Have you ever wondered what happens to dust bunnies when left unchecked? Apparently they don ninja outfits or start riding roaches, and either way they like to do combat with rejected army equipment. At least, that’s what Blue Omega Mobile would have you believe in their “point and shoot” game Attack Of The Dust Bunnies. Turns out it’s actually an amusing concept and a fun little game. For some odd reason I’m even slight reminded of Rabbids when playing this game.

Through a humorous infomercial you learn that you are controlling Klink, a refurbished army unit that was designed for combat but shelved due to budget cutbacks. You’d think that with that kind of power eradicating dust bunnies would be easy, but these are some devious bunnies. You must visit all the rooms in the house, clearing out any lingering bunnies and their evil leaders, where appropriate. The game has two modes: classic and survival. To play any level in survival you must score a silver or better on the same level in classic mode, and you must at least beat each level in classic mode to unlock the next level in that mode.

4 Of 30 Downed

In survival mode you pick one room and you just keep going until you can’t go any more. The down side is that there is no real goal in survival mode. The plus side is that the levels are insanely more difficult than in classic mode, so if you don’t feel classic mode is challenging enough you should enjoy survival mode. I’m a man of goals, so I prefer classic mode. Unfortunately, there are only 6 rooms in this house, so if you’re one of those people who is simply satisfied with beating a level the first time around, classic mode is going to go by far too quickly. Of course, you still need a silver or better on each level to unlock the survival mode for that level, so there’s potentially some incentive to play classic mode levels multiple times.

There are just a few different types of bunnies, but they all have different personalities. The standard variety dust bunny would just assume taunt you as attack, but left alone long enough they’ll finally spring at you. A variant of these bunnies has the ability to fly, and while they still won’t attack right away they are much harder to hit. Cowboy bunnies come riding in on roaches, while the ninja bunnies drop down from the ceiling on ropes. Then there are the leader bunnies, which you’ll discover soon enough. Thankfully all but the leader bunnies take only one hit to destroy, but don’t let that fool you into relaxing your guard. Each level is split into two screens, and you can be attacked from either screen at any given time. Arrows at the top of the screen will glow red when bunnies are attacking from the other side, and you have to quickly switch screens and dispose of the foes.

Maneuvering Klink around is rather simple. Left and right buttons at the top of the screen allow you to switch between the two parts of each level. To shoot a bunny you can click on it or just swipe your finger across the screen. Your main type of ammunition is auto-targeting, so as long as a bunny ends up somewhere under your swipe it will be targeted. In fact, I learned the hard way that you probably won’t get your silvers on any given level unless you use the swipe mode of attacking. As you destroy bunnies a meter fills up, and when the meter is full you get a nuke. You can have up to three at a time, and you activate one by pressing the button in the lower right. This will effectively wipe the current screen of all bunnies. The only real problem I had with the controls is that sometimes when there is a lot going on the buttons to switch between screens didn’t seem quite so responsive.

Ride 'em Roaches

Dust Bunnies looks great. Each room is lovingly (if not sometimes morbidly – no one likes a stuffed bunny with its eyes popping out of its head) detailed, and the items aren’t just for decorations. Critters will pop out of open pudding cups or paint cans or whatever might be available – and they’ll also use these items to hide in when you try and shoot them. The creatures themselves look awesome and are extremely well animated. I also love how the screen goes “fuzzy” for a bit when you get hit.

The game also sounds really good. Whether it’s the taunting of a normal dust bunny, the “hey-ah” of a ninja attacking, or the coughing and hacking of a warn out boss bunny, every critter has their own noises to utter in a cool and sometimes humorous way. There’s some pretty decent music as well, but it only plays during the menu. I suppose they were afraid it would get overwhelmed by all the noises during actual game play.

There are a lot of “click to shoot” games available for the iPhone, probably because it’s a natural fit for the touch screen controls. Unfortunately, a lot of them either aren’t very good but are good but not very creative. Attack Of The Dust Bunnies hit the mark on both points. A few more rooms would be nice, but what’s there is well done and a joy to keep cleaning over and over.

Final Verdict: Recommended
App Store Link
App Store Link

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