2D Platformers are back in style, thanks to the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. In the last few years we’ve seen some real gems, such as the puzzle focused Braid and Limbo, and the more reflex-based Super Meat Boy. Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit, the newest of the genre to arrive for sale, fits into the latter of these two sub-categories, testing your fingers more than your brain.
Upon firing it up, you’ll be treated to the classic Sega logo, with its badly-recorded pronouncement, and you may be fooled into thinking you’re about to play an innocent Sonic-style platformer that takes you back to your youth. However, Hell Yeah! is a different breed of platform game, from its level design to its art style to its humor. Some of it works quite well; some of it does not.
It tells the story of the Prince of Hell, a skeletal rabbit who finds himself photographed in a compromising situation. After discovering that 100 hellish residents have seen the picture, he sets out to destroy them all, using a large selection of heavy weaponry. What follows is an adventure through a series of colorful, labyrinthian levels, with all the staples you’d expect from a platformer: Pits of Spikes, enemies to kill, coins to collect, bosses, and most of the other staples of the genre.
As you progress, you’ll come upon the residents who have seen the embarrassing photo, and these must be taken out like all the others. After reducing their health to zero, you’ll be treated to a quick WarioWare-style micro game which must be successfully completed to finish the enemy off. You may be hammering a button repeatedly, navigating down a street and avoiding cars, stopping a dial in the correct spot, answering a simple quiz, or any number of other silly games. This aspect was amusing, even if some of the jokes felt a little forced.
This wasn’t the only part of the game that felt forced. Hell Yeah! clearly tries to emulate the style of classic titles like Earthworm Jim and Bubsy Bobcat, but tries just a little too hard to be funny. Sure, it was amusing at times, but didn’t have the natural laughs found in some of those games, instead relying on completely over-the-top and wacky jokes. Having said that, I did chuckle at a few of the 90s game references.
If there’s one thing that Hell Yeah! has going for it, it’s the large selection of weapons and items available for your character. Everything from machine guns to rocket launchers, from holy water to flame throwers, with many hats and masks to pimp yourself out. The only problem is that there isn’t much variety in the enemy types, so it’s easy to get by with just one or two weapons. As soon as I unlocked the gatling gun, I rarely switched, as it seemed to do the trick pretty much all of the time. It’s nice to get choices in a game, but it sucks when the choices seem arbitrary.
Of course, the real testament to the quality of a platform game is the platforming; how the character moves and the design of the levels. In this respect, Hell Yeah! is… alright. The Prince tools around in a giant razor wheel that can be used to drill through parts of the environment and certain enemies, and it also acts of a jetpack of sorts. This creates a slightly strange feel in the character movement, which isn’t all bad, but takes some getting used to. It’s funny how all these years after Mario and Sonic first appeared, people still create floaty-feeling platformers, but I guess that’s a design choice more than anything else.
The levels themselves aren’t bad. You’ll find locked doors throughout that require a certain number of enemies to be killed before they open, which ensures that you track down and eliminate all those who you’re after before progressing. The system works quite well, and never left me searching around or doing an inordinate amount of backtracking. There are also other sections to break things up, such as underwater diving parts and spaceship piloting areas, which stop things from getting too samey.
Unfortunately, the game has a few strange aspects that I found to be a little annoying. The first is the position of checkpoints, which often put you further back than you may like after falling into a sudden and unexpected pit of death. The second aspect is the bizarre and unchangeable control setup, which puts jump on the X button and aim on the right stick. Since you’ll be jumping around and firing constantly, not being able to do both at once is a little frustrating. The third strange design decision is the fact that your character doesn’t get the usual second or two of invincibility after being hit, so it’s possible to be knocked by an enemy into another enemy, then another, causing a chain reaction of damage. I also had the game completely crash on me every couple of hours, requiring a reset of the system. Not good.
Although the platforming isn’t the best and the humor is a little forced, Hell Yeah! is still fun. It redeems itself a little through the large selection of unlockables and customization, but even without these it’s still good to play a 2D platformer again. I certainly wouldn’t recommend it over the titles I mentioned at the beginning of the review, but if you’re a big fan of the genre (which I am), it’s probably worth a play. I was really hoping I could incorporate the line “Hell Yeah, more like Hell Meh…” into this review, but it’s not bad enough to warrant such a joke. Maybe next time the developers will be kind enough to cater to my scorn.
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