XBLA in Brief: Boogie Bunnies
We occasionally do hands-on features (or even full reviews) of certain Xbox Live Arcade games or demos that catch our fancy. There are other games, though, that slip through the cracks. So, this week we're endeavoring to give you a quick glance at Boogie Bunnies. Honestly, Boogie Bunnies isn't worth much more than a quick glance anyway, at least if the trial version is anything to go by. Boogie Bunnies is a by-the-numbers puzzle game through and through, and not a great one at that. The objective is simple, faced with an oncoming grid of ridiculously cute multicolored bunnies, you must launch your bunny into others of the same color. Connect three or more and they will disappear. Doing this cleverly will cause other bunnies to fall into other bunnies of the same color, thus destroying them and creating a chain reaction. And that's pretty much it. Oh, wait, the red bunnies also destroy other bunnies adjacent to them, like a bomb. And that's pretty much it.
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Even with the limited trial game (you get two levels), it's easy to see that there are a few inherent problems here. First of all, it can be hard to tell exactly where your shots will land if you try to play quickly. If you pay attention to the grid of bunnies, the one you will hit with your shot will start dancing. That's a nice indicator, but we'd rather have an intrinsic feel as to where the shot will go. Also, there is no preview for which color you get next. This sort of preview has become commonplace in puzzle games, and its absence makes winning feel more like luck and less like strategy. You can aim your shots from the side as well as the front, which is nice, but again, aiming takes longer than it should.
It's not a bad game by any stretch. The graphics are decent, the sound effects are adorable, and the gameplay is passable. That said, it's no better than the myriads of free puzzle games you could play on the internet, and there are definitely better puzzle games to be had on Xbox Live Arcade. Let's put it this way, if you like Boogie Bunnies at all, then try Lumines, Puzzle Fighter, Zuma, Luxor 2, or Astropop instead. They cost the same (800 MS Points) or less and they're more fun.
