Rabi-Ribi from Circle Entertainment is a colorful 2D bullet hell action platformer with a funny setup and fun gameplay mechanics. Learn more in our Rabi-Ribi review!

 

In Rabi-Ribi, you take control of Erina, a rabbit who ends up turned into a human and taken to an unknown world. At least she somehow managed to keep her bunny ears and tail! A cutscene will play, showing that Erina is stuck inside of a box, from which she will try to climb out of. It is then that she realizes she can talk, which is weird since everybody knows that rabbits can’t talk! And then it hits her: she’s got human hands and a human body to go along with them! The game is going to end up presenting you with an open-ended Metroidvania of sorts, so you’ll end up searching high and low to find the items and power-ups that will allow you to explore new areas.

You can move your character with the left analog stick or the D-Pad. Jumping is mapped to the B button, and your attacks are set to the Y, X, and A buttons for your magic attack, hammer attack, and boost attack, respectively. The more you use each of the attacks, the more experience you will get for them, which will allow you to level up. Doing this will boost that attack, giving you access to new stuff – a longer combo can certainly help you considerably! You can change your magic type by pressing the L and R buttons to cycle through your options. If you press the ZL button, you can air dash, which will prove to be useful for moving out of harm’s way.

 

There’s an option on the main menu to take on a Speedrun mode for the game during which all cutscenes are skipped so that players can focus on completing each section Rabi-Ribi as fast as possible. This mode is actually locked at the start of the game, but if you press and hold the + button, you can unlock it and diver right in. The game does note that you should probably first take on the story mode before going into the Speed run mode, but it doesn’t prevent you from doing a speedrun if you really want to.

 

The game can be played in one of six difficulty settings – with the last two unlocking once you’ve unlocked the aforementioned Speedrun mode. The difficulties are Casual, for players who are not familiar with action/bullet hell games; Novice for players who have a bit of experience with the genre (the difficulty the game recommends you play in for your first run); Normal which dials up the challenge just enough to test your abilities without overwhelming you; Hard in which enemies are certainly stronger and more deadly; Hell, for which the enemies are boosted through the roof and attack patterns are harder to avoid; and Bunny Extinction which, as the name has probably clued you in by now, should be attempted only by those who have gotten to know the game inside out.

You will notice how the increase in each difficulty setting affects how dangerous each battle will be, particularly when going up against bosses. Boss battles are a bizarre mash-up of a 2D action platformer and a bullet hell shooter, having you learn and memorize a boss’ movement and attack patterns so that you can have a shot at defeating each of the 40 bosses you will face in this one.

 

Rabi-Ribi features an in-game achievements system, with a ton of achievements to unlock during your time with the game. The first achievement you’ll obtain is a freebie of sorts since you will get it for starting your adventure in the new world you’ll find yourself in. It features over 100 objectives for you to complete, with things such as completing each of the chapters in the game, completing the game in normal or higher difficulty – with an achievement for each of the higher difficulty settings -, being fast at completing some areas, and more.

Rabi-Ribi is a fun 2D bullet hell action platformer Metroidvania that allows players to explore a big chunk of the game as they please, playing through the different available areas in any order they want – adding a dash of a Mega Man vibe to things. The game’s $29.99 price tag is something that might scare some of you away, but for that price you’re getting a meaty adventure that can take you over ten hours to complete if you want to see everything the game has to offer, and then you’ll have the Speedrun and Boss Rush modes to take on to prove how much you know the game.

Disclaimer
This Rabi-Ribi review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Circle Entertainment.