King Rabbit
Furdemption’s sequel is a bit too fluffy
99¢ Developer RareSloth, raresloth.com Platform Universal Requirements iOS 7 or later
A while back, RareSloth released a game called Furdemption – a fast-paced puzzle game that had you, the royal rabbit, trying to escape Hell. It was difficult, tense, and adorable – but now the bunny’s out of Hell and back where he belongs, what’s he to do?
The answer comes in RareSloth’s new game, which we can only assume is a sequel, in which your quest is to save a lady rabbit from capture. Given that Furdemption had you saving rabbit souls from the depths of the underworld, it doesn’t feel quite as noble to just be saving some lady bunny from a cage – and does it have to be a lady, anyway? Saving princesses is so last year. The game itself is very similar – it’s a turn-based puzzle, which means swiping once in any direction will hop your little bunny-butt one square. Items you can interact with, by hopping into them, include levers, TNT, bombs, and crowns that give you special powers like, uh, being on fire. We never said it was scientifically accurate. Please don’t set your pets on fire.
Each level takes strategy and smarts to complete, and if that’s not enough of a challenge, there are various collectibles for the sharp-eyed player that add an extra level of difficulty.
Unfortunately, King Rabbit – while it does contain some interesting puzzle mechanics - feels incredibly generic in comparison to Furdemption. It has In-App Purchases, hence being cheaper than Furdemption, but the things you can buy are far too easy to come across by just playing the game. Although, is it a bad thing if microtransactions are badly implemented and not worth paying for? Hm.
At times, the game also feels a little rushed. Some levels are tightly designed, with one solution that you have to search for; others seem to have multiple solutions that feel wrong, but get you to the end either way. A puzzle game – especially one as simple and quick as this – should have one solution, and the level design should lead you toward it like a garden path. There’s not a lot of that, leaving some levels feeling more like a messy yard than a landscaped park. But for the kind of casual player who cares more about getting to the end than perfect level design, it shouldn’t be a huge problem.
the bottom line.
Occasionally unexciting level design and pressure to buy IAPs can be frustrating, but ultimately King Rabbit is pretty satisfying.