Radical Rabbit Stew Review – Food for the Soul

Did you know that in Australia, rabbits are classified as pests? They aren’t liked much at all because they eat all the indigenous fauna and are impossible to eradicate because they reproduce at a breakneck pace. So the idea of a game that’s about turning them into stew sounds like a good time to me as opposed to horrifying. It wouldn’t have surprised me if the developers were Australian too. They aren’t though, the developers, Pugstorm and their newest game Radical Rabbit Stew are actually from Sweden. However, it’s nice to see the idea of dwindling the Rabbit population is accepted in other regions.

https://youtu.be/pOa7sTusOS4

In a galaxy far away, there is a legendary space diner, which is home to the legendary space chefs. Little did they know, the Rabbit Queen was jealous and came up with a plan to use her rabbit army to abduct them. Luckily, a small blue cleaning boy, controlled by the player, avoided this ploy and ended up plotting revenge. The idea around this quest for redemption simply revolves around you beating the hell out of rabbits to save the chefs.

It’s mostly a goofy puzzle game, and with a name like Radical Rabbit Stew, I’d be absolutely baffled if you expected some in-depth tale. You’re presented with a world map, and you travel across this land, clearing stages, unlocking items, and earning fancy coins in detailed and fluid 16-bit graphics. One of the best parts about the entire experience is the absolutely killer beats, no pun intended.

During stages, the goal is to hit the rabbits that spawn and fling them into pots of stew. One whack with the wooden spoon will stun them, and another will send them flying in the direction you’re facing. There are no time limits, but these rabbits are evil and aggressive and will try to vore you. Each stage is exceptionally creative, adding an increasing number of ways for you to whack rabbits and send things flying across the map. To top of a group of levels are boss fights, which each have fun little gimmicks and animations.

Eventually, you’ll come across chests that contain health boosters and upgrades. These upgrades will add more elements to play with, such as a bigger spoon and grappling hook. I especially enjoyed the grappling hook as it works like a claw to get around the map. Radical Rabbit Stew is definitely at it’s best when all these elements work together. It’s all rather surface level where puzzle-action fans will easily get through most of the game’s offering rather quickly.

There’s a big focus on increasing complexity in puzzles by increasing the sheer scale of them by introducing additional movement options, as the scale of the puzzles increase they don’t actually get any more complex, which may annoy some players. To get the most of the experience is to take in bite-size portions, this isn’t something you’d want to binge during an afternoon. Thankfully, the difficulty scale overall is pretty manageable, and newcomers to the genre will find their way to the end without much of a problem.

On top of your single-player mode, there is also a four-player local multiplayer mode, which is a contest of who can stew enough rabbits together for maximum points. You can select from a few different preset maps with their own gimmicks to flavor up the match. Additionally, there is a stage builder feature where you can just go to town and make whatever you damn well please.

Radical Rabbit Stew is a simple and intuitive puzzle game that is easy to pick up and play for a quick bit of fun. It ends up hitting all the right beats for an intuitive adventure that doesn’t require a massive investment of time from the player. The visual and musical make for the perfect ingredients for this enjoyable experience.