ew teams can so capably package absurdity in a box for you to buy at your local game store as the folks behind Rayman and his maniacal rabbid costars. That fact was made abundantly clear last year when the first Raving Rabbids surprised everyone as one of the standout titles in the Wii’s launch. One year later, the same insanity has returned with some notable differences. What has remained is a commitment to wholesale idiocy and randomness, where the laughs come fast and low brow, and yet still manage to entertain without fail.

What’s changed is the gameplay structure. Like its predecessor, there are still several dozen mini-games involving bashing, spitting, spilling, farting, or kicking the white-furred crazies. Now, however, every one of the minigames is geared towards four-player multiplayer mayhem. Thus, while alone you could play through and get some laughs, Raving Rabbids 2 can only be fully experienced with a crowd.

The story, such as it is, is even less present than last time around. And that’s saying something, given that our plot in the first installment involved repeated days in the rabbid equivalent of arena combat. Now the little devil hares are hellbent on world domination, and Rayman infiltrates the lot to stop the madness. I guess. It doesn’t really matter, honestly, since almost immediately you’ll be starting up your first minigame. Most of these are easy to pick up and play for even the most casual players, and the premise of each small event is, without fail, so ludicrous that it should unite families and friends in a shared camaraderie of confusion and delight. Even so, the gameplay that backs up these brief games is pretty simplistic. I realize that’s sort of the point, but it limits the fun after the first few hours, when the humor begins to wear a little thin.

Several dozen unlockable outfits can be mixed and matched at your leisure to create the silliest looking avatar imaginable, and the longer arcade shooters from the first game return as brief alternatives to the more frantic minigames. I’m all for random humor and silliness, which Raving Rabbids delivers with aplomb. A little more genuine gameplay, whether in single or multiplayer, and this would move from good and hilarious to great and hilarious.