Well, it’s that time of year again. Spring is in the air, the days are beginning to get longer, and kids and adults alike are munching through masses of chocolate. I don’t know what it is about Spring that makes me think of Rabbits. Is it all those cute critters in the fields, hopping around and multiplying, or is it the foil wrapped chocolate counterparts popping up on supermarket shelves all over the place.
Over the years, there have been many long-eared lovelies crop up in computer games. Some are forgettable, but some are pretty epic and stick around in our memories. Here are five which come to my mind. You may have others so I’d love to hear about them.
1. Jazz Jackrabbit
Jazz Jackrabbit series
Let us start with a “golden oldie”. Jazz Jackrabbit was initially released 1994 by Epic Games. Jazz’s archnemesis was an evil tortoise called Devan Shell making the game a sci-fi parody of the old Tortoise and the Hare story. The original game was centred on Jazz’s mission to find Princess Eva Earlong, who had been kidnapped by Devan.
Jazz went on to star in 2 more games in 1998 and 2002.
2. Alice Nonomura
Bloody Roar series
Ok, so I know that Alice isn’t technically a rabbit. She is a zoanthrope — a person who believes herself changed into an animal and acts like one. She is one of the characters in the Bloody Roar series. Bloody Roar is a fighting game from Hudson Soft (now part of Konami) and Eighting and features a whole host of different zoanthropes battling it out in one-on-one combat.
The series began in 1997 on PlayStation and has four more sequels, latest being in 2003. While most of the titles have been available on Sony consoles, Bloody Roar: Primal Fury (2002) was released on Gamecube and later ported to XBox.
3. Peppy Hare
Starfox series
Peppy Hare is a retired member of the Star Fox team. He was a mentor, and a sort of father figure to Fox McCloud after Peppy witnessed Fox’s dad’s death. He is remembered for his quote “Do a barrel roll!”.
Star Fox (or Starwing as it was also known) is a 3D shooter series that originated in 1993. It was developed by Nintendo and Argonaut Software and was one of the original SNES titles. There have since been 6 released Star Fox games, and some of the characters appear in Super Smash Bros. series.
4. The Rabbids
Raving Rabbids series
Anyone who is a fan of the Rayman games will know about these rabbit-esque trouble makers. They first appeared in Rayman Raving Rabbids in 2006 and have had a game of their own released every year, up until 2014. The Rabbids became so popular that in 2009 it became a franchise in its own right and Ubisoft dropped the Rayman name from their games.
5. Max
Sam & Max series
And now we come to my favourite. Max, a cute little bunny with a foul mouth, bad attitude and aggression issues, is one-half of the Freelance Police duo, Sam & Max. Originally a comic, they came to video games via the legendary LucasArts. Their first adventure, Sam & Max Hit the Road, was released in November 1993 and involved an awesome journey around America in search of Bigfoot.
Sam & Max now have a home with Telltale Games where they feature in 3 episodic adventures – Save the World, Beyond Time and Space and The Devil’s Playhouse.
So, they are some of my most memorable Rabbits. Have I missed any of yours?
