Rusty Rabbit Review (PS5)- A Dangling Carrot

Rusty Rabbit Review (PS5)-A Dangling Carrot

Rusty Rabbit meanwhile, contains a cute bunny rabbit protagonist named Stamp (nicknamed Rusty to his pals), who’s a dad to a daughter that needs rescuing up in the frozen climes of Mt Chimney. Stamp’s day job is collecting junk, which seems like the kind of job meant for rodents rather than rabbits, but who’s batting an eyelash here? Stamp is gruff-talking rabbit who sounds like he’s been around for a long time, and the kind that’ll punch your lights out if you pinch his liquor. So yes, he doesn’t sound like the friendliest bunny rabbit, but he’s got issues, you can tell because he likes speaking to his beloved junk even though it won’t speak to him back.

Stamp enjoys sucking on a carrot like a cigar and then eating said carrot, which is kinda cliche for a busy manual labourer, except humans wouldn’t be swallowing a cigarette after taking a puff, as they’ll most-likely choke on it.

Anyway, we can identify with this gruff anthropomorphic bunny because he’s both cute and works in an industrial environment as his day job. Many of us humans partake in such a day job in order to make a living, so we shouldn’t interrogate this fluffy ball of charm any further with our needling curiosities.

In addition, the books of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter are seen as spiritual guidance – and no, we’re not talking about the James Corden Peter Rabbit here! This spiritual connection to rabbitkind is made all the more sacred because humans have evacuated earth due to the threat of another ice age. Who knows why humans left planet earth to the rabbits,; maybe it’s because rabbits are the creatures of Easter and allow us to indulge in sizeable chocolate eggs, so humans are grateful and feel indebted to rabbits for this deliciousness. Whatever the case, the rabbits have inherited the earth, and there’s no fluff about that.

What all this suggests is that the developers clearly wanted to remind us that Stamp is a rabbit and not just a bunny who could’ve also been a gruff generic bloke. So to commend Rusty Rabbit properly, the game avoids the surface-layer genericism of the Illumination Studios’ animated film Sing, and is instead more akin to Dreamworks’ Zootopia/Zootropolis. Stamp’s bunny mannerisms may not be the focus of Rusty Rabbit, but it is good to see the world building is on-point.

All Junked Up

What might not be so on-point is Stamp’s gruff and rather boring personality. Yes, he’s a rabbit who mines for junk with a cool mech, but listening to him he seems to have nothing else to talk about besides junk and his daughter, so he comes across as one-dimensional. Again, much like the cat in Stray, Stamp’s existence as bunny ought to provide him with some whimsy and sparkle, but alas he’s just a gnarled, depressing and grumpy sod who drinks and smokes.

Stamp is a junk aficionado, and like any precious material he can’t get enough of it and wants more, more and more of it. Stamp’s obsession with junk leads him to plundering through Smokestack Mountain – a multi-layered ruin left behind by the earth-absconding humans. Smokestack Mountain is ripe for ample rust-digging, and is home to D-Tam’s- old-timey storage devices that hold mysteries, secrets and information Stamp will find both personal and useful to him as he unpeels the layers of Smokestack Mountain.

Stamp plies his trade in stockpiling junk so he can put it to good use by upgrading his gear and the mechs he uses to smash boxes full of spare parts, and take care of the assortment of creatures and nuisances that cross his path. Stamp’s mech is nimble and great for crushing objects with the razor-sharp drill attachment, but this mech isn’t a one-trick pneumatic, as it also possesses a nifty fire-bursting propulsion manoeuvre that can quickly and stylishly assist Stamp in crossing platforms.

What The Mech Is This?

Environmental movement feels swift and weighty, conveniently balancing the hefty feeling of a mech with the speed associated with a side-scrolling Metroidvania. As you upgrade your beloved Junker, its abilities will become more powerful and impressive. For example, Junker’s drill attachment is quite weak early on, but can be ameliorated with enhancements to make junk-collecting more efficient. Instead of drilling one cube of junk, you can dive through and rip apart a handful of cubes that’ll save you a lot of time. In addition, you can also acquire new weapons such as swords later on, which will prove useful in cutting away cables that block areas and prevent you from accessing hidden paths.

Rusty Rabbit is a traditional and unsurprising Metroidvania, but the experience is definitely solid and has the potential to be addictive as well. The genre traits are adhered to with reverence, but despite the rudimentary activity of collecting junk, there’s enough story and world-building sustenance to keep you collecting all the nuts, bolts and trinkets in the game.

Not only are you fending off the pests in each area of Smokestack Mountain, you’re constantly on the look out for D-Tams and crafting components to tinker with Junker. You’ll find stations located in each area where you can replenish your health and stamina, as well as finding D-Tam logs, so you can find out more about the lore of Smokestack Mountain. Glowing green portals can also be accessed here, allowing you to transport to another area of the map, or return to your cozy snowy village where you reside.

This small home of yours is known as Brass Village, a minuscule hub area, where you can go home and tinker with Junker and kit yourself and junker out with new threads/paint jobs, visit the hardware store for new parts, buy or sell junk at the general store, visit a diner to improve your relationship with your bunny pals, get hooched at the bar, and attend the church and swap out carrots for some holy Peter Rabbit tales.

The best thing about the hub area is not only does it allow you to mingle with your rabbit friends, but you can tap the shoulder buttons to swap between locations instead of physically visiting them, which gives you a quick workaround to gather all you need before heading back to Smokestack Mountain for more junk-compiling.

Levelling up in Rusty Rabbit provides you with upgrade points to buy perks, which will further augment your junk-collecting ability, as well as providing Junker with greater powers in combat and digging. Junker wasn’t designed for combat, so levelling up and ensuring this mighty mech grows more powerful, will certainly give it a boost and improve versatility.

A Bunny Flop Or Straight to the Carrot Top?

While it is definitely a cool thing to thrash about in Smokestack Mountain with a powerful mech and dismantling boxes and pests, you’ll definitely feel as though more could’ve been done to give Stamp more oomph. Junker is the star whilst you’re traversing Smokestack Mountain, so much so that Stamp is nothing more than the pilot. The fact that Junker wasn’t introduced with a sense of grandeur kinda makes this mighty mech a tool for the trade, rather than a meaningful counterpart to Stamp-but then again it is a mech that can’t talk, ya just wish it had more to say though. Don’t worry though, in Stamp’s mind Junker can talk because y’know it’s junk, and Stamp can hear junk.

While visually Rusty Rabbit looks fine and is serviceable-if-average in terms of graphics, the soundtrack is where it really shines. The industrial-sounding music gives you the sense that you’re undertaking a routine job with a hulking machine, but the unforgettable rhythms and beats mesh well with the narrow Smokestack Mountain environments. There are nice and crisp sound effects from the drill and metallic rhinos exploding too.