One famous tale from the world of gaming involves Rare becoming so sick of making cutey platforming games for Nintendo that they eventually snapped and created the fowl mouthed Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Rabbit Raid sees developer Uncle Frost Team take the opposite approach. Their previous works include the edgy shoot’em up Cybertrash STATYX and the grotesque zombie maiming run ‘n gun Hillbilly Doomsday. In comparison, Rabbit Raid is aimed at a far younger crowd, sporting a 3+ age rating. Hedging their bets on a new audience, perhaps.
As such, we’re in for something light-hearted, colourful, and not particularly vexing. The initial draw here are the visuals – large, chunky, fluidly animated sprites that take up a good proportion of the screen. It’s reminiscent of something like Plok for the Super Nintendo, in the way that our buck-toothed hero’s limbs are individually animated, flailing after jumping or when falling down pits. There’s a fun mechanic in play too, allowing enemies to be defeated by plucking vegetables out of the ground before aiming them precisely – useful for dealing with flying enemies from afar.
Mr. Rabbit can also clear sizeable chunks of each stage by running at full speed and jumping off higher up platforms. The downside of doing this is that you’ll likely overlook a shiny star, with three to find in each area, usually concealed inside a wall. Various collectable fruits, also often found in hidden side rooms, act as currency and can be used to purchase different outfits from the main menu, including Christmas and Halloween themed attire.
Stages are set across woodland, snow, and sand and each location ends with an incredibly simplistic boss battle that likely won’t even challenge younger gamers. Leap on their head four times and you’re done. Even the final boss doesn’t put up much of a fight. There is a slight increase in difficulty throughout though, with vegetables scarcer during the ice world, and the introduction of enemies that throw projectiles. Extra lives are seldom found, but due to each stage being brief – taking no more than five minutes – having to restart is never too frustrating, and neither do you need to re-collect any stars discovered before snuffing it.
I was surprised to learn of an £8.99 price point as there isn’t all that much to sink your teeth into here; just a dozen short stages, walkover boss battles, and a handful of optional additional costumes to unlock. There’s around an hour’s worth of entertainment, maybe two at a push if you aim to find every star – although weirdly, there isn’t anything to incentivise this.
Rabbit Raid isn’t a bad time – it controls well, and the level design is generally fine (even if more set-pieces wouldn’t have gone amiss) – but it does come off as overpriced for such a short experience. It’s more inviting and competently put together than the recent fellow 2D platformer Popotinho’s Adventures, but nowhere near as creative as Basureroes: Invasion – which had a four-player mode, meaning no squabbling over controllers. Raid your digital piggybank for this one and you’ll likely feel shortchanged.
Rabbit Raid is out 26th Feb on consoles. Published by Sometimes You.