Rabio Lepus Special

Overview

Rabio Lepus Special is a home version of Rabbit Punch, the Arcade horizontal shoot 'em up from Video System, which was released to the PC Engine exclusively. It features numerous changes to accommodate the console, including the lack of a two-player mode. Therefore, despite the title, Lepus is not playable as this is a one player affair.

The original Rabbit Punch Arcade game has been ported a few times - specifically by Hamster for their PS2 "Oretachi Geesen Zoku Sono" Arcade collection and later Arcade Archives series for PS4's PSN - yet this particular version has yet to see a rerelease.

Gameplay

Players progress from left to right as Rabio, defeating enemies that cross their path. Rabio can take up to three hits before losing a life and can recover these hits by collecting carrots from specific enemies. They also have a finite number of missiles which home in on enemies once fired, and these can also be replenished.

The same enemies can also drop tanookis, which give Rabio a temporary burst of invincibility, as well as various score items.