Rusty Rabbit Reviews

Rusty Rabbit is an interesting title, with a strong plot in a colourful world. However, the gameplay and dialogue can drag at times.

In the increasingly crowded Metroidvania landscape, NITRO PLUS’ Rusty Rabbit carves out a distinct niche with its post-apocalyptic frozen Earth setting and anthropomorphic protagonist. Our review of Rusty Rabbit will examine the game’s narrative strengths, mechanical shortcomings, and overall position within the genre to help you decide if this frozen journey is worth your time.

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.

Developer SoFun has crafted an endearing and occasionally hilarious world full of mystery, which even after credits roll feels poised for bigger things. However, at launch, the game feels noticeably slow and the visuals seem compromised on Switch, which brings borderline sluggishness occasionally into frustrating territory. By no means a dealbreaker, and not necessarily a barrier to the dozens of hours of fun gameplay you can find, but we hope to hear of some updates that make exploring Smokestack Mountain as enjoyable as it should be.

In Rusty Rabbit, the world has turned to ice, humans are extinct, and rabbits rule the world. It might sound like a scary concept if the rabbits weren’t so darn cute! In this action adventure 2-D side scroller, you play as Stamp, a Sylvanian families-inspired looking middle-aged “rust hunter” who is obsessed with adventuring and discovering “trash” in this rabbit-run world. With his mech, Junkster, he goes through different dungeons to find parts that he can use to upgrade items and...

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.

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

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.

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

A stellar performance from Takaya Kuroda isn't enough to salvage this junky Metroidvania.

Putting players in control of a mech-suit piloted by a rabbit, Rusty Rabbit lets them embark on an engaging adventure where they'll make their way through numerous dungeons while collecting junk, crafting new parts and unravelling the game's story. Its controls can be a little clunky and it's rather basic in some areas, but there's still fun to be had in control of Rusty.

Rusty Rabbit is a game packed with potential, thanks to its intriguing premise, promising gameplay loop, and distinct art direction. Unfortunately, it struggles to capitalize on these strengths. The combat lacks impact, the gameplay loop quickly becomes formulaic, and the visuals feel dated, all of which contribute to an experience that, while occasionally enjoyable, ultimately feels uninspired and forgettable. There are glimpses of here and there, but the game never does quite enough to stand out from the crowd.

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 take on the Steamworld Dig-meets-Metroidvania formula. The entry cost is low, however, so it's not one to completely write-off if you're looking for a breezy side-scroller to sink some free time into.

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.

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 project that looks like a normal video game but happens to be more of a visual novel-coded character study.

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

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.

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 scavenging the ruins for useful tech.

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.