< Back         The Rub Rabbits - Review

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To say that The Rub Rabbits is a strange title would be an understatement, in the least sense of the word. From the same publisher that brought us Rez, Samba de Amigo, NiGHTS into Dreams, and so many other quirky games, comes The Rub Rabbits!, the sequel to Feel the Magic: XY/XX (known as Project Rub for the Europeans). The Japanese subtitle for this game was "Where Do Babies Come From?", so already, this game is defiantly *unique*.

The game is a cross between the dating sim-type games and mini-game type games. You are in a mall, and happen to pass by a girl and instantly fall in love with her. Problem is, a bunch of other guys fall in love with her too. So the first third of the game is composed of competing in games against your rivals for the heart of the girl. The story evolves past this eventually, and you get to see the relationship bloom until the grand finale of the game. Watching the story for the first time is part of the charm of this game, so I won't spoil it for you.

Some of the criticism of the first game was that the game was too short. TRR! (which will be the abbreviation henceforth) fixes this by including over 30 mini games, but they take away the grouping of mini games idea that was used in the original game. See, the original game allowed you to pick from three different mini games, and reach a set total. So if you could not do one of the mini games, you would just pick the ones you could and play them until you could reach the set total. TRR! makes you complete each mini game to reach the next one. So if you suck at one mini game, either keep trying to beat it by playing it over and over again, or use your one and only skip on the mini game (and the skip applies to all three levels of difficulty, so if you use in Normal Mode, it is gone in Hard and Hell mode). And with certain mini games being almost on a "Last Level" (FtM:XY/XX players will understand what I mean by this...this level is made on purpose to put at least one scratch on your Nintendo DS) difficulty, playing the mini games in the hardest mode, Hell Mode, will be a chore, to say the least (Hell Mode makes you play Stages 6-10, with only one life).

Anyways, as you beat mini games, you get "Love Points", which unlike FtM:XY/XX, are used to unlock new outfits for the girl in "Memories" mode (this is a place to replay the mini games you already completed in the game at least once). A benefit of this change is that you can play the mini games you know you can beat easily to rack up Love Points, therefore unlocking new outfits, unlike in FtM:XY/XX, where you had to beat all of the mini games perfectly to get every outfit (and Memories made you play all ten stages, with only one life).

Although it is not a huge draw, the game uses a cell shading art style, which is different than most games. It's eye pleasing to watch, due to the Nintendo DS's graphics capability. It helps when you play the mini games over and over again on those long gaming sessions. But the beauty of the game is, you really do not have to play this game for hours on end. It is made in a way that you can pick it up for 15-30 minutes, beat a few mini games, and go and do something else. The game is a lot like Nintendogs or Brain Age in the concept (plus, playing those mini games has to exercise you mind as much as a disembodied head would in Brain Age).

Some people have complained that this game is short and can be beaten in a few days. That might be true for the easiest mode, but to beat Hard, or even Hell Mode, you will need to play the games enough to learn how they work. It took me six months after playing the first game about 15-30 minutes when I could to finally beat Hell Mode, so with double the mini games, you can see how long this game would truly take to complete. The game is not perfect by any means, but it grows on you after playing it for a few weeks, encouraging you to "beat the next mini game", or "reach this next Love Point total". If you like a game that can you can pick up and play when you need that jolt of fun when you're bored, you really cannot go wrong with this game.

- 7 / 10