Rabbit Punch

Rabbit Punch is a comedic horizontally scrolling shooter where you control one of two giant rabbit-shaped robots, Rabio and Lepus, on a quest to rescue the royal family of Bunnyland. The peaceful kingdom has been invaded by a monstrous army, and the King and two Princesses have been kidnapped. You must fight through twelve levels across three environments, including a spaceship, an asteroid base, and a hostile planet. The gameplay combines classic shooter mechanics with unique close-combat abilities. You fire bullets and homing missiles, while getting close to enemies allows you to deliver a devastating punch. Power-ups found in carrot canisters include invincibility, missile upgrades, and energy refills. The game supports two players in simultaneous cooperative mode.

Arcade

Developed by V-System and released in Japan in September 1987, the game was published in North America by Bally Midway in February 1988 as Rabbit Punch. It runs on 68000/Z80 arcade hardware with standard resolution raster graphics. The audio system includes digitized speech warning about bosses and low missiles. The game is notable for being the first title worked on by Shin Nakamura, who would later found Psikyo, and its mechanics influenced his future games. A significant regional difference exists: the North American version is more difficult, removing some dialogue and forcing players to restart from stage nine after losing all lives. Despite these differences, the game was a commercial success in Japan, ranking as the fifth most-popular arcade game in Game Machine magazine in November 1987.