Rusty Rabbit, an upcoming Metroidvania published by NetEase, will launch on April 17 for PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Originally teased in 2023, Rusty Rabbit has one of the wildest elevator pitches I’ve heard in some time. It’s a 2.5D Metroidvania set in a postapocalyptic world where adorable anthropomorphic rabbits have inherited the Earth. The project was originally set to launch in September 2024, but it was delayed to 2025. Today, NetEase has finally given the oddball project a proper release date.
The announcement comes with a new trailer that gives us another glimpse at its action-adventure gameplay. It shows its hero, a middle-aged rabbit named Stamp, blasting through scrap heaps with a mech suit. The clip shows off new traversal abilities as well as its mech customization system. It looks a bit like a cross between Metroid and SteamWorld Dig.
For those unfamiliar with the project, Rusty Rabbit has some surprising talent behind it. Its script was written by Gen Orobuchi, a writer best known for his work on anime like Fate/Zero, Psycho-Pass and more. Stamp is voiced by Takaya Kuroda in the Japanese dub and Yong Yea in the English version. Both actors famously portray Kiryu Kazuma in Sega’s Like a Dragon series, something that’s very clear when hearing Stamp’s grizzled voice.
I got a close look at Rusty Rabbit back at Summer Game Fest 2024 and it’s been on my radar ever since. In its wacky premise, Earth’s rabbits have misinterpreted everything humans left behind to rebuild its civilization. For instance, they think Peter Rabbit is the literal bible and that rabbits are Earth’s chosen people because of it. If that doesn’t at least perk your ears, I don’t know what will.
Rusty Rabbit launches on April 17 for PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.