Review: Barry the Bunny (Nintendo Switch)

Barry the Bunny is a cartoony platformer in which you build bridges to rescue stranded bunnies while avoiding other forest critters. Yep, it’s about as cute as it sounds. Thankfully, it’s pretty fun, too. 

As the name suggests, you play the role of Barry, a bunny who must work his way through 96 levels of platforming perils. Your goal is two-fold: firstly, to make it to the exit; secondly, to collect the three logs scattered within each level. These logs allow you to build a bridge for your adorable bunny friends, who are sadly trapped and unable to reach their homes without your help.

Naturally, enemies and platforming tropes stand in your way of success. The well-designed levels are short and sweet, making this a fun game to work your way through in a casual sense. You’ll encounter plenty of obstacles, like moving platforms, spikes, and exploding boxes – it’s generally best to avoid those. And, of course, there are enemies to overcome.

To achieve this successfully, you need a weapon. Barry’s a builder by trade, so your weapon of choice is obviously a hammer, which you can hurl at enemies to smite them. The clever part is that you need to collect hammers before you use them, a little like storing ammo. These are scattered around each level, along with carrots, power ups, and those three logs I mentioned earlier. 

The carrots and power ups are related, since collecting 100 carrots has the same effect, acting as a shield for Barry. Usually, landing on a spike or touching an enemy results in restarting the level. Power ups give you some protection, and you can collect up to three. Aesthetically, they add a builder’s attire to Barry’s avatar, complete with a little hard hat, jacket, and sunglasses. Told you it was cute.

While collecting any of these items is optional, I found myself collecting as many as possible – I’m a Mario devotee, after all. You can revisit completed levels if you want to stock up on hammers or if you missed those special logs, since 100% completion relies on the rescue of all 96 bunnies.

There isn’t much of a tutorial, so a lot of this is worked out simply by playing. It was only when I paused the game that I realised there are 96 levels, for example, and only when I quit and came back did I find that I could revisit levels or continue from where I’d left off. The pause screen also shows some handy stats about your progress, like the number of bunnies rescued, how many times you’ve died, and how far through the game you are.

Barry the Bunny isn’t perfect, with a few quibbles that could be improved upon. Apart from the lack of a tutorial and a somewhat basic user interface, there are some quirky gameplay elements. For example, landing on spikes is obviously bad for Barry. But there’s something frustrating about attempting to jump over spikes and somehow dying before you’ve even left the ground. It feels like some of the sprite mapping is a little off at times.

Thankfully, controlling Barry is fine most of the time, with responsive jumping and hammering in general. The game isn’t overly difficult, although there are certainly some tricky sections that will have you replaying the same level over and over again. This could be seen as challenging or frustrating, depending on your level of patience and/or stubbornness. Either way, there’s at least three hours of gameplay waiting for you in this budget title. 

The colorful graphics are a plus and add to that cute factor. The music matches this tone, with a bouncy jingle that’s sure to get stuck in your head. It errs on the side of repetitiveness after a while, but it’s fairly innocuous. Speaking of repetition, the 96 levels are divided into four worlds, so you’re playing about 24 levels that sport the same theme. It makes for a nice change of pace when you find yourself in a rainy night world or on the beach, eventually.

Overall, Barry the Bunny is an adorable and fun platformer with short and sweet levels, making it a great casual game. There are some tricky parts to keep you hooked, and the collectibles provide an extra incentive to replay, too. It’s worth checking out if you’re a fan of the platforming genre.