Rayman Raving Rabbids (GBA)

Rayman Raving Rabbids is a platformer based on the console game of the same name, released in 2006 on Game Boy Advance. The gameplay and adventure are almost identical to those of the Game Boy Advance version of Rayman 3. It is the only game featuring the Rabbids in a universe traditional to the Rayman series.

Rayman Raving Rabbids (GBA)
File:107479-rayman-raving-rabbids-game-boy-advance-front-cover.jpg Now that's the true Rayman 4.
Genre(s): Platform Platform(s): Game Boy Advance Release Date: November 30, 2006 Developer(s): Visual Impact Production Publisher(s): Ubisoft Country: France Series: Rayman Predecessor: Rayman: Hoodlum Revenge

Plot

Rayman is taking a nap when suddenly some rabbits take him by surprise, lock him in a prison somewhere in the Dark World, and hide his hands there to deprive him of his powers. Now it's up to Rayman to find the different costumes and finally face the flagship of the crazy rabbits.

Why It's The True Rayman 4

1. First half, the graphics are really great and and even better than Rayman 3 and especially a huge improvement over the graphics from Hoodlum Revenge, as they are detailed, colorful and had great sprite work, it also look better than most 2006 DS game because of how great the graphics are.
   • The animation are very fluid and detailled for a Game Boy Advance game, not to mention that with the already amazing sprite work, it make it even better.
   • The stage designs also look amazing and take elements from the cancelled Rayman 4 (which will be talked about in the next pointers), they already looked amazing and they managed to make a great transition to 2D, they also are colorful.
2. Solid controls, Rayman is once again very responsive and the controls are very simple to learn, the jump control is once again excellent and the controls are once again incredibly tight where it will never feel unresponsive or clunky, thank to how well programmed the game is.
3. This is the closest we can get to an official Rayman 4 (well if you don't count the fan game Rayman Raving Rabbids: Reburrowed that is a recreation of the Rayman 4 prototype), due to some of the following reasons:
   • First off, the rabbids designs are closer than their early design and are way more villain than in the console versions and feel more like crazy rabbids than the console versions much like the original Rayman 4, while in the console versions they just kidnap Rayman to get entertainment.
   • The worlds are all taken from the prototype and had a close ressemblence to the original game.
   • There's the costumes that we're gping to be present in the original game until it was cancelled, and they are useful and accuratd to their original ability in the prototype.
   • Also, the game is a platformer instead of a party game, making it feel even more like a true Rayman 4.
4. The cutscenes art style is pretty nice and detailled for a 2006 GBA gameand somehow managed to be better than those of Rayman 3 because in that game, it was mostly pixelated images of the console versions but here it is fully draw for fitting on a GBA game.
5. The soundtrack is decent because of being catchy, though it is very flawed (see BQ#2).
6. Fun gameplay that is challenging but still fair and it had even more solid gameplay than even Rayman 3 for the GBA, because not only the controls somehow manage to be slighly better but also it had more things to it, such as costumes, those include:
   • Gangster: Has a very powerful jump, enabling Rayman to break or smash certain elements on the ground.
   • Punk: Can glue objects or enemies with the help of his chewing gum.
   • Grandmother: Drops carrots on the ground, which distract the Rabbids while they eat them.
   • Rocker: Capable of very powerful close attacks with his guitar.
   • Funky: Has a glowing fist, even stronger than Rayman's fully charged fist.
7. Good level design that is more focused on speed rather than being careful like in Rayman 3, which is mostly because the levels are shorter and that you sometime need to get fast reflexions to beat the enemies before they hit you, also the fact that the levels are shorter can be a good thing for some peoples even though it make the game incredibly short.
8. The story is much better than the console versions, since instead of being captured for the rabbids entertainment, here they just are evil rabbids that are way better and even had a very evil plan to stop Rayman, in fact it is mostly because they are based from their darker designs in the Rayman 4 prototype, and because of that and the mostly scary feel of the game, it is way darker than the console versions and is as dark as Rayman 2.
9. Awesome bosses, they might be a bit easy but they are still awesome because they feel epic due to not only their awesome theme but also for their paths being fairly challenging to learn, and for being even better than the previous Rayman games on the GBA.
10. There's way more gameplay variaty than in not only the console versions (which we're fairly varied and decent) but also Rayman 3, because there's the race levels and sometime, you had the shooting gallery where you need to shoot on a certain number of rabbids for being allowed to pass but howewer that phase is flawed.
11. The ending is better than in the console versions.

