PEGBRJE: Oh Jeez, Oh No, My Rabbits Are Gone!!! and Hyper Gauntlet: Legacy of the Nozzlethruster III
CONTINUED GOOD VIBES ONLY
Oh Jeez, Oh No, My Rabbits Are Gone!!! is the light novel-esque title for an adorable puzzle adventure made by Studio Nevermore, an indie studio of devs from different walks of life. Here, players follow a curious individual who owns a plethora of bunnies and lives peacefully with them all. Unfortunately, something occurs during the night, causing them all to flee in terror; it’s up to the player to track them all down and get them back no matter what.
Much of the game is spent exploring the world in search of our lost friends, jumping across platforms and climbing up walls to traverse the colourful environment. In a slight twist, players are not actually ‘collecting’ the bunnies upon locating them. Instead, we are helping them find burrows nearby to dive in to that lead back home by giving them commands. These commands can be given to a single bunny or the entire screen’s bunnies, and originally involve simplistic movements like ‘go’ and ‘stop’. The complexity comes instead from how the player must manipulate the world around the bunnies to ensure that they can move confidently, avoiding dangers such as anti-bunnies or accidentally sending them off a ledge to a location they cannot get out of. Thankfully there are resets for the ‘room’ itself, allowing for quick attempts at more challenging or time-based puzzles. Complexity also arises when players are introduced to the different kinds of bunnies, such as blue ribboned bunnies that are well trained and have access to new abilities, headphone wearing bunnies that cannot hear commands, or angry bunnies that require a treat to become happy. All of these factors are utilized as the game progresses, with puzzles becoming more layered and challenging yet supremely rewarding if only because the bunnies are so cute when they hop in.
Full disclosure, I’ve been informed that this is a title very similar to the Oddworld series, but unfortunately I haven’t played a single title in the franchise to be able to compare the two.
As one might guess, the bunnies are absolutely what sold the entirety of the game for me; the animations for how they hop, the way the player calls out to them and the cool little tricks that they’ll do if they can is so unbelievably adorable. Even the anti-bunnies and whatever those other terrifying things are is also relatively cute thanks to the fantastic art style which is consistent and soft. This does lead to some things looking almost too nice, if that makes sense. There are a few walls that seemingly blended into the backdrop — mostly because they were ones that would disappear, I reckon. The commands menu is a little hard to see and understand, but it’s helped by the extra little wordings and symbols that accompany them.
Regardless, Oh Jeez, Oh No, My Rabbits Are Gone!!! is an adorable puzzle title that is able to balance it’s fantastic mechanics with a theme that actively made me aim to 100% it. If you’re looking for a game that makes you feel comfy while solving some command-based puzzles, this is definitely a title to try out.
Hyper Gauntlet: Legacy of the Nozzlethruster III is a reactive endless ‘dodger’ made by Nicholas Udell, a solo British indie dev. Players have been subject to the Hyper Gauntlet, a rapid paced course in which hitting walls is the only way to lose, but unfortunately every passed wall is a sign of success, meaning that the gauntlet wants to go faster.
In the similar vein that is Super Hexagon, players are given no ending in sight, only told to survive as long as possible to some sweet tunes. The camera itself is the player, and the only way to continue is to ensure a lack of collisions with the blocks which are placed in the 9 locations the player can place themselves. Successfully dodging the wall grants points and will start to speed up the game at regular intervals, causing more possibility for error. The only saving grace players have is in the space bar, which has the ability to slow down time for as long as it is held, or until the time-slowing fuel runs out as indicated by the bar. I actually found myself rarely using it, for whenever I did I ended up hitting a wall regardless due to becoming accustomed to the faster pace. Time also slows upon contacting with a wall to allow for some minor recovery before going straight back to speed. That doesn’t mean the feature is bad; it’s quite a useful feature for anyone that’s able to utilize it effectively. I’m just not one of those people.
Add in the amazing soundtrack that seems almost necessary for these styles of games, and Hyper Gauntlet comes to life as a an infinite replayable dodger. It doesn’t look like much, but those shiny blocks are misleadingly hypnotic as they wiz past; almost to the point of getting addicted to the sound they make as they go by. You’ll keep thinking about going again as it somehow balances crushing difficulty of highspeed collisions, yet eases you in with its simplicity and lower early difficulty. If you want to suddenly lose an hour or so trying to get good and reach those leaderboards, then definitely give this one a go.
