Black Panther

Remember that iconic scene near the waterfall in Black Panther? No, not the second more tragic scene but the first one as T’Challa battles M’Baku for the title of king. Odyssey has a slight reference to that – just head to the Gortyn Waterfall in Messara and you’ll find two men battling it out on a cliff overlooking a waterfall. A few spectators are even witnessing this, cheering jubilantly. You can even kick one of the combatants down the waterfall and decide the battle for them, just like in the movie! Well, almost.

Ubisoft are big on the Nintendo Switch– apparently they intend to support it with a lot of games, and they have certainly made no secret of the fact that they love the damn thing. And now, we might know what one of the games that they are working on is. It, uh, wasn’t what I expected, and I would wager no one else expected this either.

According to Let’s Play Video Games, Ubisoft have a Mario and Rabbids crossover RPG in development for the Nintendo Switch, titled Mario RPG: Invasion of the Rabbids. Nintendo intends to reveal the game on January 12 as a collaboration between them and Ubisoft (though Ubisoft are the ones who are actually developing the game), with the central idea that the Mushroom Kingdom is being invaded by the Rabbids.

The game will apparently be one of the big reveals on January 12, and will even be playable that day. It is being planned to be available on the day of the Switch’s launch itself. Maybe once we have all recovered from our initial reaction of confused blankness about this game, we can process this news a bit better.

The Rabbids are heading to the big screen as Ubisoft has announced its partnership with Sony Pictures to produce a feature film for the popular Rayman characters. Ubisoft Motion Pictures will be overseeing the project, while the development group “will actively participate in the film’s production.”

Ubisoft Motion Pictures executive director Jean-Julien Baronnet stated that, “This deal deepens our partnership with Sony Pictures and highlights our holistic approach to bringing Ubisoft’s brands to new audiences while still maintaining the brands’ creative integrity.”

Columbia Pictures production president Hannah Minghella meanwhile said that, “There is an infectious quality to the Rabbids. Their simple joy and absurd, anarchic behavior inadvertently causes you to look at the world afresh. There’s no end to the comedy and chaos they will cause when they invade our theatres.”

There’s no planned release date for the live-action/animated film so stay tuned for more details. But are you pumped for the Rabbids arriving on-screen? Let us know below.

Now, Ubisoft Motion Pictures has announced films for Watch_Dogs, Far Cry and the Rabbids. The three films will be packaged into a trio to be pitched for studios while directors and casts are recruited separately.

In a report by Variety, Ubisoft Motion Pictures CEO Jean-Julien Baronnet stated this approach was so that “no one can tell us you have to do the movie a certain way.” He also clarified that, “These are not adaptations. We will create a brand new story. Always.”

This of course doesn’t include the Rabbids interactive TV series/video game for Xbox One. Along with these three new announcements, Ubisoft Motion Pictures now has six films in production. Stay tuned for more details on directors and cast members.

In Rabbids: Alive & Kicking – not to be confused with the 90s children’s programme presented by Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston – you’re essentially the embodiment of myxomatosis in a Rabbid-infested world, thwarting the little blighters through a series of Kinect-addled minigames. I hear your sighs and I don’t blame you, another motion control title shrouded in the thin veil of plot, cementing together the whole sordid mess together like cheez wiz in Adam Richman’s arteries? But developed and published by Ubisoft, who’ve hardly put a foot wrong in recent times, can they deliver a fun Kinect experience?

Alive & Kicking is presented in a relatively sleek and polished fashion, the Kinect menu controls feel largely smooth and intuitive, as well party way capturing the vibrant nature of the Rabbid universe.

By and large there’s not a whole lot a look at except yourself bounding around your living room like a mad sod, save for the odd chuckling rabbid, but in a game which is meant to be about them, they feature little and never quite deliver the off-the-wall charm which typifies their appeal.

The bulk of A&K comes in the form of its countless mini-games, each has it’s own ‘unique’ gameplay mechanic, although I use unique in its loosest sense, explored through quick play and party modes. Some games are solo, some are multiplayer and some are just frankly not worth your time. The only real difference is that during party mode each player’s score is saved via an in-game profile and losing certain challenges can result in a forfeit ‘activity’ or punishment. The player is then voted on by his compatriots, a hideous marriage of Rabbids and prime-time Saturday night television.

Each mini-game is served up with a brief introduction, usually in the form of a rabbid or 10 being a little wild, before presenting you with an often tenuously-related playable segment. Too often are these fleeting, with some games lasting mere seconds before your own blind incompetence thwarts you, with nary an explanation given for your failure. Some games don’t even properly inform you what the goal is, the flaming marshmallow pong-with-one-bat challenge led be to believe I needed to do the polar opposite of what was actually required. The sensitivity was so skewed that even when fully aware of what I needed to do, the game thought otherwise and wildly exaggerated my movement in such a way it made this mode virtually unplayable.

Some of the games are quite fun, in part, notably the ones that require the most prancing about. In one game, rabbids are dropping bombs onto your front room floor, your sole aim is to try and avoid them, which can create some humorous moments, if ultimately knackering. Another requires participants to copy a variety of bizarre poses, accuracy is rewarded by appropriate the limbs of an inflatable bodybuilder mannequin being inflated and occasionally, in these moments, we see a slither of what rabbids are supposed to be about.

At the core of it, A&K lacking any real cohesion to bind it all together and is simply too directionless and disjointed to ever make a real claim for greatness. A whole host of dull segments intersected with others that simply didn’t work doomed this game from day one, but never comes close to capturing the essence of the rabbids or the world in which they inhabit. Rabbids: Alive & Kicking is a prime, tip-top example of the fundamental issue with bitty, disjointed Kinect games of this nature. All they end up doing is to make the player yearn for Wishy Washy, a £10 webcam and some rather basic effects; the basic elements of titles like EyeToy Play served for a far more enjoyable experience than A&K. The rabbids serve as yet another hollow vehicle for a largely bland affair of fleeting fun which may briefly amuse, but will ultimately be consigned to the shelves for all eternity.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360. 

A new trailer has been released for Rabbids Alive & Kicking. Check it out above and let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

They’ve invaded our daily lives for years, and you’ve never really considered them to be a serious threat. You just never imagined that they could even possibly be…real. Well, you were wrong!! They really do exist!