The Rub Rabbits!

"Zany and entertaining, but no replay value whatsoever."

I've always had a soft spot for quirky games. I don't know what it is about them that appeals to me, but what I do know is that I can always get some enjoyment out of weird games, even if the gameplay isn't necessarily that great. I saw this game cheap, and I'd heard about what this game was like, so I decided to try it out.

The story of this game isn't particularly deep, but then did you really expect it to be? Basically, you are playing as some unnamed guy, when he suddenly meets a girl, and immediately falls in love with her. Unfortunately, so do a dozen other guys, so he must compete for her affection. Meanwhile, a girl who fancies the main character gets jealous when he doesn't return her affections, and so she plots to take him by force. Really, the whole story is just there to give some explanation behind all of these unrelated minigames.

The main good thing about this game is the large variety of things that you have to do with the touch screen in order to win. There are around thirty or so minigames in total, and throughout the game you'll have to poke, prod, rub and blow in order to accomplish such tasks as running up an escalator, sending a love disc to the girl of your dreams, breathing fire at robots, throwing snowballs at an angry bear and even using a rose to serenade the girl. As I said before, this game is weird, but it's the good kind of weird.

How fun the minigames are varies wildly. Some of the minigames are great fun. One game that I particularly enjoyed was one where you row a log through shark-infested waters, and other fun ones include having to avoid heart bombs while tied up, and trying to rescue your girlfriend through the use of a giant snowball, among other things. However, some games are rather tedious and uninteresting. For example, there's one game where you simply have to press the keys on a piano which are lighted up, and there's another where you play a rather stupid version of ‘Simon Says'. However, for the most part the good games outweigh the bad, and the game as a whole is pretty fun.

It's hard not to appreciate the artistic talent that went into this game as well. The characters are unusually designed, with the characters having no facial features and being completely black, like mannequins, but it seems to fit the game as a whole pretty well. In addition, the characters are animated very well on the whole, and there are several small details that add an extra touch to the graphics. The backgrounds aren't particularly special, but they're good enough, and chances are you won't notice them all that much. The scenes between the games are also quite good in terms of looks. Just before a game starts, there are four pictures showing the situation; two at the top and two at the bottom, and before then the still pictures look bright and colourful as well.

The music in this game is also pretty good. Most of the music in this game consists of modern, upbeat versions of classical music, like Mozart, and it sounds like it was recorded with the main intent being to focus on the use of voices, rather than the instruments, and overall I would say that it fits the zany nature of this game perfectly. Unfortunately, the sound effects can get pretty annoying sometimes, and the game recycles old sound effects from other games a fair bit. It's a shame too, because it detracts a lot from the good music of the game.

So the game has good music, artistic graphics and the game as a whole is wholesome, quirky fun. If you've read the review up to this point, you're probably wondering why I didn't rate it any higher than 6/10. The answer is simple: there is no replay value whatsoever. As amusing as the main story is, you'll be done with it within two to three hours, easily done within a day, and after that there's not much incentive to play it ever again.

To be fair, the game does try and add some replay value. As well as the main story, are also a few extra modes to fiddle around with, but unfortunately they aren't very interesting or fun. Once you've beaten the game, you can replay the minigames to try and beat the extra five levels, but you don't get much reward for it. The only result is that you have more points to spend on making your girl look different. There are many different skirts, shoes and hair styles to customise her with, but doing so is rather pointless and a bit boring. There are also some multiplayer games, including one called ‘Baby making', where you enter your birthdays, and then cut a cake together to make a baby, and these are passable the first time round, but are too repetitive to be played over and over. You can also play ‘Another Story', but it's basically five of the games in the main story all over again, making it short and completely unoriginal.

All in all, this game is good, light-hearted entertainment, but it won't last you very long. Therefore, this game makes a great rental if you're bored and want a small dose of gaming goodness. I wouldn't recommend that you buy this game though, unless you see it really cheap, because once you've completed it, there's nothing worthwhile left doing, and this game will simply sit on the shelf and collect dust.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/02/09

Game Release: The Rub Rabbits! (EU, 02/10/06)