..Kung Fu Rabbit..

REVIEW |

It would suck to be the long-eared, square-ish protagonist of Kung Fu Rabbit. Think about it. He's at his temple along with his fellow rabbits, doing his kung fu thing, when monsters of absolute evil barge in and throttle him good, kidnapping the rest of the rabbits in the process. Yes, it would suck to be him.

With his friends in need of rescuing, our hero must sally forth through forest meadows, village rooftops, and cavern passageways to see to it that his quest ends victoriously. In order to do so, he must overcome the trials of over 60 levels that will test his platforming mettle, using as his weapons his ability to run, leap, and wall-jump with far more versatility than Mario (sorry, Nintendo).

One thing that works in Kung Fu Rabbit's favor is the smooth learning curve. The first few levels start you off slowly, teaching you how to run and leap, as well as mastering your ability to move up and down walls with your wall-jump. Gradually, various obstacles begin to appear, starting with oozing black pits of death, walls and platforms that blink in and out of existence, platforms that disappear right after you touch them, and spikes that pop in and out every other second or so. Further complicating things are the monsters that appear throughout the stages and that come in many forms. Most of these though, can be destroyed by hitting their weak spot, which can be done by coming at them from behind or above. That's not as easy as it sounds a lot of the time, as the monster's movements require one to time their moves right or die in the process.

Every level in Kung Fu Rabbit comes with four special carrots, which serve the same purpose as the stars in games like Cut the Rope, a means to add spice to a level. These carrots are usually placed in hard-to-reach or downright hazardous places, meaning you'll have to push your jumping skills to the max in order to clear stages with all the carrots and feel like a boss to boot. Winning carrots earns you points which can be used in the "Dojo", the game's shop equivalent. There, you can purchase items that have several uses like making our hero run faster, fall slower, kill enemies regardless of where he strikes, see hidden passages, and so on and so forth. The points you get from the carrots can even be used to buy harder versions of the game's levels, which feature more enemies, more traps, and more ways to die like a noob.

All in all, Kung Fu Rabbit is a rather simple game. All you do is run and jump. That's it. This simplicity is also apparent in the controls, which consists of just three buttons, two to move left and right, and one to jump. In terms of handling, the game performs well, as the moves and the jumps feel good. 

Unfortunately, a few issues appear every now and then in Kung Fu Rabbit. Being one who lacks dainty fairy-sized fingers, there where times when the closeness of the left and right buttons resulted in me pressing the wrong button, causing me to go left when I was trying to go right and, occasionally, causing me to fall into one of those black death-pits I mentioned earlier. Also, I noticed that in some cases, if I landed on the very edge of a platform, I would slide off as if landing on an iced surface. I believe this little sliding is meant to allow players to slide down walls with greater ease. Even if that's the case, it was frustrating to land on a platform, thinking "I did it!" only to fall off and think "I'm dead" a moment later. Ultimately, though, I believe many of those occurrences were the product of me timing my jumps like a dope, and not because the game was at fault.

Kung Fu Rabbit may not be for everyone. Being so focused on the platforming, it might not interest those who seek greater variety and more content. However, the game possesses plenty of merits, like its smooth controls and charming stylized visuals. There are plenty of platformers on the App Store, but Kung Fu Rabbit has enough charm to stand among the best it has to offer. 

After all, what other iOS platformer has monsters chuckling maniacally at your dead self after you tried attacking them from the wrong direction?

GameDynamo's Score for Kung Fu Rabbit (Mobile)

Peter Grimm A writer, journalist, and aspiring storyteller, Peter Grimm has been gaming since the days of the Nintendo 64, and reporting on the goings-on in the World of Gaming since late 2011. His base of writing operations is located within the void between Here and There, or so he would have you think.

[View Kung Fu Rabbit images / screenshots +]
[Watch Kung Fu Rabbit videos / trailers +]
[View more Kung Fu Rabbit articles (news, previews, reviews) +]
[View Kung Fu Rabbit cheats / guides +]