When the Wii first launched, there was only one third-party game series that was worth purchasing: Rayman Raving Rabbids. Since then, the Rabbids dumped Rayman and are now gallivanting around in their own series of games, with Travel in Time being the latest. Unfortunately, it is also the worst of the series.
The barebones storyline in Travel in Time is as follows: the Rabbids have somehow turned a washing machine into a time machine, and, by traveling haphazardly through time, are responsible for a bunch of the crazy things in our past such as the Sphinx’s missing nose, the creation of fire, and Arthur pulling out Excalibur. This story serves one purpose, and one purpose only: to give you an excuse to play 20 minigames in all periods of history, from prehistory up until 2012 AD.
After the opening cutscene, which is funny and worthy of the series, you’ll begin playing in a museum in the year 2012. You then have to find your way, with little in the way of instructions, to the various areas the minigames are hidden in. It has a few hidden easter eggs throughout the museum that are fun to search for and work on at first, but it quickly becomes obvious that the museum is simply an overly extravagant menu, and one that gets in the way of the fun, rather than enhancing it.
The minigames have always been the highlight of the Raving Rabbids games, and the Rabbids are just as crazy as ever. Unfortunately, the minigames just don’t have the same charm this time. There are 5 different types of minigames, each in their own hall of the museum, not counting the dancing and Rock Band-style games. There’s the bouncearium, which includes a number of side-scrolling minigames, the shootarium, which involves a number of shooting minigames, the flyarium, which has flying minigames, the runarium, which has a bunch of racing minigames, and the hookarium, which has a few motion plus minigames. None of them, though, bring the fun and craziness that they have in past installments of the series. Sure, the cutscenes are funny and appropriately off-the-wall, but if the games aren’t fun, there’s just no way to salvage the title.
The graphics and sound are as good as any other Rabbids game, but a minigame collection lives or dies on its minigames, and unfortunately, this one dies on them.
If you’re interested in a minigame collection with a crazy and somewhat demented sense of humor, go with the original Rayman Raving Rabbids or Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party, as they are vastly superior in almost every way.
Pros: Cutscenes are entertaining; Fun for a short while
Cons: Minigames aren’t that fun, even with 4 players; Museum gets in the way of the game, rather than enhancing it
