Bunny rabbits, happy, cute and cuddly animals that are as gentle as they are adorable. Well for Studio229 and its first virtual reality (VR) title Hangry Bunnies from Mars those details are a myth, kind of. As the title gears you up with some destructive weaponry to take out scores of white, bouncing, menacing fur balls that are hell bent on destroying mankind.
They’re not real bunnies of course, in fact upon closer inspection you actually find out they are aliens from Mars, disguising themselves to better infiltrate the Earth to bring about its downfall. So that’s the basic gist of the story, setting you up for a light-hearted kill fest that’s about staying alive as long as possible.
If you didn’t realise by now, Hangry Bunnies from Mars is a wave shooter that mixes up a colourful art style, humorous narration and a few guns for your enjoyment. But in a VR market that’s overrun with this genre of title can Hangry Bunnies from Mars standout and be worthy a place in your content library? Well yes and no.
Set in an impressive looking cityscape, the title puts you in the middle of a three junction street with enemies systematically coming down one after the other and as the level progresses they then start appearing down all three roads. As you may expect things start off relatively easy, with the standard bunnies (Fluffies) attacking, as they get shot they turn into their evil alien forms. The difficulty then ramps up steadily with larger hordes and some new foes, little flying scouts that whizz through the air and the heavies, giant almost mini boss like bunnies that require concentrated firepower to kill.
With the guns Studio229 has gone for an active unlock system which will give you a new gun once you reach a certain point. So it starts off with a pistol of sorts, then a pair of machine guns and finally a vacuum/grenade combo which sucks up enemies to be fired out as explosive ordinance. To further aid progress two special abilities are available, the Critter Cluster Cannon that can suck bunnies up and fling them away or the Hare Spray to disorientate all of them.
So the good news, Hangry Bunnies from Mars is really nicely put together, production values are top notch. It looks good, guns handle well and the gameplay is suitably fast and furious so it’s fun to play. The downside is the lack of content in a field that has some very good videogames in it already. Studio229 is competing with the likes of Secret Locations Blasters of the Universe, Stress Level Zero’s Duck Season, Epic Games’ Robo Recall or Survios’ Raw Data to name just a few.
There’s only one level and you’re stuck to the spot. Only three guns and the re-playability factor is solely limited to a global leaderboard. What Hangry Bunnies from Mars needs is more variety, it may not be priced as a premium experience but it feels somewhat hollow. It has potential to be one of the quirkiest VR wave shooters available, in its current form however most gamers will probably play a few rounds then move onto something else.
Awesome
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Verdict