NetEase
My preferred thing about going to an event likeSummer Game Festisn’t playing big - budget deed I ’ve been look to for years — it ’s finding stuff I ’ve never get word of . Last year ’s show introduced me toCocoon , which ranked high on my own year - closing list for 2023 . This year , I once again have find oneself a hidden gem on the Summer Game Fest show floor that ’s become my most awaited game of the fall : Rusty Rabbit .
When I sit down for a meeting with NetEase for a hands - off demonstration , I jazz nothing about the upcoming 2.5D platformer beyond its name . My eyes lit up as soon as the developer on hand commence talking about it and showing me gameplay . It ’s the most ludicrous elevator pitch I ’ve ever heard for a biz , one that bursts from the top of the building and retain pass away into the stratosphere .
Rusty Rabbit is aMetroidvaniaset in a postapocalyptic world . It ’s not a dystopian plot , though . While humans have abandon Earth , adorable talking rabbit have inherit it . In the years adopt mankind ’s nightfall , rabbits began to find out about human society through the art and tech they left behind — but they ’ve read it all wrong . They patch together that rabbit are a choose backwash create by God and quite literally cogitate that the bookPeter Rabbitis the Word , telling the story of “ St. Peter . ”
If your jaw is already on the trading floor , it ’s about to go even lower .
The risky venture stars a in-between - of age rabbit bring up Stamp who “ mountain chain - smokes ” carrot . He ’s a scrapyard tinkerer who has make himself a fancy mech that can dig up worthful metal . If you watch the trailer and feel like his Japanese voice actor sound familiar , that ’s because he ’s sound by Takaya Kuroda , the vocalisation of Kiryu Kazuma in theLike a Dragon serial . I swear to God I am not create this game up .
All of that alone would already have me sold , but I was especially buy in after watch over a alive demo . Rusty Rabbit is a 2.5D activity platformer where Stamp barrels through junkyards in his mech . He has four different weapons , which let in a shotgun and sword . He also has a Mandrillus leucophaeus that can cut through blocks of metal and give him experience point in gameplay , which is reminiscent of the excellentSteamworld Dig . After leveling up , Stamp can advance all of his weapons to unlock a bass lean of upgrade and jazz group . It ’s a shockingly deep combat and traversal system . Some late game upgrade I saw had him flying around with a jetpack and doing multi - hit jazz band with his sword .
While its action mechanism ( including a foreman fighting against a bit of heavy machinery ) looks strong , it ’s the absurd visual style and humor that is string me in . The coney themselves look valued , which stimulate the fact that they ’re problematic scavengers with grizzled voices all the more funny . Several jokes had me laugh out loud in the demonstration too . My bunch is holler the “ BB ’s , ” but none of my pals can gibe on what that actually stands for . One bit of talks had every character say a wholly different acronym as they talked about the group . It ’s a hysterical slice of Abbott and Costello - style drollery and I ’m quick for more .
With a September 24 sacking date confirm , Rusty Rabbitfeels primed to become 2024 ’s most eclectic release . Plenty of game with oddball concepts like this incline to be one - joke memes , butRusty Rabbitdoesn’t looking at like it ’s falling into that trap . Its Metroidvania gameplay seems surprisingly mystifying and brisk , adding its own tailspin to the music genre with its glass - collecting gameplay . If it ’s even half as delightful as what I saw this weekend , I ’ll be there for it on twenty-four hours one .
Rusty Rabbitlaunches on September 24 for the PlayStation 5 and PC .
