Holobunnies comes at the end of a lot of work from new indie developer q-Bit Games and it seems to have paid off. This isn’t even the final product of all of their work and I’m already impressed. This is a spin-off title to the upcoming Holobunnies: The Bittersweet Adventure that will be releasing in Q1 2018. This cute little spin-off game is designed to showcase the assets and what the game, its characters, combat, and engine will be capable of. There’s actually a lot here that should be able to pique our interest and tide us over until their next game releases early next year.
There are three different modes to choose from and each one helps showcase a little something from the game’s development process and no doubt how some things will work in The Bittersweet Adventure. Kitcat’s Adventure, Boss Rush Mode, and 1v1 Battle Mode are the three options and combined they create a nice little package. My personal favorite was KitKat’s Adventure but I’m a huge fan of both runners and platformers so that came as no surprise to me. That’s right, this mode is a runner style mini-game with 10+ levels to play through and you can try to compete against your times and scores. For those unfamiliar with the genre of runner games, your character moves automatically and you control the jumping and, in some cases, manipulate the movement of your character with the environment or items. It’s a really fun and definitely my favorite.
There are over 10 levels to play and even though I completed all of them, I know I’ll continue to replay the levels in an effort to improve on both times and scores. The level design for these was mostly good with only a few spots that didn’t feel up to par with the rest of the game’s design. It can get pretty difficult in some spots but there are checkpoints that will help ease the pain. One issue I do have with this mode is that you can’t restart the level. If you end up in a spot after a checkpoint that you’re not fond of or you simply want to use your new knowledge of the level layout to try for a better time, you have to quit all the way back to main-menu. Yeah, you can’t even quit back to the ‘Pause Cafe’ hub world. And that applies for all three modes. When you’re finished, you need to quit back to the main menu and it just isn’t good design because it discourages you from playing another mode. If you were done playing KitKat’s Adventure but wanna play some Boss Rush Mode, you’ll more than likely end up just quitting and walking away since the game adds extra steps to just go back and play a different mode. It just intuitive design nor does it make any sense.
Holobunnies‘ Boss Rush Mode is my other favorite mode. These bosses are presumably from the upcoming main game and that has me that much more excited to play it when it releases. These bosses are mostly designed well and they just seem to raise so many questions about the game and its universe. You’ll find yourself wanting to know more about them. They clearly have an origin, a story, and a place within the world but we’re not given that context, or at least not yet. This doesn’t hurt the game at all. It just increases my excitement for the full release because there are some really thoughtful design choices with the levels of this game and with the characters and enemies as well. The battles can be pretty tough in some cases but the combat is fun. You can maneuver around the arena by walking, jumping, or using your jetpack that works for a few seconds. It may take you a few seconds to find the weak spot or how to damage the boss but in typical retro fashion, once you find that and learn the patterns it’s all about timing. These battles are a lot of fun. I can’t wait to see how this combat translates into the full release of the main game next year.
There’s also a 1v1 Battle mode but I have two issues with it. It’s only local and you can’t play against bots. It’d be nice to be able to experience the combat of this game without fighting against a boss or needing to track someone down in real life. Local multiplayer is fun but without bots or someone to play against, you can’t play it. I wish there was online multiplayer but if I had to pick between one or the other then I wish there were bots. Then I could just play with no questions asked and kill enemies for a few minutes at a time, and not have to fight a more difficult single enemy in Boss Rush mode just to enjoy some combat.
The game controls well with a keyboard but there’s also full native controller support as well. The UI updates accordingly when you’re using a controller as well so you won’t even have to fumble through and figure out the controls. I played with the Steam controller and personally preferred it over the keyboard controls. The keyboard controls are great, though. I didn’t have any issues with them. I just prefer controllers for 2D platformer style games as I feel like I have more control.
I love the music of Holobunnies. It’s rock inspired music and despite being on the heavier side of things it’s melodic and feels retro too. It’s fitting of the game and adds a lot to it. It keeps the flow of the action going no matter what mode you’re playing in. There were a few times that I experienced a bug where the Pause Cafe music would keep playing when I started a mode but when I quit back to the main menu and jumped back into the mode the issue was resolved.
Holobunnies is a really cute game with a lot of good humor, gameplay, and great graphics as well. It’s also good marketing because this is a complete package, albeit a small one, but it also helps raise awareness for the full game that will be releasing early next show and helps show off some of the characters, assets, and gameplay. I can’t wait to play The Bittersweet Adventure as this developer seems to be one that’s focused on even the smallest of details. I’m hoping they patch this game and fix the music bug and also add the ability to restart levels or at least the option to quit back to the Pause Cafe.
To see more information on this title from the developer and to purchase it when it releases on 3/22, check out its Steam page. To see more information on the main game Holobunnies: The Bittersweet Adventure you can click here.
A review copy of Holobunnies was provided by Nkidu Games inc. for the purposes of this review.
Holobunnies was a fun game even though it’s a small package. The price hasn’t been released yet but I’m sure this will have a lot of bang for its buck and help raise interest for the full main game coming early next year. Make sure to check out our full review of The Bittersweet Adventure when that releases as well! To see my thoughts on games as I play through them, you can follow me on Twitter at @Mrjoshnichols.