Welcome to EXPlay, (Explain & Play) the review series where we care not for scores but tell it how it is when it comes to every game we get our hands on, whilst also taking the time to include some lengthy gameplay, to give you the reader, the chance to shape your own impressions and views whilst watching and reading.
In this explanatory review, we’re covering Bunhouse by developer Reky Studios:
Bunhouse (The Explanation)
Bunhouse is a game created by one person, Patrick Gauthier, the sole member of Reky Studios. Taking on a game design, development, and execution can be a serious task and a passion project like a video game and publishing it to an eShop. With all that said, Bunhouse is a unique game that I am certainly not the target audience.
You play as a rabbit tasked with caring for a greenhouse, growing flowers, and selling them for carrots. The carrots can then be used to buy more plants, pots for growing, items to decorate your greenhouse and land around it, and more. Each plant you purchase requires a pot that is the correct size. After you have a pot, you need to fill it with dirt, plant the seed in it and then place it in the best spot for sunlight based on the plant’s needs. Some plants like being outside in your garden area. Others need to be in the shade or in the greenhouse soaking up 1, 2, or 3 sun points respectively.
Along with placement, plants need water. Ensuring the plants have the correct amount of water requires checking out their information and making sure you don’t under or overwater the flowers. If you put plants in incorrect places or overwater them, they will die. Once a plant dies you will need to trash it and possibly re-soil the pot before planting a new flower in it. Once plants grow to their maximum potential you can sell them at the counter outside your greenhouse for more carrots, leading to purchasing more things for your greenhouse.
Bunhouse has a simple premise and gameplay loop. While I found it to be childish, I am sure that in the hands of the right person, Bunhouse can be a cathartic and rewarding game for those that love bunnies, love managing a shop (or greenhouse in this case), and a decorating their store that becomes an extension of them as a person.
Bunhouse is simple in the art direction, and character design, and in someways underwhelming. Thinking about the game as a single-person creation puts into perspective the care and passion that Bunhouse is as a game. If you can get past some of the short-comings as a game design and overall lack in polish, to find a game that may serve a unique niche, I know there are people that will enjoy the game for what it is. Patrick did a great job in delivering on his vision in Bunhouse and I look forward to seeing what his next project entails (pun intended).
Bunhouse (The Gameplay)
Game Specifications:
Developer: Reky Studios
Publisher: Digerati
Platform: Nintendo Switch | Version: Digital
Category: Simulation
No. of Players: 1 (Single System)
Release Date: EU & NA: May 18, 2023
Price: $19.99
File Size: 993 MB
Nintendo.com Listing
