Game Reviews

Rabbids Big Bang

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Rabbids Big Bang
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Cutesy cartoon physics-puzzlers are the bread and butter of the App Store. There are so many you could use a twee catapult to fling an anthropomorphised creature in the general direction of iTunes and you'd probably hit one.

Which makes you wonder why Rabbids Big Bang is so poor. It's a cold and clinical jamming together of ideas that have worked in other games that dramatically fails to add any personality of its own into the mix.

It is, in short, a bit of a dud.

Rabid

The game casts you as a couple of the titular rabbit things. One has a baseball bat, the other has a jet pack. You aim a swing at your friend with the jet pack with a finger, and release to thwack.

Once the jet pack-wearing Rabbid is airborne you need to complete a mission. These range from collecting fuel orbs to flying a certain distance or reaching a set speed. You push a button to engage your jet pack, but it only has a set amount of fuel. Once that's gone you need to refuel by collecting orbs or, in a hilarious attempt at a joke, toilet paper.

There are a variety of different planetary bodies around the ground you set off from. They have their own gravitational pull, which you can use to slingshot around them and gain more speed.

What sounds like it should be a light and enjoyable romp is more like a dour, soggy afternoon tramp through an outdoor abattoir. Everything you have to do is muddled and obfuscated, and there's no feeling of connection to what's happening on-screen.

Raving

Physics-puzzlers need to get that sense of attachment right. Things need to crumble or catch in a way you believe, otherwise the spell is broken and you don't feel like the game is playing fair.

This, coupled with an alarming lack of personality, make for a game that's frustrating to play and utterly forgettable once you lay your phone or tablet down. I'd say it was a shame, but in a world that's almost full to the brim with cash-in physics-puzzlers, it's barely even a surprise.

Rabbids Big Bang

A dull and uninspired mess of a physics puzzler, Rabbids Big Bang is one to avoid
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.