As fun as endless runner games can be, and I personally enjoy them quite a bit, they’re a bit of a creative dead end. Games in this genre generally are light on different styles of levels, and other than mistiming the occasional jump, it sometimes feels like there’s something missing to tie the player to the action on the screen. Bad Rabbit manages to put a fresh spin on the genre by giving the player a bit more say in the stake of the game, and it does so with a cool, comic book visual style that suits the game well.
The biggest change in Bad Rabbit from other endless games is that the player can actually die without falling off the screen. Yes, running too far off the screen will still kill you, but you’ll also contend with electrified walls and soldiers shooting at you, among other hazards. That you can die while running “perfectly” gives Bad Rabbit so much more intensity than the average endless game. It’s no longer about just memorizing the perfect route to jump, but also about avoiding the firing squad trying to take you out. In short, Bad Rabbit feels like more of a game than a concept, which is great.
Players also get two ways to play Bad Rabbit, one where they can run and jump on a horizontally scrolling screen and another where they “fall” down a vertical scrolling screen. There’s not a huge amount of difference from one mode to the next, but the variety is appreciated. Sometimes you feel like falling, sometimes you feel like running. Bad Rabbit has you covered either way.
Visually, Bad Rabbit has a way with colors and shading that reminds me of a comic book. It’s not cel-shaded to look like a comic drawing, but it looks a lot closer to a Saturday morning X-Men cartoon than it does a modern game.
If there’s a frustration with Bad Rabbit (and other endless games) it’s that you’re still confined to one basic level. It can get more than a little tiring seeing the same background and noticing the same checkpoints after repeated playthroughs. But I suppose the flip side of that statement is that Bad Rabbit is good enough to warrant going back to. It’s a fun, stylish arcade game that’s well worth the price.
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