. Which will then allow them to jump off and land on the moon. It makes sense to them, at least. But where will they get all this stuff? Well, the humans sure have a lot of stuff. And their city is right nearby! Hmmmmm...

The game plays out like a... Like a... like... hmm. Well, that's actually a good question. Most media outlets seem to be going for some combination of Platformer, Racing Game, and Adventure Game, so we'll go with that, too. Oh, and if it can be considered a genre, Katamari Damacy. You control two Rabbids in a shopping cart. You have to collect stuff. And break things. And avoid collect dogs. And literally scare the pants off humans. And collect their pants. And infiltrate hospitals to collect patients. And collect stuff. ...Did we mention this game was weird?

This game contains examples of:


 * Amusing Injuries: Shaking the Rabbids up "In Ze Wii Remote". Eventually their facial features and head will start to become deformed. They always snap right back to their previous state after letting you stare at their makeover for a few seconds.
 * Batman Can Breathe in Space:
 * Big Brother Is Watching: "Smile and be happy! You're on camera. We're watching over you."
 * Blackout Basement: The mission "Atomic Rabbid Blast."
 * Comedic Sociopathy: DAAAAAAAAH!
 * Even the automated voice can fall under this. On the construction site, she seems to be encouraging workers to protect their protective equipment over their own lives.
 * Critical Annoyance: When you're down to one lightbulb, the icon flashes and you hear a not-so-annoying tone every two seconds, which fades away in abou a minute.
 * Did I Mention It's Christmas?: Late November/early December, from the looks of the security cam dates.
 * There is even a Christmas level where the Rabids steal a Christmas Tree from an office building.
 * Epic Fail: Referenced by name in one of the Rabbids' attempts to go to the moon in an ad: the propeller drills one down instead of into the air.
 * It's mentioned again in an ad where a catapult slams the Rabbid in it into the ground, then lashes backwards and knocks one off in the other direction.
 * Everythings Better With Bunnies: For certain values of "better."
 * Fridge Horror: All those looted dogs and patients are probably screaming in that giant pile of stuff...
 * The first item you get is some sort of veichle with a woman trapped inside. That woman is at the very bottom of the pile, possibly buried underneath all of that stuff.
 * It's possible that the sentient creatures are actually escaping the pile the second the rabbids look away. That might be how Bernie manages to show up in the hospital three times. Despite being kidnapped by the rabbids. Three times.
 * Gas Mask Mooks: The Verminators wear gas masks and hazmat suits. This isn't because Rabbids are toxic, but because the Verminators (like most humans in the game by the looks of it) are germophobic and obsessive compulsive.
 * Even some of the civillians wear gas masks after a while.
 * Genre Busting: Is it a platformer, a racing game, an adventure game, or a collectathon? Yes.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: But only in America. In Europe, the radar earned the game a PEGI 12 rating... after it was released with a lower one. Whether this is Values Dissonance at work or the ESRB having a brain fart is a mystery.
 * One human pleads, "Hey, cut it out! My wife is almost pregnant!" ...*Record Needle Scratch* Wait, almost?
 * You can find a doll that promises to be your BFF in exchange for money. When you look closely at the doll though, it's an inflatable woman in her underwear.
 * One NPC even says "I'm getting pissed off!" How did this game get past the ESRB?
 * That happens at least twice. "Stop pissing off my dog!" seems to happen quite a bit.
 * Grievous Harm With a Body: One of your weapons is a Rabbid that you fire from your Wii Remote.
 * I Have a Family: Several of the humans plead this when the Rabbids start chasing them.
 * Inexplicably Identical Individuals: All the Santa Joes of the world. Or maybe it's just one guy showing up in a ton of different areas, and he just has a lot of different Santa suits. Hard to say.
 * Jive Turkey: The "teenager" type NPC kids are this, as are the ladies with Funny Afros
 * Made of Iron: The Rabbids can endure incredible amounts of punishment, most likely because they're too crazed and stupid to know what actual pain is.
 * Make Me Wanna Shout: The Rabbids can yell at humans and scare them out of their clothes (which can then be collected).
 * Missing Secret: There is only one Rabbid figurine that isn't unlocked via code. How it's unlocked remains a mystery. Getting Hundred Percent Completion doesn't even unlock it.
 * Moon Rabbit: Can a trope be accidentally invoked? Because it may have just been here. On the other hand, if it is accidental, it'll make for quite the Lucky Translation in the Japanese version.
 * Naked People Are Funny: They never get entirely naked, since this is a family game, but you can strip most humans down to little more than their undies.
 * Painting the Fourth Wall: When you design a Rabbid, they get "sucked into your Wii Remote," which includes a depiction of the inside of a Wii Remote. Which reacts to the real life buttons presses and waggling. Shake it around and watch the Rabbid in it react!
 * Fridge Logic: There's a wire (inside the Wii remote) that you can interact with on the screen. (Using the Wii remote.) WHAT.
 * Product Placement: All over the place you can find 'Respect the Pouch' billboards. Capri-Sun is even a object you can take, and you can even dress up your Rabbids in two Capri-Sun-themed outfits!
 * There's also password-unlocked Best Buy and Geek Squad Rabbids, as well as Rabbids from other Ubisoft games.
 * Rewarding Vandalism: Breaking things often yields items to collect. Breaking muzak speakers specifically rewards you with five items and a catchy, chaotic polka song for a few seconds.
 * Shout Out: The level that takes place in an atomic testing facility has a picture of Gordon Freeman on the wall.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: The humans are, both literally and figuratively, squares. When the humans are still "in control" of an area, so to speak, you hear the soothing Muzak that's being piped in over their speakers. While the Rabbids are causing mayhem. (When the Rabbids really take over, frantic oompah music takes over, and becomes more fitting.)
 * The track for the last level, "King of the Pile!", is even more dissonant. It starts out with nothing but silence in the junkyard, then goes into the typical Verminator songs for a fight, then afterwards goes into a very melancholy Spanish song that plays all throughout the level as the silliness is still there in tone... But then it goes back to the oompah music at the very end.
 * Super Prototype: One of the first real enemies in the game is just a guy in a padded suit who decided to take a stand. This eventually evolved into the Verminators, who are only slightly more effective.
 * Surprise Santa Encounter: One of the recurring humans is a guy in a Santa suit. He drops hamburgers when you scare him. No, we don't get it either.
 * "Hey, HEY my name is JOE. I kid you not!"
 * There's tons of them and they're ALL Joe.
 * Too Kinky to Torture: Replace "Kinky" with "Dumb," and there's the Rabbids for you. You can smack them silly, blow up their facial features, feed them exploding candy, and even repeatedly electrocute them, and they just laugh and grin like maniacs.
 * Toy Time: The early "Mall" level has a "toy store" area with this theme.
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential: The game actually invites you to be as abusive to the Rabbids as possible when you've got them in the Wiimote design mode. However, the Rabbids like it.
 * Hell, actual gameplay itself is like this. You go around causing tons of damage, you steal people's dogs from them, one of the rare items is a baby in a stroller which you can steal, and there are a couple Easter Eggs in the game where you can SCARE PEOPLE SO THEY FALL DOWN AN OPEN ELEVATOR SHAFT.
 * Virtual Paper Doll: You can customize the three Rabbids you use to your liking, with accessories, paint, and more.
 * What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made On Drugs?
 * Widget Series