Raving Rabbids

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Raving Rabbids is a video game series published by Ubisoft Entertainment. It was originally a spinoff minigame-centric series based on Rayman, but its popularity quickly escalated it to surpass that of Rayman himself. It later became its own standalone franchise starting with Rabbids Go Home.

The first game in the series is entitled Rayman Raving Rabbids. In this first installment, the limbless hero Rayman was captured by the Rabbids and forced to participate in various absurd mini-games in a gladiator-style arena to entertain the moronic bunny masses. As you progress through the game, Rayman uses the plungers he receives as rewards for completing minigames (It Makes Sense in Context. Wait, on second thought… no, it doesn't make sense at all!) to build a makeshift ladder and escape through a high window. Even though he escapes, the game still has a rather silly Downer Ending, as Rayman realizes afterwords that he forgot to rescue the other creatures imprisoned by the Rabbids. And then he got stuck in a hole.

The second game, Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, is set with the Rabbids launching a full-scale invasion on Earth. Rayman infiltrates the operation by dressing up as a Rabbid and following them to Earth in order to stop their plans of taking over the foreign planet. The game is more based around party-style multi-player gameplay, and beyond the opening introduction the plot disappears, even going so far to not include an ending sequence or automatic "end-of-game" credits roll.

Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party is the third game in the series. In this game, Rayman is for the first time only present in the cutscenes and is not a playable character, further pushing the Rabbids series away from its roots. The game begins with Rayman running away from a mob of Rabbids and hiding in a nearby house. Lightning strikes the Rabbids outside, mysteriously trapping them inside of the TV of the house Rayman takes refuge in. The TV remains constantly powered up and works even if it is unplugged, and the cutscenes of the game consist of Rayman attempting to destroy or get rid of the TV. The gameplay itself is set inside the television as the Rabbids participate in various minigames themed after the different TV channels and programs. The further the game progresses, the more frustrated Rayman becomes by the constant noise and distraction of the TV and attempts to get rid of it in several different ways, causing gradual damage to the television and the screen to crack further and further. By the end, Rayman becomes angry enough to take off his shoe(and his foot, incidentally) and throw it at the TV, which finally breaks, releasing the Rabbids inside and causing the chase from the beginning of the game to start all over again.

The fourth installment of the series is entitled Rabbids Go Home and deviates greatly from the previous titles by being an item-collecting platformer instead of a minigame collection, and it is the first time the player teams up with the Rabbids. In this game, the Rabbids are living in a junkyard and become nostalgic for home. Since they're stupid and forgetful, they don't know where their home is -- but then decide that (1) their home is the Moon, and (2) they need to build a pile of junk so they can climb to it. To get stuff for their pile, they raid a nearby human city, stealing everything they can and putting it into a shopping cart. The humans, who naturally don't take very kindly to this, form an organization known as the 'Verminators' to exterminate the Rabbids and get back all the stuff they've stolen. The successful ending of the game shows the Rabbids making their pile big enough to indeed seemingly reach the moon, but right as they're discovering that it isn't really in the sky, the Verminators bomb their huge pile. The pile of stuff goes flying into space, Rabbids included, and the Rabbids reach their 'home' in orbit around the moon. Needless to say, Rayman doesn't appear in this story at all.

The latest game in the series is Raving Rabbids Travel In Time, and is a return to the mini-game collection of the earlier titles. This game does not include Rayman, and since another game entitled Rayman Origins has been announced, it is confirmed that Rabbids and Rayman are now two separate series.

Aardman Animations (yes, THAT Aardman) is developing a series of animated shorts and a TV pilot based on the franchise. Nickelodeon picked the show up and will start airing it in the 2013 season.

For tropes in the non-mini-game title Rabbids Go Home, click here.

Tropes used in Raving Rabbids include:
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