Rabbids Go Home

''Rabbids Go Home'' () is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Ubisoft for the Wii and Nintendo DS. The game was released in North America on November 3, 2009, in Australia on November 5, 2009, and in Europe on November 6, 2009. A modified, shorter version of the game was ported to Microsoft Windows and released in Russia and Poland.

''Rabbids Go Home'' is the fourth installment in the ''Rabbids'' series of video games and is the first title in the series without Rayman, unlike majority other games in the series, Rabbids Go Home is not a collection of mini-games, but a full-fledged platformer. The game's plot centers on the efforts of the titular Rabbids to collect as many human objects as they can and create a huge pile high enough to reach the Moon, all the while avoiding the extermination attempts by the "Verminators", who wish to gain back the stuff the Rabbids have stolen.

The game received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the game's humor, soundtrack and accessible gameplay, though some noted the game's low difficulty. The reviews for the Nintendo DS version were mixed. The online services for the game were shut down when the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service was shut down in May 2014.

The game's premise would later be loosely adapted in the second season of Rabbids Invasion, which features many of the Rabbids failed attempts at reaching the Moon.

Gameplay (Wii version)

The player controls a team of newlyweds Rabbids on a rampage pushing a shopping cart. The goal of the game is to go to human places (including but not limited to malls, hospitals and airports) to collect as much stuff as possible during each level and help the Rabbids build a pile high enough to reach the Moon. In each level, there is enough stuff to grow the pile by 1,000 feet. The minimum requirement for completing a level is to collect the "Xtra Large Stuff" and carry it to the toilet at the end of the level. The more items the player collects, the more items are unlocked for the Rabbids (such as figurines, tattoos, tools, accessories and challenges) depending on the score. The Xtra Large Stuff is located either in the middle or end of a level. Some Xtra Large items affect the gameplay. For example, a jet engine will propel the shopping cart to three times its normal speed, while a sick patient's quarantine bed allows the cart to float and glide. Placed throughout the levels are "Collector Rabbids", with which the player can leave any stuff they have collected up to that point. The health of the Rabbids (described in-game as "ideas") is measured in light bulbs, which fry out when the Rabbids take damage and get collected to refill. At the start of the game, the Rabbids will have three light bulbs, displayed at the bottom-left corner of the screen. Later in the game, the player can earn up to 6 light bulbs. If all of the light bulbs burn out or the player falls into the void, the Rabbids will get set back to an automated checkpoint.

The player can move the shopping cart with the Nunchuk and accelerate using the A button. The Rabbids' main mode of offense is a loud vocalization called the "Bwaaaah! Attack", which can be triggered by shaking the Wii Remote. This attack can break certain objects, stun enemies like guard dogs, scare humans and strip them of their clothing. As the player advances through the game, the Verminators and robots appear, and humans will start wearing soundproof helmets to protect themselves from the "Bwaaaah! Attack". The player can perform another technique named the "Super Boost", which is initiated when the shopping cart turns and drifts to the point where blue sparks fly from under the cart's wheels. When the player presses the A button and turns, the cart will skid. When blue sparks are visible, the player may press the B button, and the "Super Boost" will be performed. This ability allows the player to knock down piles of crates, strip certain enemies faster and leap over obstacles through the use of springboards. The player can also launch the "Cannonball Rabbid", a Rabbid living inside the player's Wii Remote, by aiming with the Wii Remote and pressing the Z button on the Nunchuk attachment. This attack can strip certain enemies and open certain grates that are marked.

At several points during the game, a Rabbid is "drawn" into the Wii Remote itself, and can be thrown and bounced around while "inside" the remote as the screen displays an apparent interior view of the remote.

Plot

On the outskirts of a bustling city set in Earth, a family of Rabbids hang around in a junkyard, bored of partying, and want to go home. The problem is, they don't even know where they come from, so newlyweds they cast the moon as their new home, which they mistake for a giant light bulb. This idea appealed to their —not much wiser— relatives (brothers, uncles, and aunts). They notice the piles of junk around them, and decide that by making one pile bigger with even more junk, they could reach it. Two Rabbids then take a shopping cart and search around for things to toss onto the pile, before setting off to the city to look for more junk.

They gather the human objects and fit them all into the shopping cart, transfer all of the stuff they have found through the sewage system via a series of toilets and add the stuff to their growing pile, which becomes higher as the game progresses. Eventually, the humans revolt against the Rabbids and become "Verminators" in a bid to exterminate the Rabbids and retrieve their stolen stuff.

At the end of the game, the Rabbids are still not able to reach the Moon, even after gathering almost everything from the city. The humans, in a desperate attempt to get rid of the Rabbids, bombard the pile with time-delay bombs which explode on the pile, causing it to fly up into space. The humans were overjoyed at first, but once the XL junk falls from the sky, they start to panic as the city is left in shambles.
Meanwhile, in space, the Rabbids celebrate their accomplishment of finally reaching the Moon, albeit caught in the Moon's gravitational orbit.

Development

''Rabbids Go Home'' underwent three years of development before its release. A coherent and authentic storyline was needed to keep the Rabbids fresh and conserve their variety in the context of an adventure game. The development team evaluated the Rabbids as representing "emotions pushed to the extreme" and created the human characters to be the exact opposite: " heymull over all their decisions, their emotions in-check. Their organs have atrophied. They have nearly forgotten that they have a body or a heart, and can barely handle those." Jacques Exertier stated that the meeting between the two opposing characters is an allegory of the "internal debates we have with ourselves each time we make a decision" and that much of the comedic situations in the game stem from the meeting of the two archetypes. The setting of ''Rabbids Go Home'' was visually inspired by the period between 1945 and 1975, during which there was an explosion in mass consumption. The visuals were based on simple colors and geometric shapes rather than photorealism to create a caricaturized image of its "uptight humans with their sterile places and normalized urban planning". Ubisoft Montpellier created a proprietary