Developer: Aorn Publisher: EA Victor Release: 06/27/97 Genre: Fighting
The Sega Saturn is host to a wider variety of games than most people realize. This of course is a consequence of the system failing everywhere but Japan. It also means there are hundreds of hidden gems waiting to be discovered. Next to its legendary lineup of shooters fighting games are where the Saturn excels. While the system received a significant number of Neo Geo ports there were just as many original titles as well as obscure arcade ports. Rabbit is a little known arcade port with a cool assortment of features that make it far better than it appears. If it had more content it would be a legit contender in my opinion.
The cast of Rabbit draws inspiration from China. The game resembles a Chinese version of Darkstalkers mixed with Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. They are a strange bunch just like Capcom’s monster fighter. Ren is the closest to normal in the game and plays like a Shoto hybrid. Hou-en is a failed Opera actor who became too in character as a murderer and never looked back. Egith is a gay assassin who uses the money from his occupation to run an orphanage. The strangest of all is Little Eddy, an overgrown baby version of Elvis. The Jojo connection comes in the form of beast spirits. Every character has a unique beast god that matches their personality. These ghostly apparitions can be summoned to fight alongside you in battle while the Beast Force meter is active.
Rabbit looks unassuming and a bit goofy. But its mechanics are pretty robust and crib from the best in the genre. Defensively there’s air blocking and wake up attacks but surprisingly a parry system. This is the most surprising as Street Fighter 3 was still new on the market. The parry system is not as complex as it uses a button press and the timing is not as strict. Successful parries leave opponents wide open and will even stun them after certain attacks. The AI will consistently punish certain moves if you are sloppy and it makes for interesting battles in arcade mode.
The beast spirit system is a little complex. On the surface every spirit will mimic your attacks while active for additional damage. Each spirit enables bonuses and weaknesses too. For example Egith gains additional range for some of his special moves but cannot jump high if his Ox spirit is behind him. For Rex his attacks hit twice but he also must consider positioning when his spirit is active. Hou-En and Little Eddy are special; they take no chip damage from special moves or beast spirit attacks and have no drawbacks. When the beast meter is full you can perform beast spirit special attacks as well as your own super move. In addition in arcade mode you earn the beast spirit of every fighter. This gives a lot of combat options and gives the game more depth than is immediately apparent and almost makes up for the small roster.
Rabbit only suffers in the area of content. There are only eight characters which is small. At a time when even the most minor fighting games were averaging 12 twelve or more combatants on the low end the small roster is egregiously bad. There are no other unlockable characters either. You can certainly spend a lot of time learning the ins and outs of every character. But more is always better. You only have an arcade mode and a Vs. mode so that means the game’s shelf life is short. Learning the ins and outs of the game’s fighting system is very fun. The game just needs more to be truly great.
In the arcade Rabbit is a stunning title with massive sprites, a camera zoom a la Samurai Shodown and gorgeous animation. The Saturn version captures most of the visual splendor and certainly looks like one of the best fighting games of that period. But it has drawbacks, namely performance issues. There is missing frames of animation that leaves the game looking choppy. By default the game zooms in and out like the arcade but that leads to heavy slowdown. There is a secret options menu to turn this off and the game is smoother as a result. In addition you can turn off the animated character select screen, win quotes and other superfluous bits to speed up the very long load times. The developers have put in a valiant effort but this one could have used the Ram cartridges to avoid some of these flaws.
In Closing
Rabbit is a good game. The sprite work and animation is second to none, the character design is original and the mechanics have depth. But the small roster is lacking and you will see everything it has to offer in short order. While I think Rabbit is worth picking up I would only do so after exhausting the top tiers of the Saturn’s fighting library. That is not a slight against the game, it just has insanely strong competition.
