Who would have thought that Ubisoft’s crazy creations would have become such a mainstay of the videogaming spectrum with the release of Rayman’s Raving Rabbids years ago, but we’re definitely glad that the outrageous Rabbids have hung around to provide us all with tons of mischievous and hilarious gaming action!

Those rascally Rabbid creatures are back in Raving Rabbids: Alive and Kicking for Xbox 360 and Kinect, and not only are there more of them this time around, but they’re even more devious… and social!

We haven’t decided if this is a good thing or not.

If you guessed that the secret to an explosion of the Rabbids population was the combination of a cow and radioactive goo… then you would be correct! The Rabbids are flooding San Francisco after a science experiment gone wrong (or very right?) and there are more than enough to go around – even enough for everyone to own as a pet in their living room!

The introduction to Raving Rabbids: Alive and Kicking concludes with a long camera zoom into an apartment building window, and you might be surprised to see you, your friend and your couch staring back at you from that window as Kinect works its magic (or ‘uses its camera to record you,’ if you want to get scientific). Best of all, you’ll see a ‘living breathing’ Rabbid right there in front of you, walking around the room and grumbling to itself (this is called ‘Augmented Reality,’ science folks).

Impressively, the Rabbid will navigate obstacles that Kinect picks up in your play space, so for example if you’ve got a couch, a chair and a coffee table around you, the Rabbid will intelligently walk around these pieces of furniture as it aimlessly wanders… still grumbling to itself. Using voice commands, you can even order the Rabbid to stand next-to you, but if it’s feeling a little stubborn, you can give it a few slaps by reaching down and waving your hand in its face – rack up that combo!

Amusingly, you can even give the Rabbid a good kick and it’ll go flying towards the screen and crash against your TV, but if all of this cruelty is making you uneasy, then don’t worry – the Rabbid has its own fun, too. Sometimes the Rabbid will hide away behind a couch and dart back and forth to escape your wrath. The Rabbid will even walk off-screen completely, leaving you to wonder where it has gone, only to be taunted by the playful critter’s infectious, wicked cackle.

“Rabbid, come here!” (So I can slap you…)

In this sandbox mode, you can also add special Interactive and Decorative accessories to inject a bit of extra fun into the living room. Care to make your Rabbid wear a football helmet, or squid? Want to throw a bomb or a cow into the mix and see how the Rabbid reacts? It’s all fair game in the My Raving Rabbid mode, which you can literally leave running for future, random encounters with your little virtual companion, and when it least expects it, you can take a photo with Kinect and upload it to Facebook to share your activities (and cruelty) with friends!

In order to afford the more exotic (and fun) living room accessories, however, you’ll need to earn TP (yes, Toilet Paper) Dollars in Alive & Kicking’s massive range of mini- and micro-games – better grab a few friends and get ready to move!

You’d be mistaken for thinking that Alive & Kicking is all about the sandbox mode, but there are nearly 40 inventive and super fun games to try out, each of which will have you and your friends moving, running, jumping, spinning, swaying, jamming, kicking and contorting your way to victory, all introduced beforehand by awesome, often hilarious 2D animations starring Rabbid ‘test subjects,’ effectively cluing you in to the upcoming challenge.

And the challenges are varied, too. There are standard question-type games where you need to correctly answer a brain teasing query in the shortest time, and movement-based activities, like moving your hands to clear up an X-ray, bobbing your head to ‘lick’ pie off of a Rabbid’s face or jumping up and down to deflate a hobby horse, but you’ll also need to get to grips with turning on the spot (to spin a jar top), holding poses as a body builder (to inflate his muscles, naturally), creating shadow puppet shapes and even rocking out on a virtual electric guitar, using nothing but thin air and Kinect to strum in a Guitar Hero-esque challenge.

You’ll also finally get the chance to headbutt a Rabbid and go for an ‘adventure’ through the intestines of one of these fine, furry friends! There are many more mini-games to play and try out and everyone will have a favourite, but the main problem we ran into with each one was their respective brevity. The load (and waiting times) for each game is not inconsiderable and when a game can only last a few seconds, it’s a little frustrating being kicked back to the menu or the next game in the list only to endure more waiting.

There are three game modes in Alive & Kicking to more easily work your way through the challenges, where up to sixteen people (split into teams) and a minimum of three players can all participate and rack up scores to win the day. Fun modes like Forfeit (lose a round and perform a silly action suggested by the game), The Kitty (cash in earned TP Dollars to multiply your score) and Carrot Juice (spin a wheel to randomly select games and players) are included, but there are a few options for quick play, too, if you just want to dive in and have some fun.

In Quick Play, you can get used to the mini-games on your own, versus a friend or in teams of players, and if you want to simply choose which mini-game you want to try, you can continue to select challenges from the huge list, or you can work your way through all of the games randomly in a seemingly infinite playlist. That vicious cycle of ‘load, wait, play – repeat’ is persistent, however, and the inability to create your own playlist of favourite games is a large oversight.

We also had quite a few problems navigating the menus in Alive & Kicking as the game uses the ‘swipe’ method of interaction (rather than the ‘button hover’ method) and there were times when it was simply impossible to move from one menu to the next to actually play the game. Very frustrating.

Raving Rabbids: Alive & Kicking is a party game for friends and family, through and through, and would be a poor singleplayer or solo game. The cute, mischievous humour and massive range of hilarious mini-games wrapped around the diversionary ‘My Raving Rabbid’ virtual pet sandbox mode adds up to a wonderful offering with some of the best examples of Kinect’s ‘controller-free’ gaming experience we’ve seen yet, but being a party game, the inability to create custom game playlists and the relentless load times can put a damper on the fun.

Raving Rabbids: Alive & Kicking is a sure-fire party starter for willing participants and a great way to spend time with your family if you’re looking for an interactive indoor activity.

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