It used to be that mascot-like characters were a staple in video games. Today, it’s something relegated to IP-based games like SpongeBob, or indie throwbacks to the kinds of characters developers grew up with. Conker’s Bad Fur Day was the one time that gamers got a mascot themed game and while it was gloriously crass and vulgar, it garnered a cult following. The fact of the matter is it’s hard to sell cute characters unless they’re established IP. What if there was a mascot style game that catered to hardcore gamers, but also managed to not alienate the kiddies with a mature rating? From the creator of Fate/Zero and Psycho-Pass comes a new kind of mascot with Rusty Rabbit! 
Rusty Stamp is a seasoned, middle-aged rabbit with boomer-dad sensibilities who works tirelessly excavating the ruins of Smokestack Mountain. While he may be a cute white bunny, he is a grizzled, solitary working man, worn by years of toil. Preferring solitude, Rusty unwinds by smoking carrot-like cigars and drinking liquor after grueling workdays, seeking respite from his junking. His primary pursuit is collecting scrap and relics, a task he undertakes with relentless dedication. Rusty’s quiet existence is disrupted when a group of inexperienced young prospectors arrive in town. Their naivety repeatedly draws Rusty into their troubles as he begrudgingly intervenes to save their rookie hides.
Rusty Rabbit features extensive dialogue and cinematic cutscenes interwoven with exploration segments. The narrative is notably robust, with a dense atmosphere and well crafted, voice acted dialogue that showcases the creator’s expertise in visual novels and television. The meticulous attention to character interactions and storytelling underscores the game’s commitment to a rich, immersive narrative experience. The setting depicts a desolate, abandoned iteration of Earth, where remnants of humanity manifest as relics and ancient ruins. In this post-apocalyptic setting, the story of Peter Rabbit is seen as holy scripture and dialogue is peppered with fictional slang, drawing the player into a strange post-human world.
Exploring Smokestack Mountain involves drilling through junk deposits within a labyrinthine environment. The 2.5D visual presentation employs a cost-effective approach, relying heavily on prefabricated assets in a tile-like design for nearly all environmental elements. The environment itself, dominated by flat surfaces and boxy structures, lacks visual complexity and rarely has any slopes, creating a stark contrast with the naturalistic narrative. Control mechanics further detract from the experience. Rusty’s mech, Junkster, feels sluggish and has rigid movement, with jumping feeling sticky. The jet booster’s physics are chaotic, often propelling Junkster unpredictably and complicating navigation, undermining the overall fluidity of gameplay.
The standout feature of Rusty Rabbit lies in the customisation of Junkster. Players can extensively modify the mech by mixing and matching a diverse array of weapons and components, catering to a wide range of playstyles. The expansive skill tree offers numerous abilities, enabling players to enhance Stamp’s capabilities and transform Junkster into a formidable machine. However, the customisation cannot fully mitigate the persistent issues with the controls, which remain sluggish and imprecise regardless of upgrades. While boss battles provide a moderate challenge, the primary difficulty stems from adapting to the unwieldy mechanics, which hinder overall playability.
Exploration centres on the core mechanic of drilling and digging through box-shaped cells within Smokestack Mountain, hitting switches, collecting keys, battling bosses, and helping the ragtag BBs. Though the visual design appears simplistic, the developers expand this concept with surprising depth, incorporating numerous traps and clever gear-gating mechanisms that add strategic complexity to navigation and progression. While featuring a deceptively cute bunny mascot piloting a mech, the narrative explores mature themes such as humanity’s extinction. It’s best described as a “working class Pikmin” style narrative with a very dad-like protagonist.
The rugged and industrial visuals contrast amusingly with the cuddly character designs. The mechs and heavy gear are all weathered and worn out, like they have been used. Even Rusty’s attire is designed in a way where he looks like he’s dressed like a garbage man. The look and feel of the game is very down-to-earth and raw. Nothing is designed to look traditionally “cool”, but leans in the direction of pragmatism and utility. The fur effect for the critters is also impressively convincing, making the characters resemble plush toys. Rusty Rabbit looks good and runs very fluidly on PlayStation 5. It never hitches or has lengthy load times, and for a modest Unreal 4 game, it’s about as polished as it can be.
