Hello again!
Today's review is of a game I stumbled
over in the post Windows 7 haze of Sims failure. I desperately
wanted to play a simulation game, but I was unable to afford the
Sims, did not want to deal with babies, and was vastly annoyed at the
“repair” of the Rosebud cheat.
>:( Do not touch Filthy Casual's
cheats. FC loves her cheats. A lot. The Cheat will never die.
In my intense searching, I came across
several entertaining simulators, most on Facebook, but on a lonely
site called www.deadwhale.com
I found this gem. Without further ado, I present to you:
Bunni: How We First Met
At first glance,
Bunni seems to be a super-cartoony, Flash-animated girly-game, but it
is actually one of the few strategy/sim-style games I love. It has
the resource-gathering of an RTS game, but only two enemies (more on
them later), and it's a very relaxing experience, overall.
Let's get down
some vital statistics on this sweetheart.
Title: Bunni:
How We First Met
Developers: Andre
Spierings and Daniel Cook
Gameplay Style(s): world-builder,
sandbox, RPG, tactical, resource-gathering, strategy
Location:
www.deadwhale.com,
www.kongregate.com,
bunnibunni.com
Interface: mouse
only
Art:
The
art on this game is beautiful, colorful, and simple. I admire the
simple block shapes, the soft swells of the islands against the sea,
and how charming and child-like everything is. It's all broken down
into simple geometry with a candy-colored palette, which works
perfectly for the way the game is played and the way the story
develops. When your character moves, the shadows and the smoothness
of his hopping are neat, and you really feel like you're a rabbit on
a low-gravity planet, trying to save the world with mines, lumber
mills, and fruit trees.
When
I first started playing this game, the computer I was using was...
not in great shape. The cpu burned out at one point, the video card
started glitching, and the touch-pad was broken, but it still ran
Bunni
like a champ. In short, this game will run on your computer if you
can run flash. It's less complicated than an episode of Strongbad.
I
give the whimsy and graphic design of this art a solid 4 out of 5
Heart Containers.
Story:
You're
a white rabbit - all the rabbits are white, but you've got a crown!
You wake up on a beach with a ghost teaching you how to save the
islands. What happened here? Who is the blonde who keeps asking you
to run errands for her, and how can you convince her to marry you?
Can you save the Bunni Islands?
This
is a simple story. You wake up, you do the quests, you build the
world, you get the girl. However,
you start with so many questions that it's a joy to run through the
quests the first few times you play through to try and figure out all
the subtle stories within the main storyline. While most of your
quests will be for Coriander, the blond rabbit-girl, or Peach, the
Pirate Princess, you'll occasionally run into ghosts who want your
help. Some of the Islands can only be opened this way, but even when
that isn't the offered reward, it's usually still worth your while to
do these side quests.
For
its utter simplicity and easy accessibility, I give the story of this
game 3/5 Heart Containers.
Characters:
You
play a nameless white rabbit in a crown. Nothing is known about your
character. Nothing at all is revealed about him, either. He is a
total cipher, which some may find appealing, but I find a little
bland.
Next
we have Coriander. Oh Coriander, you are the most stereotypical
girlfriend character anyone could ask for. Sweet, demanding, and
blonde, Coriander is... not my favorite archetype. She's necessary
to move the game along but she is a much less interesting character
than Peach.
Peach!
I love Peach. Peach should be the girlfriend character. I would do
anything that girl asked me because I'd know I'd have fun at the end
of it. She sends you out to bribe monsters into obedience! My only
caution about this character (and this game, in fact) is that Peach
is... not for young children. She has a dance number near the end.
It goes on for a while. She's in a sparkly bikini. Yeah. Kinda not
for kids.
I
especially love Pirate Pete, who pays you for goods you drag over to
him, like trees, mines, or even Bunnies or Foxes (slave-trade,
much?). The first time you click on Pete, he tells a “dritty”
story, but that's the only typo I've found, and frankly, I find it
hilarious.
For
interesting character design and execution, though very generic, I
give this game 3 Heart Containers and 2 Pieces of Heart out of 5.
Sound
Design:
I
love the sound design in this game. Holy moly. It's simple, sparse
(at first), and it's almost zenlike. The background noise is
literally just birds chirping until you start some bunnies or foxes
or whatever working in the mills or mines. After the workers start
doing their jobs, there are little chimes of sound when you collect
stones or wood, hammering sounds, and sawing sounds. When you hop,
there is a brushing sound, like something moving through grass; a
louder and harsher version of this sound is used for when you shake a
fruit tree. There are little noises when you select things from your
inventory, and when you find something, there's an adorable horn cue.
Easily
4 Heart Containers out of 5.
Difficulty:
This
game is super simple. It took me no time at all to figure out, and
you're taught what to do and how in the first few minutes via text.
The instructions are easy to understand, and its ease of play does
not in the least impact how fun it is to play.
1
Heart Container out of 5.
Replay
Value:
Bunni
has a moderate replay value – you're only going to really see
reward differences from the fruit tree drops, but darned if it isn't
fun and relaxing to play over and over again!
3
out of 5 Heart Containers
Length:
Due
to the random nature of drops, it can take you anywhere from 2 to 72
hours to complete this game as far as you can. As of this review,
there seems to be a save-restore issue which prevents you from
logging out and logging back in again, leaving one heart unavailable.
Because
there is no way of knowing how long it will take, and because the
game can't really be completed anymore, I have to give Bunni
2
Heart Containers and 2 Pieces of Heart out of 5.
The
Pros:
- Tree Drops can give you literally anything in the game that isn't a scripted NPC, like a ghost or a named bunny.
- Fun and Relaxing.
- Simple and easy to follow storyline.
- Candy-sweet art style really appeals to me.
The
Cons:
- Tree Drops are so random that it can be difficult to get what you need in a sea of things that you don't even want (like deer or monsters).
- Can get monotonous after a while.
- Maybe it's a little too simple. It lacks real complexity.
- Art may not appeal to everyone.
Overall
Score:
Game
Difficulty: Incredibly Easy.
3
out of 5 Heart Containers total.
Final
Comments:
I
love, love, love this game. I play it about once a month just to
relax with, and it has proven to be a good source of stress relief.
Despite the issues with saving, it's simple to restart a game and get
pretty far a long most of the time. This was one of the first games
I ever played on Deadwhale, so you have Bunni: How We First
Met to thank for this blog in
many ways.
In
conclusion, I truly enjoyed playing this game, which led to me
enjoying the writing part of the review.
This
is the Filthy Casual signing off for now,
Go
Enjoy Something!
Bunni:
How We First Met was created by and is the property of Andre
Spierings and Daniel Cook (to my knowledge). If I have neglected
anyone in these credits, please let me know.
(Next
Time on Filthy Casual Reviews: Castaway)
