Bunny Skater: Ehh…what’s up Doc?
As bunnies often do, negotiate your way through levels of platforms, cacti,
improbable railings and indifferently aggressive animals with your skateboard
and limited repertoire of tricks, while collecting as many carrots as you can.
Trade in your carrots to customize your bunny and buy from a range of power-ups
to get even more carrots.
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| Games android: Bunny Skater |
At first glance, Bunny Skater has all the essential ingredients for a great,
addictive game, one of those that you can go to whenever and whatever your mood.
You’ve got the easy-to-use controls, the short and snappy levels, the bright
(but not obnoxiously so) colours, a range of power-ups and customization and a
familiar but just distinct enough game concept. Oh, and a cartoon animal as well
for good measure. Everything seems to be set up nicely for a big success, which
is why it’s disappointing and frustrating for the overall product to fall
short.
The problem lies in the fact that not enough is shown on the screen for you
to anticipate what is coming next. For instance, you could jump from a platform
and end up in a cactus patch that you see only after it’s too late. You could
ride up a ramp only to realize that you needed to accelerate more because the
jump gap requires full speed. The information you need is often not given to you
until after you execute. The only possible approaches are memory (Die and then
remember what’s coming) or trial and error to decide how much to accelerate,
when to jump or if to jump.
Of course, other similar games also have this potential problem, but there
are many ways around it, and usually at least one is employed. You could give
the user the option to zoom out, giving the trade-off of having more time to
react but to see the level with less detail. Perhaps the gamer could go
backwards or double-jump in order to adjust a first hunch. None of these are
possible here sadly. Although it could be argued that these types of gameplay
mechanics make the game easier, what you have without them is simply an
artificial difficulty, one that feels cheap and unfair.
With myself often playing this like a rabbit caught in the headlights, I
can’t give this game a genuine recommendation. However, there is plenty of room
for improvements and hopefully the developers will apply some in updated
versions of the future.
Rating: 3/5
Developers: Candy Mobile
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