''Space Bunnies Must Die!'' is a third-person

action-adventure game An action-adventure game is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Definition An action adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements from an action ...

developed by Pulse Entertainment, which renamed itself Jinx midway through development, and published by

Ripcord Games Ripcord Games was a video game publisher and an entertainment software label of Panasonic Interactive Media based in Santa Clara, California. Games published by Ripcord Games *'' Armor Command'' *'' Enemy Infestation'' *'' Forced Alliance'' *'' ...

on October 27, 1998 for Microsoft

Windows 98 Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was the second operating system in the 9x line, as the successor to Windows 95. It was Software ...

. The player character is truck stop waitress and rodeo performer Allison Huxter, who must save the world and her abducted sister from an invading race of mutant bunnies from space. ''Space Bunnies Must Die!'' was pitched to

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

and

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

as a humorous

animated series An animated series, or a cartoon series, is a set of Animation, animated films with a common title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same main heroes, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series ...

Gameplay

''Space Bunnies Must Die!'' has a run-jump-climb-shoot style of gameplay, similar to the ''

Tomb Raider ''Tomb Raider'', known as ''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' from 2001 to 2008, is a media franchise that originated with an Action-adventure game, action-adventure video game series created by British video game developer Core Design. The franchise i ...

'' series. Players navigate the game's levels from a central hub, and frequently must acquire objects from one level to solve a puzzle in another.

Development

Though ''Space Bunnies Must Die!'' has been often compared to ''

'', the developers have maintained that they started work on ''Space Bunnies'' before the 1996 E3, which, though not the first time information on ''Tomb Raider'' was made publicly available, was the first time that the press took serious interest in the game. ''Space Bunnies Must Die!'' was built with a set of tools called Digi, which were designed in-house by developer Pulse Entertainment (renamed Jinx by the end of development). The game's environments were mapped with a radiosity renderer and then lit to mimic

prerendered Pre-rendering is the process in which video footage is not rendered in real-time by the hardware that is outputting or playing back the video. Instead, the video is a recording of footage that was previously rendered on different equipment (typi ...

light sources.

Reception

Criticized for its bland gameplay, confusing levels, and game-breaking glitches, ''Space Bunnies Must Die!'' received mixed reviews according to the

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website

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

. ''

Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...

'', however, said of the game, "If you overlook the ridiculous plot and don't mind fighting your way through the bugs and smirking bunnies, you might actually enjoy yourself." Panasonic Interactive Media, parent of

, invested heavily in ''Space Bunnies Must Die!''s advertising and development. However, it became a commercial failure: the

NPD Group Circana, Inc., formerly known as Information Resources, Inc. and the NPD Group (previously National Purchase Diary Panel Inc. and NPD Research Inc.), is an American market research and technology company headquartered in Chicago. In 2017, NPD ra ...

reported sales of 2,458 copies for 1998. The game was one of several missteps by Panasonic Interactive Media that led to its closure in March 1999, with Ripcord Games sold to an anonymous outside group.

References

External links

* 1998 video games Panasonic video games Ripcord Games games Single-player video games Third-person shooters Video games developed in the United States Video games featuring female protagonists Windows games Windows-only games {{Action-adventure-videogame-stub