The French “lapin” means “rabbit” in English, a word that can put fear in British hearts. Children of the 1980s and 1990s who watched the allegedly suitable for children 1979 animated movie Watership Down, based on the novel by Richard Adams, have the image of a typical rabbit’s fantasy life warped by that realism. Thankfully, decades on, both animated and live action films have created a happier narrative for the carrot eaters’ lives. Where does the platformer Lapin lie on the fuzzy versus fearful rabbit scale? 
Before commencing the curious rabbit tale, an option screen pops up regarding the difficulty level. It says the difficulty can be changed any time between the two settings, original and easy. Unfortunately this is a false statement. When the original setting became noticeably trickier for someone with intermediate platforming skills in chapter three, an attempt was made to change the difficulty, but the option box was nowhere in the settings menu or even on the title screen.
The decision was made to restart the game on the easier setting. Replaying the early chapters took less time than expected for two reasons. Firstly, prior knowledge of where to go facilitated progression. Secondly, in every conversation pressing the menu button displayed a skip feature that bypasses the dialogue to the next multiple choice question. There is no negative consequence from either of the choices within the chats. It simply helps increase the friendship between the furry team members. Once that friendship heart is maxed out, bonus scenes providing further background on the intriguing characters are available to watch, and can be rewatched countless times. No actual words are voiced, but each rabbit has sighs and various noises to convey tone, which helps flesh out their personalities.
Regardless of how any times the prologue is experienced, Lapin starts out with a positive spin on warren life. There is a mildly dark undertone to the narrative that is initially brushed off due to protagonist Liebe’s youthful innocence. Most of mystery about life before the burrow, in a place that sounds worse than life in Watership Down, has snippets of truth revealed gradually. The drip-feeding of information is a fine example of how Lapin layers its elements coherently and with a grace that caused a few pauses of gameplay to admire the artistry.
Liebe and his friends are forced to leave their comfy burrow, which has all modern conveniences like a PC, a fire to cook things, and a secret area that is revealed later on. They have a few possessions magically concealed in their simple cloaks too. These are supplemented with tools sourced from each area, which are put to use along with physics, helping the intrepid explorer Liebe’s simple movements, and are beautiful to watch. If Liebe doesn’t move for a period of time he flops down for a nap. Every jump is accompanied with a puff of cloud indicating his legs’ strength. He lacks fighting ability, so instead the emphasis is on evasion and using his strong hind legs to power traverse platforms and crucially hop against walls. While neither a spider nor a monkey, Liebe’s climbing capability allows him to cling to and slide down walls, and bunny hop up them as if his paws are sticky.
Escaping foes and navigating a path to action items all takes practice. Apart from the start when danger is sporadic and life as a travelling white-tailed mammal is serene, there aren’t time limits. When enemies or hazardous environmental elements are added, death happens a lot. Certain areas by necessity get replayed many times as jumping into water or random spikes ends in instant death. There is no health bar to act as a buffer. The section reloads almost instantly and there isn’t the fear of dying that a decreasing health bar induces. It is okay to impale oneself until the best timing is achieved.
Perhaps because of death’s insignificance, Lapin feels like a genuine good starting point for those new to platforming. Yes, the later stages require thought and quick reflexes, and some areas remain out of reach no matter how any times walls are scaled, but the charm of the graphic style reduces the pressure other platformers can bring out.
Seasoned players will pick up on the subtle undertones of the tale, especially when life for those outside the burrow is discussed. Some of the story is open to interpretation, and provides a lot of food for thought on rabbit spirituality. The worldbuilding is engaging, and it is easy to return to previous areas and try to find all the collectibles.
That is all true until the game-ending bug. Upon reaching chapter six on the easier difficulty, the game simply froze. Exiting and restarting didn’t unfreeze the screen. The menu system was completely inoperable. Deleting then reinstalling Lapin to the PlayStation 5 didn’t make a difference, neither did the update that happened at the same time as reviewing. Liebe doesn’t even appear on the screen, there is just an unmoving environment scene and no amount of button pressing makes him or the menu appear.
