BunnyLord Pro Hater Pack

BunnyLord Pro Hater Pack

The BunnyLord Pro Hater Pack brings definitive versions of Roll7’s OlliOlli 2 and Not A Hero to Xbox One.

 

Not a Hero - Key Art - SuperSnazzy Logo

With The BunnyLord Pro Hater Pack, Team 17 are bringing the definitive iterations of Roll7’s OlliOlli 2 and Not A Hero to the Xbox One.  

OlliOlli 2: XL Edition features the same addictive balance of skill and frustration as the original release that was reviewed by Cev back in August last year (you can read his review here).  What they’ve added is a FreeSkate Mode for you to practice in, which is a godsend as pulling off perfect moves is the key to success in OlliOlli2, whether you’re beating challenges in career mode or trying to achieve a high score in spots or the daily grind.  FreeSkate is a great addition to a game that otherwise gives you very little handholding, as it allows you to perfect your tricks and grinds without any combo breaking bad landings!  

OlliOlli2XLEd_01

Not A Hero: Super Snazzy Edition has, on the face of it, absolutely nothing in common with OlliOlli 2 whatsoever.  OlliOlli 2 is slick and modern skateboarding skill game, with colourful hand drawn graphics and a soundtrack that wouldn’t sound out of place in any fashionable nightspot, whilst Not A Hero is a whacky 2D cover-based campaign of murderous gunplay that sports an 8-bit aesthetic in its graphics and arcade style chiptune soundtrack.  In Not A Hero you take on the role of “Campaign Manager” for the mayoral candidate and maniacal purple rabbit ‘BunnyLord’; to get him elected you have 21 days (levels) to bolster his approval rating and he has a few ideas how this can be done.

“We’re going to wipe out crime in this passable city.”

By this he doesn’t mean more visible community policing; he means destroying their operations, murdering all the bad people and anyone else that happens to drop in (police SWAT teams for example).  It’s not quite as simple as shooting up the place though, to maximise BunnyLord’s approval rating you’ll need to complete challenges for each level that may involve avoiding getting hit, blowing up drugs, or stealing bees.  

NotAHeroSuperSnazzyEd_06

The campaign manager wields their standard issue weapon and power-ups can be collected for this within levels, as well as special weapons to give them a lead in the polls.  The controls are simple with one button to fire, one to use special weapons, one to reload and one to slide in and out of cover; you can also use the cover button to slide tackle enemies, allowing you to perform stylish executions.  Running and gunning might initially yield some results, but the game soon becomes more challenging and forces you to strategise; as I played I had a choice of dropping through one of two windows on the floor below.  The obvious choice was into the room with only one bad guy in it facing the window, but I soon realised his shotgun blast would blow me back out of the window I was just smashing through; the better option was the opposite end of the floor, with more bad guys, but also some cover.  Regenerating health allows some ‘flexibility’ to your approach, but you’ll still need to think things through or you’ll quickly become overwhelmed.

NotAHeroSuperSnazzyEd_04

As you improve his approval rating you will unlock a plethora of characters to play as, collectively known as the ‘BunnyLord Fun Club’; considering the 8-bit style, these are all well defined and identifiable characters with a wide variety of regional accents and some great voice acting (my particular favourite is Welsh girl Samantha).  Each of the characters not only has a unique personality, but they bring different styles of gunplay to the party; Samantha can run and reload, Cletus wields a shotgun that is powerful but slow and Jesus (not that one) uses an SMG which fires a lot of bullets very quickly, but lacks accuracy at range.

NotAHeroSuperSnazzyEd_12

This combination of styles enhances the aforementioned strategy and you’ll need every ounce of it if you’re going to complete those challenges, to promote BunnyLord to the position of Mega Overlord.  It’s here that the similarity to OlliOlli 2 becomes more apparent; the rapid restart for challenge success means that even as the difficulty level ramps up, the game maintains the fine balance between fun and frustration.  Not A Hero is well worth playing and is a lot of fun, both in terms of gameplay and (very loosely) plot.  The premise of wiping out the bad guys is brilliantly narrated (well, squeaked) by the BunnyLord himself as the developers used procedural generation to provide his dialogue.  Some of this can be truly hilarious!  Not A Hero: Super Snazzy Edition also includes some new content in the form of Me, Myself and BunnyLord, an additional three levels where you get to play as the purple rabbit himself, sent on missions by his future self to put right what once went wrong.

The BunnyLord Pro Hater Pack contains both OlliOlli 2: XL Edition and Not A Hero: Super Snazzy Edition and it’s available today to download for Xbox One on the Xbox Store for £14.99 / $20.99 / 19,49 €.

Perhaps gun-toting rabbits is your thing and skateboarding holds no appeal, or vice versa; in that case you can pick-up either of the games individually with OlliOlli2: XL Edition available for £9.99 / $14.99 / 12,99 € and Not A Hero: Super Snazzy Edition available for £9.99 / $12.99 / 12,99 €.

A copy of OliiOlli 2: XL Edition and Not A Hero: Super Snazzy Edition were provided by Team 17 for the purposes of this review.

The Verdict

8Great

The Good: Games that balance fine line between fun and frustration | Unique visual styles | Brilliant soundtracks

The Bad: Be prepared for the difficulty spike in both games!

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Andy

Co-founder & Editor

Former DJ, now a freelance scientist, writer, gamer and father.

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