Rusty Rabbit

Rusty Rabbit is a metroidvania action platforming video game developed by Nitroplus and published by NetEase. It was released on April 17, 2025, for Windows, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.

Rusty Rabbit
Promotional artwork starring the game's main protagonist Stamp
Developer(s)	Nitroplus
Publisher(s)	NetEase
Producer(s)	Yuichiro Saito[1]
Writer(s)	Gen Urobuchi[1]
Engine	Unreal Engine
Platform(s)	Windows PlayStation 5 Nintendo Switch
Release	April 17, 2025
Genre(s)	Platformer, metroidvania
Mode(s)	Single player

Synopsis

The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where humans have long abandoned Earth, leaving it to rabbits, who have developed a civilization where the books of Peter Rabbit are seen as holy. The game follows rabbit Benjamin "Rusty" Stamp (voiced by Takaya Kuroda^[2] in Japanese and Yong Yea^[3] in English), who sets on a journey to save his daughter in Smokestack Mountain.

Gameplay

Rusty Rabbit is a 2.5D Metroidvania. While Stamp's only weapon is a drill at first, he discovers new ones as the game progresses. His abilities can be upgraded by collecting junk and bringing it to his village.^[4]

In addition to the story dungeons, the game also has optional procedurally generated dungeons.^[5]

Development and release

The game was written by Gen Urobuchi and produced by Yuichiro Saito.^[1] Urobuchi was inspired by a picture on Twitter of a Sylvanian Families doll in a mecha. He had developed the game as a passion project during the COVID-19 lockdown and later fleshed it out as a full game. The game was developed by Nitroplus and uses the Unreal Engine.^[6] A teaser trailer was shown in the 2023 Tokyo Game Show.

In June 2024, NetEase originally announced for a September 24 launch on Windows and PlayStation 5.^[7] However, in late August the same year, the game was delayed to 2025 to "provide the best possible release" and that the addition of a Switch port was also in the works.^[8] In January 2025, the companies revealed that the game would be released on April 17.^[9] However, the voiceovers will only be in Japanese upon release, whilst the English voiceover option will be released two weeks later on May 1.^[9]

Reception

Both the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch versions of Rusty Rabbit received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.^[10][11] In Japan, four critics from Famitsu gave the game a total score of 33 out of 40.^[12]