Rayman Raving Rabbids: TV Party

A Christmas gift from 2008, Rayman Raving Rabbids: TV Party was a game I knew would be short, but that didn't mean I was looking forward to it. I've managed to play relatively few party/mini games in my life, and I really didn't have much fun with any of them (don't get me started on the Mario Party series). But I was wrong: TV Party was decently fun and an enjoyable way to spend my last two nights. The campaign was never frustrating and was varied enough that things stayed interesting throughout. The plot is simple: Rayman, being chased by the insufferable rabbids, takes shelter in an abandoned cabin in the woods. When the rabbids are struck by lightning, they somehow end up on Rayman's television, and for some reason Rayman decides to stick around for a week getting constantly annoyed by their charades. The mini-games were all based on stuff you'd find on tv- snowboarding, music, b-movies, dancing, gardening, gameshows, even a Jackass parody. To move onto the next level you usually needed 10,000 points, and around 80% of the mini-games could be beaten on the first try. A few games took some learning, but once the basics were figured out I could usually move on quickly. I was interested in submitting your score for some global rankings after some of the games, and was surprised to find out that most of mine ranked me in the 50th-100th range! Granted, the only people ranked are the ones who have their Wii connected to the internet and clicked the "submit score" box, but it's still pretty cool. One game, a Star Wars parody, took me a few tries to pass, but when I finally got the hang of it and passed, I ended up with the 19th best score in the world. Awesome! While I may be done with the game, a part of me wants to go back and spend an hour or two to see if I can get a number one score. It's not that much of an accomplishment, but it would be something to hang my hat on. So how about that- a game I originally didn't want to play is likely to be one of the first I return to once all are beaten. Not bad, TV Party, not bad at all.