The Rabbids have proven a successful property, so Ubisoft is no doubt pleased to let the wacky rabbits continue to invade Rayman's life in humorous, misguided ways. In the third game of the series, the idea is that the Rabbids have invaded the programming on Rayman's television, and they're on every channel he gets. The story mode will involve Rayman watching seven channels everyday (playing a Rayman mini-game on each channel) for seven days, possibly being driven as wacky as the Rabbids in the process.

That's where the player comes in: guiding the Rabbids through as many TV-inspired activities as possible, aiming for the highest score possible. For example, on the "sports" channel, they'll play games like sledding (on upside-down wildebeest, no less) or rocketing through space on a surfboard. Conversely, on a music channel, mini-games would involve performing Wii Remote gestures to the beat of a licensed song. Incidentally, these were the three mini-games that Ubisoft had on display from Raving Rabbids TV Party.

The sledding mini-game is what lets Ubisoft boast that Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party was the first game you could play with your bottom: apply derriere to Balance Board, lean left or right to maneuver. I was afraid that it would prove a strain to my abdomen to maintain my posture, but my abs were spared because I could lean forward while sitting on the Balance Board, allowing me to bend my knees and rest my arms on them. The only time I would exit this relaxed pose would be when I leaned back to activate a speed boost, and this actually proved to be a control setup that was very easy to pick up. In addition to racing down a mountain slope and steering through gates, I could aim for ramps and give the Rabbid and his wildebeest ride some serious air time. The game would switch to showing the Rabbid and his ride flying through the air and display directions to move the Wii Remote and Nunchuk in specific directions. Execute these prompts, and the onscreen characters perform comical mid-air poses (ever wonder what something called an "inverted hairy beast" looks like?) for extra points.

The other mini-game on display to use the Wii Balance Board involved controlling a Rabbid rocket-boarding through space on something resembling an ironing board. In this situation, I stood on the Balance Board sideways and shifted my weight to lift or lower my Rabbid, or shift him left or right. However, it's not really steering: holding my balance kept my Rabbid steady too. This made it easy to fly through rings and steer left or right at several junctions in the track to choose either a harder or easier path for my interstellar joyride.

Since both of these mini-games were one player at a time, other players had a "sabotage" option available to them. In the sledding game, they could throw snowballs onto the screen to disrupt the view, and in the rocket-boarding game, they threw plasma balls to much the same effect.

The final mini-game that Ubisoft had on display didn't involve the Wii Balance Board, but had me wave the Wii Remote and Nunchuk in time with scrolling stick figure poses to the tune of "Jungle Boogie." This included thrusting the Wii Remote or Nunchuk to either side, diagonally down across my body or up into the air, or even pumping one up while thrusting the other down, then reversing the gesture. It started out relatively easy, but towards the end of the song, I was tasked with chaining together up to five moves in succession. Thanks to activity, this proved a much more interesting experience than simply shaking the Wii Remote in time with on-screen indicators, like previous Rayman music mini-games. (While playing the game, I wondered for a brief moment whether I momentarily resembled John Travolta in that classic pose from Saturday Night Fever… a brief, misguided, ill-advised moment.) Just for good measure though, I was told that the Rock Band-esque mini-game that was in the second Rayman Raving Rabbids game will make be making a return.

Even though only three mini-games were available for play, Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party seemed a step forward for the franchise. There are hints of improvements in a strong central television-based theme, new inspirations stemming from use of the Balance Board peripheral, and the continued evolution of Rayman mini-games. Fans of the past two games may have reason to be optimistic.