Bad Qualities

1. The game over is extremely disturbing, because of the music that play for not only the continue (which by the way feel like it come from a bad GBA game, which we will talk about in the next bad quality), but also the game over that is incredibly disturbing because of the music and how it look, in fact younger childrens might be scared of it.
   • Not to mention that because of how disturbing the music is, it might even make you get nightmare if you are easily disturbed, and the game over is way more disturbing than in the other games, in other words, it is probably the most disturbing thing that come from a Rayman game.
2. The soundtrack, while it is decent and had it's fair amount of awesome tunes such as the bosses theme, it is flawed because the majority of the tracks sound terribly quiet and some musics are downright generic.
   • Some of the tunes are awful and disturbing, one exemple being both the continue and game over screen that sound horrendous and could scare little kids, as stated before.
3. It can sometime being a very frustrating game because of some levels being poorly designed or at least confusing because there's backtraking due to a required number of cages to be destroyed, and if you don't get the required number, you cannot fight the boss of the world, which is annoying and is way worse than these kind of things in Rayman 3.
4. The shooting gallery is poor because of the fact that you had very little vision on where the rabbids are, the time given is way too short and sometime they get away too quickly, resulting it being stupidly difficult.

Reception

Rayman Raving Rabbids received mixed reviews by critics who feel that it is a rehash of Rayman 3, and criticized it for being too short, howewer it received mixed to positive reviews by gamers who prefer it from the console and DS version, they praised the fact that the game feel like an actual Rayman 4, and praised the gameplay and graphics.

Trivia

• At the beginning of the game, Rayman loses his hands similarly to Rayman 3.
• The name of the Dream Forest in this game is very similar to that of the Dream Forest in the original Rayman game, but the two should not be confused.
• As the game is a later title in the Game Boy Advance library, it is the first game in the Rayman series for the handheld console to carry an in-game health and safety warning at the beginning of the game, after the language selection screen.
• The handheld version of Rayman Raving Rabbids is the only version to have recurring characters from the Rayman series, aside from the titular character.
• This version of the game is also the only version that keeps the Gangster outfit’s unique body shape, as seen in promotional material.
• This is the only version to have the Rabbids speak English, although it is unknown why this creative decision was made.
• The environments and costume abilities are adapted from a cancelled version of Rayman 4, developed by Phoenix Interactive.
• This is the only version of the game that gives the Rabbids a reasoning for threatening peace in their home.
• The character Pink, despite not appearing throughout most of the game, does take an appearance unique from his console counterpart, bearing a short tempered attitude and an eyepatch. The differing appearance is nothing out of the ordinary for Pink’s character, as his appearance changed drastically throughout the development of the Ray Raving Rabbids as a whole, and can be witnessed through the Rayman 4 prototype, as well as various promotional material.

Videos

<youtube width="320" height="180">https://youtu.be/TKMz34Sl09k?si=roEa8q-QUz4jyED0</youtube> <youtube width="320" height="180">https://youtu.be/IdEQMjSrBuk?si=NF8vbsXLzi0KHbhU</youtube> <youtube width="320" height="180">https://youtu.be/1lACVpDezEs?si=q_-aAJaZl4HFroBj</youtube> <youtube width="320" height="180">https://youtu.be/Nf9R3HeZfik?si=iAMv_y_R_DZnwjER</youtube> <youtube width="320" height="180">https://youtu.be/aCcR6j0wqMg?si=d9DhCORwU-LmTNGi</youtube> <youtube width="320" height="180">https://youtu.be/3vm31L6iM8c?si=dQrFDAyycTjGsriF</youtube>

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