hese crazy rabbids pulled together to form one of my favorite games of the Wii launch. It’s only a few months later, and we now have a version on the 360. For the first time in the console’s life, I have to say I like a game better on the Wii than on a more traditional controller. Not that this comes as a great surprise. Beyond the insanity that is the rabbids themselves, the minigames of the original Wii game derived their fun from the frantic arm waving and activity provided by the Wii remote. With that feature lacking, Raving Rabbids is little more than another collection of boring, albeit funny, minigames.

Most of the basic structure of the game is intact. You’ll play through a series of wacky events like bonking a maniacal bunny over the head with a mallet or throwing an unsuspecting cow like a shot put in order to unlock a “boss fight,” which usually involves shooting plungers at an advancing army of costumed rabbids. A couple of new contests make an appearance here, such as a variation on cow hurling that involves some basketball nets. However, by and large, all the same games make an appearance, but instead of wildly swinging the Wii remote over your head, you’ll be gently rotating the analog stick.

Ultimately, that’s what kills the fun. Michel Ancel and his team managed with the Wii release to perfectly tap into what people were going to like about Nintendo’s new invention – an experience that they couldn’t get on other game consoles. Like the classic square peg and round hole dilemma, trying to transfer the experience to those other consoles feels awkward and forced, even if the individual controls work perfectly fine.

In its defense, the 360 version does include support for the 360 camera – but I had a hard time getting my motions to track with enough precision to make the process fun. Not to be underestimated, the unusual humor of the title remains in full effect – a special style of demented fun that is impossible to find anywhere else. It’s worth checking out if this is the only system you can experience it on. Some improved textures do indeed make this the best-looking version of the game, but for everyone else, I’d stick with the console this game was made for.