Rusty Rabbit Review - A Few Screws Loose

If you're into anime, light novels, or visual novels, Gen Urobuchi's influence is everywhere. He's the mind behind some of anime's biggest hits, including Madoka Magica, Psycho-Pass, and Fate Zero. That's just a fraction of his work, and his status as a legend is hard to dispute. So when I saw he was involved in creating Rusty Rabbit, you can imagine my excitement.

Part side-scrolling adventure/platformer, part visual novel, Rusty Rabbit is a charming game on the surface, no doubt. As a fan of Urobuchi's work, though, you can imagine my disappointment when Rusty Rabbit's narrative, and in some cases its gameplay, didn't quite live up to my admittedly lofty expectations.

A Different Approach for the Urobutcher

Urobuchi is often called the "Urobutcher" for his unrelenting and brutal attitude towards characters in his narratives. It's apparent right from the start that Rusty Rabbit is a departure from these norms, and that's perfectly fine. A more lighthearted story as opposed to a violent one is a nice change of pace for Urobuchi.

Rusty Rabbit stars the eponymous Rusty, and he's an ol' rabbit with that boomer mindset that's probably all too familiar to some of us with aging parents. He's stuck in his ways, gruff, and says it how it is. He's a scrapper by trade and digs for junk in Smokestack Mountain, and that's how he makes his living in this frozen wasteland of a world.

True to developer NITRO PLUS' usual portfolio, Rusty Rabbit's narrative is often loaded with pages of exposition. The main story of Rusty Rabbit doesn't bog players down with a ton of story, but for those who want to explore its worldbuilding, lore, and Rusty's character, you have plenty of dialogue to comb through.

I don't mind reading pages of dialogue -- I'm a budding visual novel fan, after all -- but Rusty Rabbit's additional lore is padded with a lot of unnecessary or uninteresting writing. This is not Urobuchi's best work by any stretch of the imagination.

For instance, you can take on various repair projects as you collect parts throughout your scrapping adventures -- a pair of tires, a car frame, stuff like that. You'll be met with, sometimes, a couple of dozen pages of Rusty talking about tires, and it seems like he's just talking in circles. Look, unless you're a mechanic, you're probably not going to find these projects as exciting as Rusty does.

In these sequences, there are some tidbits of lore that dive into Rusty's complicated past involving his wife and daughter. It's unfortunate that most of Rusty's development is hidden in pages of dialogue that are simply boring to read.

What's Up With the BBs in Rusty Rabbit?

The narrative also makes a point to shoehorn in a group of characters that, in the end, serve little to no purpose. Rusty Rabbit gasses up this group of junksters, called the BBs, as a group of rabbits exploring Smokestack Mountain for uncertain reasons. 

You'll come across the BBs plenty of times throughout the narrative, but maybe one out of the six gets a modicum of character development. The rest are simply there for gags, or to give Rusty blueprints or items he needs to proceed through levels. It's a shame because Urobuchi has the ability to craft great characters, but that is not apparent in Rusty Rabbit.

The worldbuilding holds some promise, at least. As the truth of the world becomes more apparent as you progress, Rusty Rabbit sprinkles tidbits of information throughout and keeps you guessing and theorizing. I enjoy settings that are mysterious in nature, but it's held back by the lack of character development and too much dialogue.

It's a Junkers Life 'fer Me

At its core, Rusty Rabbit is a game about digging for junk. Levels are 2.5D environments filled with drillable blocks, hazards, and enemies called rust beasts. Your main goal is to progress through each level and hit certain points in the story to progress. It's nothing too crazy, but Rusty Rabbit's simplicity means it can be an enjoyable time.

The core of Rusty Rabbit has remained the same since Urobuchi conceived the idea during COVID-19 lockdown: digging for junk in large, sprawling levels. It's in these levels that there is both a great deal of promise but also untapped potential.

Rusty Rabbit's first half is almost painfully basic. These first several areas in Smokestack Mountain appear Metroidvania-esque on the surface, but are mostly just linear pathways that wind around to give the feeling of being maze-like. Rusty Rabbit doesn't hit its stride until later, when new ideas are incorporated to make levels more dynamic.

Exploration and finding new upgrades to progress through levels takes more of a role later on, which is great -- racking your brain over where to go next and finding new areas to explore in games such as this are engaging. As a result, though, the first half is underbaked and relatively unexciting.

Tools of the Trade in Rusty Rabbit

Rusty's mech, Junkster, is your means of transportation, and it's quite a handy vehicle, at that. Moving in Junkster feels great. Movement is responsive, and platforming is a cinch. Most failures in making a jump feel like my fault rather than the game's -- though, sometimes there are collision issues, which will no doubt be ironed out in a patch or two.

You're equipped with four different types of weapons: a drill, shotgun, blade, and hammer. These are all used for different purposes, like clearing specific obstacles or doing extra damage to certain enemy types; again, it's simple, and these all do what they need to do. Sometimes, simple is best.

You also unlock various traversal options, like a higher jump and a wire that grabs onto ledges and such. Using the full suite of tools at your disposal opens up a lot of possibilities and allows NITRO PLUS to create more complex environments. Having the fully upgraded Junkster -- with its weapons and traversal options -- greatly increased my enjoyment of the gameplay.

There are a few other gameplay systems players can engage with, like a leveling system that grants skill points for upgrades. Upgrades are useful and necessary, so gaining XP from killing enemies and drilling blocks has its advantages. There's a town where you're able to buy various items to aid you in combat or in crafting, too.

What's a Scrapper Without Crafting?

But crafting is where Rusty Rabbit once again leads to some disappointment. As a scrapper, it's part of Rusty's character to salvage junk and turn it into useful items. These items usually come in the form of new weapons, which are, in some cases, needed to progress the story.

Crafting new weapons requires parts, and you'll only gain parts by drilling through certain blocks. There's also an endless dungeon where you can essentially farm for more parts to craft said weapons, but I never felt compelled to engage with this content much. 

More powerful weapons are required to explore some secret areas in Rusty Rabbit, but the story doesn't usually require you to go out of your way for these. So the Endless Dungeon feels nothing more than a vessel for getting parts for weapons that you don't necessarily need, unless you're trying to be a completionist.

Weapons also come with various modifiers that are RNG-dependent, which feels pointless. These modifiers don't seem to matter much at the end of the day, but supposing some players are looking for one modifier or another, I suppose that could be quite frustrating to just not get what you want and having to farm more.

Rusty Rabbit Review | Final Thoughts

It's worth mentioning, Rusty Rabbit's a pretty little game. The rabbits are so fluffy and distinct in their designs, but that leads to further disappointment when you find they have no personality outside of eye-catching designs. On top of that, environments are very cool -- NITRO PLUS makes a point to create visually distinct areas, and it does a lot to break up any sort of repetition.

There are definitely some issues with Rusty Rabbit, though, both in a narrative sense and in its gameplay, but it is still a perfectly adequate title. With its mostly smooth movement and platforming, as well as the therapeutic nature of drilling through blocks, Rusty Rabbit can still be an enjoyable little romp. It's just a game that, sadly, never achieves its full potential.

Rusty Rabbit was reviewed over approximately 18 hours of gameplay on PC with a key provided by the publisher. All screenshots were taken during the review process.