bad rats show bad rats show, not the bad rats show or anything just bad rats show, is a physics puzzle game infamous for being the sequel to bad rats, the original joke gift game. the first bad rats is infamous for its terrible physics, awful graphics and artstyle, minimal grasp of english, and mildly unnerving setting during a time before greenlight where the average steam game was held to a much higher standard. as such bad rats stood out like a grotesque thumb and was gifted so many times that the developers made a sequel. frankly this game's existence shows the failure of internet culture to self moderate and proves irony is a curse from god but oh well time to get up in this bitch.
in bad rats show you are tasked with guiding a ball through a maze by strategically placing various rats and objects to move it along via rube goldbergian chains of events in order to hit a button that brutally executes a cat for the enjoyment of a live audience of rats. the physics are brokenly bad and the graphics, especially the animation, are terrible, the english has notable flaws although it is quite readable, and the the soundtrack is hilariously dumb. the game is still an atrocious mess that often leaves players praying for the physics to work although it is still incredibly easy to beat as all the puzzles are trivial. bad rats show is still a terrible game worth nobody's money or time but it will still be bought as soon as its on sale for a literally and figuratively cheap gag.
as said the physics are complete garbage. trying to solve puzzles often boils down to pure luck as the ball bounces unpredictably, often even invalidating the official solutions the game can present to you. many times i have replayed a solution that failed only for it to work easily. furthermore the ball seems to operate in 3 dimensions in a game of 2 meaning that sometimes the ball bounces out of the loving map horizontally when the physics command. this has the effect of making a few rats far heavier in rng, most notably the motorcycle rat, because often explosions send the ball out. the game seems to acknowledge all this stuff this by giving players 50 tries to solve each puzzle before failure which is completely excessive but necessary due to the randomness. i dont think theres a penalty for losing as you can probably just select the level again but i never lost to find out. unfortunately the game lacks a fast forward button when you put your contraptions into motion so doing the same setup a bunch of times until the rng works out is obnoxious.
in the last chapter the game has a sudden switch to 3d from 2d for god knows why. this seemingly random swap completely invalidates many rats that moved the ball via contact because now the spastic physics and increased map size make rats like the football and plague ones, ones that pushed the ball in one direction via continuous contact, completely worthless while also super buffing rats with infinite range such as the pope and mafia rats. the chief strategy through all of these levels is use the pope rat to drag the ball across the map to the button and some other ones to position it correctly. these levels are even easier than the main ones and have even wonkier physics stuff as a lot of the terrain is uneven and trying to manipulate objects in a 3d plane is a loving travesty. any of you who have ever worked with blender imagine that as a game mechanic but with less polish.
i wish there was more to write about the gameplay but thats the entire game. its just a bunch of really easy and boring bad physics puzzles but who expected anything else. im sure that someone could make stellar puzzles with what bad rats show provides mechanically but the game is just so fundamentally bad that it would invalidate all attempts. there is actually a level designer that i didnt use but i found out searching for levels in game is completely busted and lacks everything necessary for searching or rating. custom levels are hampered by the same physics as the normal game so its forgeted anyway.
the graphics are awful but a step above the beyond terrible graphics of the predecessor. all of the rat models are poor, the textures look bad, and the animation is just the worst. every living thing in this game awkwardly rotates in place to simulate real movement or something and it just looks terrible. lip syncing is unheard of and speakers violently open and close their mouths to simulate it. the cat models are particularly bad and they die and explode into gibs that look worse. the graphics arent so bad rob the "experience" but they are bad.
the whole setup of the story and what the deal is is kind of forgeted too. you are tasked with killing cats who are apparently murderers according to the rat audience but they mostly look deformed and innocent. they arent even significantly bigger than the rats they might just be guinea pigs or something. either way i dont really care but its still pretty forgeted yo just adding this as a disclaimer since the game has no real story besides this.
the soundtrack is the only positive about this game because its so loving dumb it became an instant classic close to my heart. if you want to hear portugese men try their damnedest to sing in mouse squeak over cheesy instrumentals this is it. that description does not do this soundtrack justice its just so stupid. going off sounds and stuff the game is also fully voiced by a guy with what i assume is a portugese accent playing a rat game show host. he has a loose grasp on english. its the best part of the game after the soundtrack.
heres the summary: why even buy bad rats ever forget you. it beats out quite a few other games because it at least has progression and unintentional humor
tier list
essential games
bad tier
yume nikki
unessential games
good tier
profit motive
decent tier
lisa: the painful
chrono trigger
station 37
skelemania
the witch's house
out there somewhere
warhammer 40k dark nexus arena
sluggish morss
space funeral
planetside 2
mediocre tier
mighty no 9
mimicry man
ib
space funeral: the legend of earth birth
hylics
mogeko castle
extremely unessential games
boring tier
soma
presentable liberty
bad rats show imscared (a pixelated nightmare?)
stray cat crossing
spookys house of jump scares
lieat
ananke
super columbine massacre rpg
crypt worlds
ao oni
suits: a business rpg
inflation quest
stellar 2d
actually uses boredom as a game mechanic tier
middens
physically revolting tier
major/minor
gender bender dna twister extreme
space funeral 4
hell
worse than Riddler tier
the gray garden
off tier
off
worse than off tier
wadanohara and the great blue sea
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