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MY PET HOOLIGANS: Down the Rabbit Hole

MY PET HOOLIGANS: Down the Rabbit Hole

GAME REVIEWS 04

October 05, 2023

Gaming Chronicles focuses on curating the latest web3 gaming news, every weeks.

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Down The Rabbit Hole

What if I told you there was a place where you could skateboard, graffiti stuff, vandalize whatever you want, and shoot robots as they pass by? What if I told you this place exists, and you could go there today?

No, I'm not talking about Santa Monica Beach.

I'm talking about My Pet Hooligan. The folks behind My Pet Hooligan, AMGI studios, are the logical evolution of what a next-generation game studio is meant to be. We're here today to talk about their game, but the team at AMGI is building so much more than just a game.

If Hollywood is all about franchising, video games are all about transmedia IP; essentially, all the content you create that isn't your game. It could be a comic book, figurines, or a suite of impressive AI tools meant for creators to use technology in seamless and unintrusive ways. While AMGI has already announced one of those things, they have plenty more tricks up their sleeves.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Video games.

My Pet Hooligan is built around a Battle Royale format with a few game modes to complement the fun. With two NFT collections, a battle pass, and official merch, My Pet Hooligan feels like they're pulling off every Web3 game's dream.

Let's explore.

It's Rabbit Season

My Pet Hooligan went for a cartoonish look with their animation. Their Hooligans are goofy, brash, and irreverent in all the right ways. Run around any of their maps for a few minutes, and the urban, deep-city atmosphere you'll encounter is undeniable. Brick buildings covered in graffiti, billboards advertising unattainable fashion, and vehicles littering the street paint most of the maps with an inner-city feel. And that makes My Pet Hooligan stand out in a world of sci-fi spaceships and fantasy knights. Rather than going to some mystical place, it's as if My Pet Hooligan just went to Brooklyn. A Brooklyn populated by evil robots and rebellious rabbits.

The music of My Pet Hooligan is one of its best features. While you won't hear it all the time, the hip-hop beats and rap music fit in perfectly with the rest of the game's atmosphere. Between the visuals and soundtrack, there's nothing unpolished about My Pet Hooligan.

Shh, We're Hunting Rabbits

Jump in. Start shooting. That's all there is to My Pet Hooligan.

There's no equipment selection, drop-in, or preparation phase. You start on the map with a pistol and enemies all around you. Get to shooting or get to dying.

The chaos of My Pet Hooligan might slap some new players in the face, but it's easy to fit right in. There are three different game modes you can encounter for now: Coinpocalypse, Anarchy, and Hang Out. Each one revolves around hunting down your opponents and making them suffer, but I preferred Hang Out mode the most. You get the added benefit of hunting ZukBots around the map, and you get a fully unlocked map. In Anarchy and Coinpocalypse, the map is reduced to encourage more gun fights and speed up the match.

But in Hang Out, I got to actually explore the map, test out weapons, and figure out strategies. Sometimes, the absolute chaos of the other modes makes anything other than surviving a challenge. But you can still find time to land a few skate tricks and tag a few buildings before someone takes you out.

Though the game is free on the Epic Games store, it's still in early access, which means there are plenty of areas still rough around the edges. I would love to see a larger variety of weapons in-game, and I think melee still needs some serious tweaking. I'm hoping the team continues to polish and refine their creation into something with tight gunfights and intense battles.

Join The Karrot Gang

There are two NFT collections on the books for My Pet Hooligan: Hooligans and ZukBots. Both get you access to My Pet Hooligan's inner community, and both used to get you access to the closed beta. Now, one of the only things your Hooligan NFT gets you is the ability to customize your character in-game. You can do some cool things with your Hooligan out of the game, but we'll focus on video games for now.

The Hooligan NFTs are high quality, high priced, and grouped into seven different factions.

Mutants
Playboys
Punk Bunnis
Rogue Jumpers
Cypher Buns
Bunners
Hare Raisers

The community around My Pet Hooligan is rabid, strong, and generous. They're quick to support each other and welcome new members to their ranks. If I were to hop in and join them, I'd definitely be a Bunner.

Survey Says:

I am conflicted.

If I rate My Pet Hooligan as an IP, I'd give them a 10/10 easily. Their trailer alone is so fantastic. Their community, VTuber tools, suite of creator apps, and everything going on behind the scenes is so freaking exciting that I can't wait to see it all fully released.

But we're not rating My Pet Hooligan as an IP. We're just rating their game. And even taking early access into account, the game still has a lot of building to do. The Battle Royale is only truly fun during a community game night or if you jump in with friends, as their lobbies are quite empty. Their roster of weapons feels a little sparse, and the only cosmetics are for your Hooligan. I'd love to see more weapons, weapon skins, and even skateboard skins. More emotes, more graffiti tags, and less bugs, please.

Compared to other early access titles that are straight-up broken and riddled with mechanics that don't work, this is great. You can play it. And play it extensively.

I can't ding it any points just because it's early access; that's unfair. And I can't ding it for only having cosmetics; that's more than plenty of other games in early access.

Where My Pet Hooligan is right now, I'd give it a 7/10. Where it will be in the future, I'm confident that number will be higher. And I've played earlier builds with far more bugs and issues, so they've certainly improved.

It still heavily revolves around Battle Royale, so you won't be happy here if that's not your style. But what they're building is definitely worth checking out. You have no excuse not to check it out since it's free to play now.

All in all, what My Pet Hooligan offers is unique through and through. It's an undeniably fun experience with friends or during community game nights, and I'm hoping it maintains that fun even when jumping into random lobbies soon. I like the progress the team at AMGI Studios has made so far and I trust they will only impress me further in the future.