Bloody Bunny, The Game [Switch]
QUANTUM PEAKS’ Bloody Bunny, The Game is a hack-and-slash action title following the story of the 2016 Bloody Bunny web-series: The First Blood. You play as Bunny, a knife-wielding plush bunny rabbit possessed by the soul of a young girl out for revenge. Humans are being turned into plush dolls by an evil corporation, and whilst most of these victims lose their memories upon being turned; Bunny hasn’t. Bunny must rescue her little sister Mumu - who is also trapped in the body of a doll - and hunt down the mastermind behind all of this madness.
With two gameplay modes: Story and Endless, you’ll have the choice between working your way through the seven different worlds, taking on the nine bosses that stand in your way to rescue your sister; or fight your way through the 50 brutal, action-packed levels of Endless Mode to test yourself. Both options are a lot of fun, and equally punishing at times, with Endless unlocking after you complete the main story (and are therefore up to speed with the difficulty) so be prepared for a challenge!
Visually, the character models are gorgeous and they, along with the environment designs really remind us of Genndy Tartakovsky’s work such as Samurai Jack and the Powerpuff Girls. There’s a decent amount of enemy types, with lower-level goons having different “Kikky” forms - that have a Mickey Mouse style appearance, tying in with the ‘Dizzyland’ level’s aesthetic being like Disneyland - and stronger enemies having more unique, menacing appearance. Sadly some areas feel unnecessarily dark which makes it quite hard to see enemies, or even the layout of some rooms, and this really takes away from the experience when it occurs. The camera also has a tendency to make things difficult too, as it zooms in and clips through walls often when you’re in quite tight spots. Throughout the game, there are cutscenes spliced in which are taken from the series. These are really polished and well done, and fit well to progress the story. I’d highly recommend you check out the full web-series (a total of around 11 minutes) on YouTube to watch it all back-to-back, as this surprisingly isn’t available within the game itself as an unlockable. The soundtrack of Bloody Bunny is fantastic, with a very epic, action-packed feel to it that grows in intensity when enemies are around.
We’ve had a couple of odd glitches happen during play: being unable to move after pausing during a boss fight, and another boss hitting Bunny right through the ceiling of the room. The first was unfixable, requiring a long wait until Bunny died to restart (as the ability to pause again was also blocked) but luckily the latter just required dropping back down off the edge of the roof with no problem. Thankfully these issues were so few and far between that they didn’t impact our enjoyment of the game too badly, and the only other glitch we’ve really encountered is the occasional freeze during the cutscenes.
Bunny has four weapons: a sword, a hammer, throwing knives and a boomerang, which can all be upgraded as you progress, at the Bamboo Forest camp. The sword is by far the best weapon so you’ll never really have much requirement for any of the others which is a shame. New Skills, such as different moves for each weapon, or upgrades to these moves can be purchased here using souls gained through your battles, and the weapons themselves can be upgraded to increase damage. Passive Skills can also be improved upon, which allow you to do things like increase health. Combat feels smooth and satisfying as you dash around, hacking your way through enemies; the fighting is just so fast-paced and well varied depending on the enemy or boss you’re up against, that whilst it can put up a bit of a challenge, it still feels enjoyable - particularly when in Rampage Mode, which is basically a berserker style mode that increases your defence, speed and damage temporarily. Warp Attack is an absolutely crucial unlockable skill that gives you an upper hand against enemies and executions can be triggered when they have taken enough damage. Doing so heals Bloody Bunny, which is super helpful for surviving some of the boss fights, as is making sure you’re stocked up on Instant Noodles (which fully replenish your health when you otherwise would’ve died!), although unfortunately these can’t be purchased anywhere so you’ll just have to try and keep a hold of them whenever you find them.
As mentioned before, there’s a very Samurai Jack vibe going on with Bloody Bunny, The Game - including a lot of comparisons to the recent game, Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time. The visuals alone are highly reminiscent, but the level settings and even some of the enemy designs gave off a lot of the same energy - although this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are hidden ‘secret packages’ located throughout the levels which will unlock gallery images showing some nice concept art. A few areas within the game felt oddly empty however, which made it feel like there should have been other collectibles - or at least something there - instead of just dead ends with no reason to be there. Overall, we had a lot of fun with Bloody Bunny, The Game, and for £9.99 on the Nintendo eShop, it’s a great price for what it includes, and we’re looking forward to more in future (hopefully!).
In the end, we decided to give Bloody Bunny, The Game the Collecting Asylum rating of 7.5/10.
Have you played Bloody Bunny, The Game yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to DigiPen Studios for the Bloody Bunny, The Game Switch review code!
