Whip Rush (MD, 1990)
Graphics-6 Sound-7 Control-8 Challenge-8.5
Level Design-6 Frustration-9 Fun-6 Originality-5
Overall Score-6
+ Pod formations and ‘ram’ attack (where the pods slam into enemies in two cardinal directions), some good bosses, decent variation, manual speed control (a bit slow to switch though and you can’t do it while pausing), weapon upgrades provide one extra hit point (ship gets nerfed to the default weapon), respawn on the spot (makes it hard to recover later on though), difficulty options
+/- Rips off R-Type a lot, fairly easy to gain extra lives, limited continues (5 on Normal), very short invincibility time after taking a hit, sometimes hard to get what you want from the power ups (auto-cycling between the different weapons and the pod (P) and it moves towards the left through walls)
- Heavy trial & error (need to have the right weapon at the right time – no weapon inventory, one of the weapons doesn’t shoot backwards and one of them has an awkward targeting mechanic (shoots in the opposite direction to where you’re pressing the d-pad – many places where you need to shoot backwards, boss patterns), hard to recover after death later on, so-so colour choices overall, generic design, only four weapons, doesn’t put the sound chip to good use on a technical level (mostly memorable tracks though), somewhat tedious bosses in stage 2 and 5,
Level Design-6 Frustration-9 Fun-6 Originality-5
Overall Score-6
+ Pod formations and ‘ram’ attack (where the pods slam into enemies in two cardinal directions), some good bosses, decent variation, manual speed control (a bit slow to switch though and you can’t do it while pausing), weapon upgrades provide one extra hit point (ship gets nerfed to the default weapon), respawn on the spot (makes it hard to recover later on though), difficulty options
+/- Rips off R-Type a lot, fairly easy to gain extra lives, limited continues (5 on Normal), very short invincibility time after taking a hit, sometimes hard to get what you want from the power ups (auto-cycling between the different weapons and the pod (P) and it moves towards the left through walls)
- Heavy trial & error (need to have the right weapon at the right time – no weapon inventory, one of the weapons doesn’t shoot backwards and one of them has an awkward targeting mechanic (shoots in the opposite direction to where you’re pressing the d-pad – many places where you need to shoot backwards, boss patterns), hard to recover after death later on, so-so colour choices overall, generic design, only four weapons, doesn’t put the sound chip to good use on a technical level (mostly memorable tracks though), somewhat tedious bosses in stage 2 and 5,