The ‘90s were overwhelmingly glutted with one-on-one fighting games vying for arcade dominance, so it isn’t surprising that there might be a few that you hadn’t heard of. Take 1997’s Rabbit, for example, which just received a fan translation patch.
Rabbit was developed by Aorn, who is known for… Rabbit. It was published by Electronic Arts Victor, which was EA’s Japanese publishing arm, through a partnership with Victor Music Industries/Victor Entertainment.
As I mentioned, the fighting game scene exploded in the wake of Street Fighter 2, and while it was extremely competitive here in North America, it was even more pervasive in Japan at the time. The ‘90s saw the arcade in North America already in decline, but in Japan they still held strong, and that is partially due to the popularity of fighting games. This carried over to the home, where console hardware was starting to catch up to the arcade.
Every publisher wanted a piece of the pie that had already been chewed by more established brands, so it’s no surprise that EA wanted to try. Electronic Arts Victor was typically tasked with localizing EA’s existing titles, so Rabbit stands out as a unique endeavor. It was released on the Sega Saturn in 1997, and there was also a version for arcade. It wasn’t, however, localized for the West.
As for Rabbit itself, it’s a bright, colorful, and supposedly competent fighting game. There’s a selection of eight characters, each with their own spirit animal that can be summoned to fight alongside. Coincidentally, it was released very close to Bloody Roar, which also had animal powers, but the two games are miles apart.
Like most fighting games, Rabbit could easily be played without knowing Japanese, but you’d be missing out on all the cutscene dialogue.
The fan translation patch for Rabbit is available now thanks to Derek Pascarella, Bo Bayles, Walnut, and Malenko.
