“You’ve been chosen for a once in a life-time chance to compete in the ultimate dance off competition in Hollywood!” …….and getting to Hollywood, is not as easy as you might think.
Boogie Bunnies is a puzzler by Sierra and will eat away any spare time you think you might have. Cuter than a kitten in a tuxedo, the aim of the game is to match bunnies colour to colour - in a minimum of three, naturally. It’s an old idea, seen before in many colourful puzzle games, but I think it adds just enough to get away with it.
Arcade mode should be your first stop. Facing a game screen full of bunnies, you’re job is to fire a bunny from the bottom of the screen, up to a grid made up of said bunnies. Each group of bunnies you dismiss, in turn fills a meter located at the bottom of the screen. Entirely fill the meter and you’ll advance a level. However, if you let the bunnies descend too close to the bottom of the screen, then they’ll soon start dropping into a river, and bunnies can’t swim…..Very frustrating it is when you’re meter is almost full and you lose a couple of bunnies and it decreases by at least half, more often than not, you’ll be under the stress of one more death, and it’s game over - and nobody wants that. What makes this a little different, is the fact that as well as being able to move from left to right to aim your bunny, you can also travel up and down each side - this often proving to be a life saver and your main weapon in getting combo’s and chains. Obviously, much like any other game of this nature, combo’s help raise your meter and score vastly. I can only assume, because I’m really not entirely sure, that these combo’s and chains have something to do with the magical moment when a screen full of bunnies go into a well planned out dance routine. This is the kinda stuff that makes grown men tilt their head and go ‘Awwwwww……’ plus, for the limited time that the Boogie Bunnies are in full swing - you’ll be scoring double points.
As cute as Boogie Bunnies looks on the surface, it does get damn tricky during the latter stages, you’ll probably immediately struggle due to the unfamiliarity of the aiming system. Whilst you’ll always land dead on a bunny, it does have the tendency to be on the left or the right bunny of where you were actually aiming. Far be it for me to blame the game though, it’s purely down to the player. Whilst the free aiming seems odd at first, you’ll soon get used to it. If you do manage to beat the game, it’ll take you maybe a couple of hours, but Tetris can be beaten in 20 minutes, and that’s still gaming gold. The replay value is superb - especially if you’ve got folks from your friends list on the leaderboard.
Along with the arcade mode, there’s also an ‘Endless’ mode, which has the exact same structure as the arcade, but you’re playing to survive. Here your meter is already full, the aim is to keep it that way. ‘Classic’ mode offers perhaps an easier ride. Rather than the bunnies constantly working their way down the screen, in classic, they’ll only drop every three shots. This gives you however long you want and makes setting up combo’s a breeze. Surprisingly all three single player modes offer a different and satisfying gaming experience. There’s a local co-op mode as well, with each player taking it in turns to fire a bunny.
Boogie Bunnies, believe it or not, excels on Xbox LIVE. It almost has you working as a team - with your opponent - just so you can selfishly get your own score higher. Working in a similar fashion to the co-op, a ranked match sees you taking turns to shoot the bunny, here your meter is already full and the aim is to have more points than your opponent when the meter is empty. The only flaw I see is if you get two rather excellent players - it could literally last for hours. Saying this, my longest game was 15 minutes.
Visually, Boogie Bunnies does the job. Whilst the backgrounds and menus leave a lot to be desired, the actual bunnies look nice. It’s bright and colourful and should probably be wrapped up in a pink bow. The sound is even more sickly, but it’s surprisingly not annoying in the slightest, in fact I found the bunnies to be quite endearing and have fallen in love with the cheery scream they make when you rack up a huge combo.
I can’t do anything other than to whole heartedly recommend Boogie Bunnies, underneath it’s cutesy exterior lies a very challenging game that, most importantly of all, is fun to play. By far the highlight of the Xbox Arcade this year.
