izigame.me

I bought this a while back, completely forgot about the premise, and only started playing it because I was in a funk and wanted a cute game with fluffy animals in it to take my mind off things.
Well, um - that did NOT work out, but that’s entirely on me for judging a book by its cover. And in the end, I am SO GLAD I played this game, because even though the premise ended up hitting way too close to home, it was exactly what I needed.
This game reminded so much of the 2D action RPGs of my youth (particularly The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past). Your exploration is initially limited by the breadth of your abilities (like they were by your equipment in aforementioned Zelda), which expand over the course of the game and incentivize your return to old areas to explore what you couldn’t reach before. I thought I might be hampered somewhat by my lack of artistic skill, but that never became an issue. I was more held back by the limitations of the controller and my own lack of hand-eye coordination during the boss fights (oddly, the only combat in the game - yet I don’t feel the world is lacking in any way without stuff to beat up on the world map).
While I was rather nonplussed about the idea of colouring in every screen (the lack of colour choice and no undo button were off putting for me, but I can understand why said limitations were imposed - and I was much happier when I was finally able to make my own colour palette), I DID find the art school assignments oddly mesmerizing, and spent way more time on them than made any sense, despite the clunky controls and the clunkier “artist” at their helm. It was adorable to then see them populate blank canvases out in the world and be able to replay all the ridiculous lengths I went to to make them look as good as possible (uhhhh… needless to say, I empathized with the title character entirely too much).
I was never horrifically vexed by any of the traversal puzzles which make up the majority of this game, though I did make use of a walkthrough on occasion when a new mechanic was introduced that I didn’t intuitively understand (“Oh cool - a fire - what’s that for? Why can’t I move it?” etc.). I’m not one to stew forever on a puzzle that doesn’t interest me just so I can be right without “cheating”, but thankfully said “cheating” was a rare occurrence.
The character wardrobe and decor also really wasn’t for me (“Shrimp” (sorry Shrimp, I didn’t know I was saddling you with that awful name - who names one daughter Clementine and the other SHRIMP?!? - but I really like shrimp!) kept her custom shirt and ball cap on for almost the entire run, except when impressing Oats), but if you love acquiring in-game collectables and playing dress-up, boy, do I have good news for you - there’s a LOT you can customize and decorate and colour to your heart’s content.
Anyway, there was way more to Unhappy Bunny Land: The Game than I ever expected, and I was very pleasantly surprised. If you’re also a creative person feeling a little lost and down on yourself, I can’t recommend this enough. I’ll be thinking about this game for years to come. Worth every penny. 🌈🖌️