Rusty Rabbit

Nitroplus’ Rusty Rabbit is an easy hook. The key visuals show us a bipedal rabbit, wearing a patched-up bomber jacket, chomping on a carrot like a cigar, with a village made of scrap junk on the side of a frozen mountain in the background. Learning the rabbit pilots a mech suit in Metroidvania dungeons and is voiced by Kazuma Kiryu of Yakuza fame in both Japanese and English seals the deal. But what might seem like a zany, over the top action game turns out to be more nuanced than you might expect. Weird, wholesome, and deliberately rough around the edges, Rusty Rabbit is an earnest passion pr...

I have a very special and unconventional game for you today so let's see why I love Rusty Rabbit as much as Stamp loves carrots.

If you're looking for a decent Metroidvania, then Rusty Rabbit is solid enough, though there's not a lot here to suggest it's more than towing the genre's line rather than branching out in unexpected new directions. Collecting junk is enjoyable in Rusty Rabbit, but maybe it could've done with more fervor and less grit, even if the game's name informs you of its weathered vibes.

As has been mentioned many times before, the end of the world isn't the end of the world. It's just a change in state, from a planet where humans can live comfortably to one where they can't, leaving room for something else to rise up and take their place. This time around it's rabbits, living comfortably off the wreckage humanity left behind on the frozen Earth. It may be winter everywhere, but Smokestack Mountain has warm thermal vents where good crops can be grown and is large enough to support multiple towns around its base, and not a bad place at all to be a grizzled old junk collector sc...

Rusty Rabbit opens with the brooding, atmospheric tone of a noir detective mystery. World-weary narration introduces us to Stamp — a grizzled, down-on-his-luck salvager with a dark past. Stamp is a talking rabbit.

Surprisingly, Rusty Rabbit isn’t a game about a malfunctioning toy for adults. Instead, it’s the tale of Rusty Stamp, a loveable, Wolverine-voiced, floppy eared scamp, who pilots his mech to dig through ancient tunnels on a mission to uncover valuable scrap.

Rusty Rabbit isn't a bad game at all, but it is extremely simple for the genre it slots into. It fails at having any sort of real challenge, memorable bosses, interesting puzzles, or rewarding routing. The story is surprisingly lore-filled, intriguing, and emotional by the conclusion, and the cast of cute rabbit characters do lend a nice level of charm to the game as you occasionally reach a flow state of map clearing, dungeon-crawling, mindless fun. Still, the game overstays its welcome by the end of its 20+ hour runtime, and there are better options if you're looking for a more accessible ta...

Rusty Rabbit has some interesting ideas, but they’re buried under tedious and somewhat undercooked gameplay.

There's no doubt Rusty Rabbit is a competent game made by talented developers. Its platforming and exploration are enjoyable in later areas, but Rusty Rabbit makes several missteps in several facets of its gameplay (especially early on) and lack of character development.

Rusty Rabbit is a decent Metroidvania with some interesting ideas, but clunky movement and frustrating combat make it a tough sell.

Some games are finely-tuned sports cars. Others are total lemons. Rusty Rabbit is neither; it’s a pile of scraps.

Scheduled for release on September 24 for PlayStation 5 and PC, Rusty Rabbit is shaping up to be one of the most eclectic and exciting titles of 2024. With its deep lore, engaging characters, and clever gameplay mechanics, it promises to deliver an experience that breaks away from the genericism that plagues so many contemporary titles. For fans of Metroidvania games and those who appreciate a good dose of absurd humor, Rusty Rabbit is one to watch.