In the 90s every developer wanted to have their own animal mascot with attitude. I blame it on Sonic the Hedgehog. There’s a reason none of these survived to modern days. The premise just wasn’t very good. Sonic survived because it had a competent developer behind it, and by the time it didn’t, the franchise was already too big to fail. Today I’m here to talk about one of the failed mascot based platformers. Enter Quik the Thunder Rabbit. I’m not going to lie; it’s a game trapped in time. Today we’re going to take a look at the Amiga CD32 version of this 2D hop and bop.
Quik the Thunder Rabbit starts off on a good enough note. Through an animated sequence we learn that a bunch of anthropomorphic rabbits has lost their stash of carrots. It’s up to a blue bunny named Quik to find a special seed that grows endlessly. Also, he’s being pursued by futuristic police. Yeah, he’s that awesome. Yeah the idea is pretty terrible but by now we’re used to that.
So what can Quik (that spelling is a disaster by the way) do? Well he can move slightly faster than most platformer mascots, that’s what! I kid, only a little though. Quik the Thunder Rabbit is a typical side scrolling platforming game of its time. You run from left to right through a variety of different stages to reach an end goal, and at that point you move on to the next area.
You can jump, but Quik wouldn’t dare on to the top of enemies’ heads! He instead must use a spin attack against them. You can do while walking or even mid-air. You have to keep a finger constantly on the button because enemy patterns often throw them right into your face. The first thing I noticed about the game is the fact that you’re met with a human lady in playboy garb at the finale of every level. It was all about being edgy and pushing that ‘tude I guess.
The game does however introduce a few unique concepts. The developers were inspired by Wonder Boy/Adventure Island apparently as this game has a hunger bar. This depletes at a constant rate and you have to eat carrots (dropped by defeated foes) in order to replenish it. But wait, there’s more. You also have a thirst meter that can only be filled with water (which is also dropped by enemies). The hunger meter I can understand, but thirst? Come on. That’s too many different things to pay attention to! That’s the most annoying thing about Quik the Thunder Rabbit; the developers just threw a bunch of things at the wall hoping they would stick. They don’t.
There’s only one thing I hated about this game. In certain stages you have to find a secret door which takes you back in time to a vertical stage, and this is absolutely necessary. It’s not that these entrances are well hidden, rather, they’re put in annoying places. Searching for them is an absolute chore because your hunger and thirst meters are ticking away all the while. In the beginning it’s not hard to find these but later on you’ll have to constantly jump to find clues. What’s more is that within these time travel sequences you have a bird following you around and when it catches you it moves Quik to a lower part of the stage. It’s annoying, and can be downright grueling later on.
It’s a real shame that the developers experimented so much because the level designs are actually pretty decent. The game makes use of multiple tiered stages (like Sonic the Hedgehog) which forces you to pay more attention to their designs. This is the best part of the game in my opinion. You’ll find things such as trampolines that allow you to reach areas that would otherwise be inaccessible. I do have one question however. Strewn throughout each stage are signs that say ‘joke.’ I have to ask why. At first I thought these indicated fake paths but that’s clearly not the case. Again, there’s unnecessary attitude just for the sake of ‘tude.’
On a positive note the controls are actually pretty good. Quik is responsive to all inputs, and I rarely had a death where I felt the game was cheap. That’s pretty rare for a game on the Amiga CD32 considering how much of a nightmare the controller is. Quik the Thunder Rabbit can only jump and spin attack. The simplicity of attack works in the game’s favor. You have only two temporary power-ups; you can either run faster or jump higher. Neither are required to complete the game, and they’re disabled as soon as you bump into a wall. This is one of the things the game gets right. Where this does cause issues is during the boss fights. These big enemies just take too many hits to defeat. It should have been cut in half if you ask me.
The graphics aren’t really anything to write home about. The game is vibrant and colorful and the art style is distinct. Quik the Thunder Rabbit goes for the cutesy style which clashes with the attitude it tries for. The art fits the game pretty well despite this. You have a myriad of different backgrounds and enemy designs that fit themes pretty decently. The framerate stays steady even with a lot of on-screen chaos. The backgrounds are the real highlight with a lot of detail put into them. While the game is pretty bad by 32-bit standards it’s a good looking game for its time.
Quik the Thunder Rabbit has a surprisingly good soundtrack. The game uses redbook audio and to great effect. While no single stage theme stands out they all mesh well with the art style and fit the game pretty well. The music is very relaxing and could almost put me to sleep. I mean that in the best way possible. Some of the stage themes could however be sped up.6
