Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party

There was lots of talk about innovation at this year's UbiDays conference. Voice control. 3D visuals. Super-clever sidekicks. And, of course, "A world exclusive, the first ever game you can play with your ass."

What could it be? Tom Clancy's Bumfighter? Cheek to Cheek With Jade Raymond? A misguidedly literal sequel to Assassin's Creed? No, it's Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party, the game first hinted at in a teaser trailer released in April.

For the third instalment in the RRR series, Ubisoft has decided to make some of the mini-games playable using the Wii balance board. Only one of these was demonstrated at the event - a sledging game played by sitting down and shifting your weight left and right to steer. But, as game manager Adrian Lacey explains during our post-conference chat, there will be more board games in the finished product.

"I reckon about 30 percent of the games use the balance board," he says. "There will be dancing games, rhythm games, balance games - and a few I'm not allowed to tell you about just yet."

Sounds interesting, but there's one obvious problem. RRR has always been about multiplayer fun, and battling it out using two or more remotes. The Wii balance board is currently only available bundled with Wii Fit, and it's not cheap. It seems unlikely casual gamers would want to pay GBP 69.99 more than once just to play their Mum at arseboarding.

It's a problem Mr Ubisoft's aware of. "The difficulty we have with the balance board is we try to make all the games simultaneous, so up to four players can play at the same time," he says. "Obviously, just one player can use the balance board. It's quite a solo experience. But we try to involve everyone else around you." So, for example, "There are sabotage games where you might be balancing using your bottom, and people are pressing buttons on their remotes to throw stuff at you at the same time, and knock you off balance."

According to Lacey there are more than 75 mini-games in TV Party. Working the percentages it follows that around 50 will be playable with traditional controllers rather than the board. Once again, just one was on show at Ubidays - Dancing With Dweebs. Holding the remote and nunchuk, you follow the on-screen instructions and dance along to classic disco track Jungle Boogie. Moves include stretching your arm up and out then bringing it back down across your body, Saturday Night Fever-style, and waving your arms in the air, like you just don't care.

Trying out the game, it's easy to see how it all works. It's not too hard to pull the moves off, either, as there are healthy gaps between most of them. In fact, there's so little challenge it's a bit dull. It's probably a lot more fun when you're dancing in your own lounge with some drunk people, rather than dancing at a videogames conference with some PR people while being observed by a group of retail executives. Things do get a bit frantic towards the end, and no doubt there will be higher difficulty levels in the finished game.