Lepus: Gameplay and Review
Updated: Nov 10, 2022
A gameplay overview and review for the itch.io game Lepus. Available to play at https://wypwawii.itch.io/lepus.
Gameplay Summary and Video:
Lepus is wypwawii's first game they have ever made (as seen from the comments section) and proves to be a great first outing for the Itch developer. Playing as a rabbit trying to get to their next meal of a hearty carrot, Lepus is a fun and challenging platformer (I got stuck on level 8) that everyone should try for a quick and enjoyable gameplay experience.
Below is a gameplay video for Lepus. For those who would like to experience it for themselves, it is free to play in-browser at: https://wypwawii.itch.io/lepus
Review:
Style: Lepus has a simple and endearing pixel art style that is reminiscent of many other platformers players have likely enjoyed in the past. The game looks clean and polished and the retro sound effects and music add to this experience. The improvements that could be made here is that some elements, such as UI elements like the jump bar, could be enhanced to pop out more at the player as they can be hard to see (especially with the small, locked resolution). Besides these small changes that could be implemented the art style and sound design is satisfying and clean.
Length and Replay-ability (and potential length): Lepus is a level-based platformer which locks it into a 5-15 minute playtime depending on the skill of the player. For a browser based platformer this is more than adequate for a quick and concise playthrough. The playtime can most definitely vary (as you can see, I was stuck on the 8th level for quite awhile and proceeded to end the video there as I didn't want the gameplay to stretch too long). On the topic of replay-ability, personally I can see myself definitely going back to play (and finally beat) this game again.
Difficulty: Lepus is very interesting when it comes to the difficulty aspect as the first 7 levels seem to have a fairly clear increasing trajectory. The difficulty of the first couple levels makes a lot of sense as they lay out tutorial and groundwork for the rest of the game and the subsequent levels up until level 8 offer a difficulty increase but nothing to steep and staggering. Level 8 is where I got indefinitely stuck in the gameplay video above and it felt like such a quick change from the previous levels. My suggestion to the developer would be to create some more levels to put between 7 and 8 to avoid throwing the player off with such an immediate and large challenge increase.
Overall Gameplay and Final Score: Lepus is a fun and challenging gameplay experience that has its flaws but that is a given with being the first game developed by the creator. If anything, Lepus creates a sense of excitement for what wypwawii will create in the future. I recommend everyone who reads this reviews gives it a try for themselves and I hope to see more from Lepus and it's creator in the future.
7.5/10
Find this game and more on https://ml-publishing.itch.io/