It’s becoming evident at this still-early stage of development of games for the Wii console that this system definitely has a strength at providing a great platform for entertaining minigames. These mini-game collections work even better when they’re focused on taking advantage of the multiplayer capabilities of the system, and this hasn’t really been shown anywhere better than with Rayman Raving Rabbids. This collection of minigames that first surfaced last year kept us shaking our Wii-motes and splitting our sides laughing at the same time. Now, Rayman and his crazy little Rabbid friends are returning for another round on the Nintendo Wii.

This time around, you’ll be able to play as the Rabbids. Each Rabbid gets his (or her) own personality through the ways that you’ll customize them. You can change outfits (hats and shirts) or put skins on your chosen character. This means you’ll be able to have everything from a schoolgirl to a zombie at your fingertips, after you’ve unlocked the costumes of course. I, being a bit of a traditionalist, chose to play as Rayman himself during my multiplayer hands on with the game.

The different minigames this time around will be set in different locales throughout the world. Whereas the first RRR game placed you in an arena situation, the story of this game will see you traveling all across the globe. You’ll go from Asia to the US to Europe and the tropics – and more. Each area features a different collection of minigames, totaling 60 in all. Everything will be all new this time around, so don’t expect your favorite gametype to be making an encore appearance. That is unless your favorite happened to be the “Bunnies Can’t Dance” game from the first RRR. An updated version of this will return with a distinctively Rock Band-like flair, allowing 4 players to play at once and now featuring some new play mechanics. There will be six songs of different styles in the final game build.

During my hands-on time, I got to check out a few of the new minigames. The first was football. The objective of this gametype is to simply grab the ball and then run around with it. In order to grab the ball, you shake the Wii-mote to tackle at the player who’s currently carrying it. You’ll get points for the amount of time that you carry the ball, and once the timer runs out, the highest score wins.

The next gametype was a swim meet. In this game, you first press A to dive in to the pool. Then, each lap that we swam featured a different type of swimming stroke, which required different Wii motions. There was a meter displayed on the bottom of the screen that shows you how effectively the system is registering your motions, and it looks lie it will be extremely helpful.

Our next game was set in a typical office setting. When the boss is out of the room in this game, you simply shake the Wii-mote in order to dance around. If you’re still dancing when the boss comes back in the room, you’ll lose points.

I also had a chance to see another cool level. In this one, you’re washing, well, underwear. By alternately thrusting the Wii-mote and nunchuck forward and backwards, you begin to wash the clothes. Holding both sides of the controller up in the air will bring your clothes out of the water and show your progress. Pull the clothes out too early and you’ll need to wash them more. Scrub them to long and they’ll be ripped to shreds when you pull them out.

We should learn more about this new Rayman Raving Rabbids soon, as it’s due for launch before the end of the year. Stay tuned to Game Almighty for all the latest details.