Blast ‘Em Bunnies Review

Blast ‘Em Bunnies is a first person endless shooter game developed and published by Nnooo Games. It is released on Xbox One on March 11th 2016, at a price of £3.99/$4.99. A press review copy was provided for The Hidden Levels.

In Blast Em Bunnies there is only one real goal: Survive waves of endless bunnies who are trying to kill you or steal your carrots. At least that’s what I imagine because there is no actual story behind the game and if there is, it’s not really explained well. The game has two modes: Survival and Onslaught. In survival you must survive for as long as you can were the waves of enemies get progressively harder. During onslaught you have 60 seconds to kill as many enemies as you can, you are also invincible which adds to the fun.

What I enjoyed:

Music and Sound – The music is really upbeat and cheerful which added to the eerie vibe the game had. The bunnies are really cute when they talk and I found all audio really good in terms of quality and mixing with the theme.

Missions and Upgrade System – If it was not for the long list of missions and the upgrade system the game would have bored me a lot quicker and had a much shorter life span. Thankfully the game keeps itself interesting by providing multiple upgrades to your weapon. The upgrades make your playing time feel rewarded and provide you with a long list of objectives which tie in well with the achievements.

Achievements! – From the start of the game I constantly had achievements being thrown at me. That’s not to say they are all easy. The game comes with a total of 72 achievements ranging from killing 3 enemies in 10 seconds to the extreme of killing 10,000 bunnies. There was certainly some detail put into the achievement system for the game.

Sinister Cuteness – The vibe the game creates is quite amusing. Bunnies are pretty cute and somehow manage to be even cuter when they are slowly waddling through the grass wielding a big knife whilst missing an eye and being very tatty. It’s got a certain Tim Burton-esque quality to it in that regard.

Challenging – From the start of the game I found it pretty challenging even on easy. This was fixed by grinding my way through the levels and unlocking more attachments for my gun and unlocking more health. The game comes with three difficulties: easy, normal and super.

Graphics – I found the graphics to be really colorful and pretty well done. What really added to the game was the day and night cycle which kept things from being the same and switched it up a lot more. I really enjoyed the bright colors. The models may be a bit jagged but in terms of overall appearance it’s an interesting and intriguing game.

What I disliked:

Audio Sliders and minimum of options (vibration ON) – The game only has settings for Music off. I would’ve loved some more complex options like Vibration off and the ability to have audio sliders so I can get a good audio level. This is something that may seem to be a small touch but really helps for those users who want to customize their experience.

Abundance of DLC – It’s great they have a good amount of DLC but this is in stark contrast to the low amount of content you initially get access to. Although for the entry level you are only paying a little fee I still feel it would’ve been better to have more base content instead of having very little base content with a plethora of DLC. This pricing model is not one that should be employed for non episodic games generally and lends to our score greatly.

Leaderboards – I feel if leader boards were added it would bring on a whole new level of competitiveness with friends. Leader boards from total bunnies killed to longest time survived would have been a real excellent addition. This is a simple mechanic that adds substantial replay value and should be in any game with an endless mode.

No Story or explanation – There is no story or backbone behind the game. You are plotted in a location and expected to defend against an onslaught of enemies for no apparent reason. You are even a bunny yourself! Generally even a short story can help bring life to a game but plot was completely omitted in this case.

I am very happy that they have added challenges and achievements to this game as without them the base game would be very bland indeed providing only 1 arena and 1 enemy skin. If you want to invest in the DLC bundle, you can add so much more spice to the game because it adds a lot more skins and arenas which keeps the game fresh. The top tiered package even adds bonus multipliers making the coins earned go really quickly. Here are the bundles in which you can purchase:

5 Skin and Arena Bundles: US$/€ 3.99 each.
All Skins and Arena Bundle: US$/€ 9.99. Contains all of the skins and arenas.
Mega Bundle: US$/€ 14.99: Contains all of the skins, arenas and multipliers.
Super Mega Bundle US$/€ 19.99: This contains the game, all skins, arenas and multipliers.

I feel they should have had a single price with all the content and having the multipliers be the optional purchases. With all these different prices, potential customers like me tend to get pulled away as I prefer just seeing one price instead of multiple even if they have made it as clear as they have.

I do admit however the DLC was really fun and added a lot to the game, in fact I feel the game needs it to not quickly lose its lifespan but the price is very off putting. The base game alone ($4.99 option) is just too bland and limited in contrary to the amount of fun you can have with the DLC and for this reason I score this game a wait for a sale.

Score: Wait for a sale.