Review: Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit (PC)

Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit is a bad game. Let’s just get that out of the way right here, right now. But why is it bad? What makes this seemingly average looking platformer/shooter cross the line into “bad”? Well I’ll fill you in: The humor. Hell Yeah! is one of the most groan-worthy games to come out this year. If you play this game, you will be inundated with Internet memes, ass jokes, fart jokes, “FOREVER ALONE” jokes, vagina jokes, penis jokes, and wacky flashing lights that literally say “LOL XD” at times. This game is the portion of the Internet I distance myself from, the part that I thought I left behind when I stopped browsing forums a few years back.  But no, Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit came out, I played it, and I really don’t think you should.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are parts of Hell Yeah! that, if lifted from this unfunny wreck, would make good additions to a more interesting game. However, they’re a part of this game, and those parts just don’t carry this game very well. The core gameplay mechanics, running as Ash, the rabbit mentioned in the title, or riding around in his wheel-circular saw contraption, are both SERVICEABLE, feeling fine to control even if there are some jumping issues in tight corridors. Shooting in Ash’s wheel also feels good sporadically, with a variety of guns to choose from and a shop to purchase new weaponry and weapon upgrades. Unfortunately, this is one of those games where one weapon is vastly superior in every way, and it just so happens to be the second gun you get.

The level design is interesting, yet unrefined. Each level feels like a hub world, and you move around from section to section, defeating mini-bosses to unlock doors and travel further in the hub. The worlds would be interesting as a Mario 64-style hub system, but instead each hub is its entire world, with no where new to go and no extra levels. The linearity doesn’t hurt the game, but it feels like each level is an intro to another smaller, yet more defined level. There is a lack of refine in the game, each gameplay element is good, but feels unfinished or hamfisted in. Need another example? The “mini-boss kills” minigames. Whenever you defeat a mini-boss, you enter a minigame to finish them off. Complete it, the boss dies. Fail, you take a bit of damage and have to retry the minigame. To say each minigame is Warioware-esque is an insult to Warioware, as the minigames are often poorly explained and can last for too long. The kill scenes that come after the minigames are also often long in the tooth and sometimes have nothing to do with anything. The kill scenes are also very flashy and quick, so if you have problems with epilepsy, I’d 100% skip this game. I’ve never gotten a headache from playing a game, but I have gotten some serious eye strain from Hell Yeah!

The Island is an admittedly cool feature of the game. You can transport the mini-bosses you kill to Ash’s own personal work island, where the monsters work to give you bonuses such as decorative hats, money, and other surprises. There’s not much to it, but it’s interesting to reward you constantly for being good at the game. Another feature of the game, a DLC mission bundle called “Virtual Rabbit Missions”, are hard as hell (pardon the pun), and if for some reason you enjoy the game, I WOULD recommend them, as there is little to no dialogue that I’ve seen, which is a blessing.

Yes, this is a vagina plant. No, there is no good reason for it to exist.

Hell Yeah! has a unique art style that is squandered with its humor. The game is cartoony in a delightful sense, but the character design is abysmal. Characters can range from literal asses, vagina plants, and rubber duckies that Ash has bathtub sex with. I don’t want to seem like I don’t enjoy working blue from time to time, but everything about this game is either needlessly gross or has Internet memes stapled onto it for no reason. One enemy fires Nyan Cats at you, one kill scene requires you to answer a quiz question, with answers such as “WTF” and “OVER 9000!” included. The humor is so bland, with little to no delivery at all. Each character just spouts things that should be funny, but isn’t at all in the situation. A game with a poor sense of humor can recover if its gameplay is excellent, but Hell Yeah! is so bland, it’s not worth the effort to overlook its shameful jokes. The music is repetitive and characters make the same squeaks and grunts every time they’re hit or use an attack.

Hell Yeah! isn’t the worst game in the world. There are just so many better games in its genre, games that control better, have nicer framerates, better music, and most importantly, those games don’t make me angry to the point of quitting the game with its humor. If it were physically possible, Hell Yeah! would be a game released after a weekend of development, shoved out without much love or innovation. Skip Hell Yeah!, spend your money on something nicer, but lament that this game wasn’t as good as it could’ve easily been with more work put into it.