Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit - New Game of the Day #51

HELL YEAH! WRATH OF THE DEAD RABBIT – New Game of the Day #51

What? An ultra-violent, brightly-animated action-platformer modelled with more than a touch of retro homage

When? Summer 2012

Where? XBLA, PSN, Steam

Forget sharks, spiders, lions and Anne Widdicombe. The scariest creatures on God’s green Earth are rabbits. Don’t believe me? Examine the evidence: Frank from Donnie Darko, Robbie from Silent Hill, Watership Down’s General Woundwort… Badass scary, right? Right.

Well that goes double for Ash, protagonist of SEGA and Arkedo Studio’s Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit. Not only is Ash a deceased bunny armed with a pulse rifle, he’s also Prince of Hell.

When his nemesis, Fat Rabbit, gets hold of some intimate photos of Ash enjoying some “bath-time fun” with his rubber ducky and posts them all over the Hellternet, Ash does the only logical thing: grabs his rifle, hops into a giant, rideable buzz-saw and goes on a murderous rampage through the depths of Hell.

Switching between riding his blood-soaked buzz-saw and more traditional running and jumping, Ash will slaughter countless demonic critters with a mixture of guns, blades and gory, OTT quick-time finishers. Levels are laid-out like warrens, with multiple paths and hidden shortcuts. Arkedo pay homage to several classic franchises such as Castlevania and Metroid, and wear these influences unashamedly on their blood-drenched sleeves.

This kind of off-the-wall premise is one of the greatest things about independent games; it’s just the kind of risk that mainstream developers would be afraid to take. But SEGA have seen the potential in Arkedo and given the French studio the backing they need to bring their warped, irreverent creation to life.

Blood, guts, guns and bunnies from Hell? What else can we say? Arkedo had us at “rubber-ducky sex”.

Developer Legacy: Arkedo Studio aren’t hugely well-known in the mainstream market, but fans of indie platformers will know them as the developers of the three Arkedo Series games (01 – JUMP!, 02 – SWAP! and 03 – PIXEL!). They also created Nervous Brickdown and Big Bang Mini, a couple of games for the Nintendo DS

They Say: “Oddly for a game that revels in gore so much, one of the major influences on Hell Yeah's eccentric bestiary is Nintendo's family-friendly Pokemon. But the imperative this time around is not to catch but to kill them all.” – IGN

We Say: Rabbits are scary. Hell is scary. Giant buzz-saws that you can ride around in are scary. But mash them all together and dip them in a bucket of psychedelic blood and guts and you’re onto a winner.

Can’t Wait? Play This: Ultra-violent cartoon platformer? You can’t do better this generation than the Dishwasher series on XBLA. James Silva’s dark, frantic beat-em-ups are beautifully twisted and incredible fun to play

Website: www.arkedo.com

Facebook: Facebook.com/Arkedo

Twitter: @ArkedoStudio

Words by Mick Fraser (Twitter: @Jedi_Beats_Tank)

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