Have things been terrible lately? Are you feeling stressed? Overwhelmed? If the answer is yes (and let’s be honest, it probably is), Bunnybuns from HyperBeard Games is here to help.
Bunnybuns puts you in the shoes of a bunny who owns a small bakery and wants to make some dough. You serve a colorful cast of characters who each have their own charm. Your customers ask for specific pastries that you must create by combining ingredients from your kitchen. Ingredients come in two forms: feelings and fillings. Feelings are essentially just shapes that the pastries can come in, and fillings are ingredients that determine the color and sometimes texture of the pastries. Usually, customers request specific pastries, and you must determine which feeling and filling will combine to create the desired dessert. However, sometimes customers just request a certain feeling with a filling of your own choice, or vice versa.
The gameplay is simple and relaxing — you just tap on the ingredients and dough to bake pastries for your customers with no timer or clock whatsoever. Happy sounds and little rainbows greet you while you bake, and the characters give you cheerful smiles when you give them the baked goods they requested. Even if you get their order wrong, the customers just look a little disappointed, but not angry or upset.
When you place baked items in the hands of your patrons, they leave behind a handful of coins. If you build up your relationship with these lovely characters (a seafaring alligator, a preppy pup, a black cat, a sentient candle, a stack of marshmallows, etc.), they might offer you small gifts, tokens of their appreciation. You can use the profits of your work to expand your selection of feelings and fillings or to customize your bunny’s outfit. If it’s taking too long to accumulate coins through traditional bunny commerce, you can also hand over some cold hard cash that you earned in real life in exchange for some in-game coin. But fear not, it’s easy to play Bunnybuns without any microtransactions, and it’s possible to unlock all the content without shelling out your own money.
It’s also refreshing to play an iPhone game that doesn’t relentlessly pressure you to connect to Facebook, Twitter, etc. to play with friends. There is something uniquely calming about gameplay that doesn’t necessitate constant interaction with other players. However, I do wish that there were just a couple more options available for connecting with other players. My girlfriend downloaded Bunnybuns as well, and I had no digital outlet for my sudden and incessant desire to send her adorable rabbit-shaped pastries. However, she found the animation of the bunny taking a power nap between customers deeply endearing, so that’s one point in the game’s favor.
In all, Bunnybuns is soothing, light and charming. It’s perfect to play in idle downtime between classes, meetings or appointments and a relaxing reprieve from whatever other realities you might face from day to day.
Bunnybuns is available for free on the App Store and Google Play store.
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