In the past, the forest was inhabited by various creatures who lived in peace and harmony under the protection of a special breed of black fighter rabbits. But when humans invaded and slaughtered everyone, including the rabbits whose paws were no match for firearms, a lion and his gang of wildcats intervened to save the day. However, once crowned king, the lion declared everyone his subject and turned the forest into his own kingdom.
Now, a few years later, you play as the last surviving black rabbit, who escaped the attack thanks to his grandfather. Fortunately, his grandfather also taught him the fighting skills needed to overthrow the tyrant, a mission he doesn’t care for, since he’s content growing magical carrots and sharing them with other animals to resist oppression. But everything changes when someone steals all his carrots and uses them to create mutants that begin wreaking havoc across the forest.
Since this is a point-and-click adventure game, and because the mechanics have remained largely unchanged for decades, you should have no trouble fitting right in. Your main tool is the mouse, which moves the carrot-shaped cursor across the screen to search for interactive hotspots. When you hover over one, its name appears and the cursor changes to an action icon.
To align with modern adventure templates, the game includes a magical button that highlights all hotspots on the screen. While this might not appeal to old-school fans who enjoy the satisfaction of finding things on their own, it makes the game more accessible for those who play less frequently. With this feature, you’ll never miss an item or get stuck simply because you overlooked something.
Hotspots default to a specific action, so you don’t have to switch between them. For example, a mouth icon is always used for talking to characters, while a cog represents interactions with objects like switches or doors. The other two actions are take (hand), which adds items to your inventory, and look (magnifying glass), which is the most common.
If a hotspot defaults to something other than look, you can still examine it with the right mouse button. But when a hotspot has only a look action, both left and right clicks reveal the same information. Interacting with everything is important, since you may uncover new information or unlock interactions that weren’t available before. Plus, examining thoroughly can sometimes reward you with hidden achievements.
The middle mouse button and wheel let you scroll through inventory items. While you can click items directly, scrolling is faster, especially when you’re stuck and resort to the classic “try every item on every hotspot” strategy. Unfortunately, using the wrong item returns it to the inventory, meaning you’ll need to re-select it each time you want to try again. The game doesn’t overload you with items, but it can still feel tedious at times.
The unique twist lies in the fighting skills, which work just like inventory items. The difference is that you always have them, so they can’t be lost. New skills are unlocked by collecting orbs and bringing them to a monkey. Most are offensive, like basic punches and kicks, but some have special uses, such as a punch that breaks wooden objects.
Some characters blocking your path are considered enemies, indicated by health dots above their heads. To defeat them, you’ll need to use either a skill, an item, or a combination of both. Even if you choose the wrong option and get hit, you can’t fail or die.
The game’s presentation is striking, styled like a cartoon. Each scene is packed with details and objects, most of which can be examined. Only a handful are essential for puzzles and progression, while the rest enrich the world and its backstory.
Characters are not voiced, but instead of floating text above them, dialogue appears in comic-style speech bubbles. This makes the text easier to read, since it doesn’t blend into the background, and makes you wonder why more games don’t adopt this approach. You can also click to instantly display the full text in a bubble or skip ahead if you read quickly. Most characters only deliver the essentials, but a few rare ones allow you to choose multiple conversation topics.
Things get much wilder after you escape the mutant lab, when the forest becomes overrun by hybrid creatures, mutants that look like two animals fused together. At this point, you also gain access to a map for quick travel. Overall, the puzzles are fairly easy, and progress comes naturally. There’s no hint system, and the main character only gives a generic response when you try to combine incompatible items. However, examining your inventory and the environment often provides enough clues to figure out the next step.
