Whip Rush is a side-scrolling space shooter released in 1990 for the Sega Mega Drive System and subsequently for its American counterpart, the Sega Genesis. Whip Rush's gameplay style is very similar to R-Type: The title ship flies through 7 dangerous stages and is forced to fight large bosses using timed attacks. The ship's Options are similar to the ones in Curse or Psychosis: The ship can be equipped with two Options at a time and the player can rotate them around the ship changing their directional fire at the same time. The player has a total of three weapons to choose from and can change the ship's speed through eight different speed levels. Extends are awarded and there are no checkpoints, but if a player loses all their lives and continues, they have to restart the level over again.
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The core mechanic of having options you can spin around and chuck at enemies is admittedly really neat, and the game does have its moments (stage 3, for example, is one where you can really have fun doing this to keep encounters from getting too intense). That being said, it's really held back by wonky collision detection and far too many areas where you need to navigate tight spaces with said janky collision detection. I'd say it's worth going through just to beat but I'm not so sure it's worth the trouble of 1ccing.
Cleared on January 4th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 44/160)
Whip Rush is another 2D on-rail flight shooter on the Sega Genesis. I've grown quite familiar with the genre at this point, and it's now just a matter of what new mechanic this game offers compared to the others. This time, you can control your speed and I'll admit, it seems like an excellent idea as one of my complaints with Wings of Wor was that everytime you level up, you become faster and while it can make dodging in open areas much easier, when it comes to more narrow points in the game, now that is a real challenge. Here, however, you can adjust speeds at any time which allows for more precise evasive maneuvers. The bad news is that there is only one button, so if you went from fast to medium and want to go back to being fast, you have to be slow for a moment, then medium, and then you can be fast again.
Other than that, you have four power ups with Laser, Missile, Directional Shot, and Assist. Laser allows more damage output in a horizontal direction, Missile allows for multi-direction attacks the more you upgrade it, Directional Shot fires in the opposite direction where you are facing, and Assist will fire in a set direction. What I find interesting is that the game has it to where they also act as a 2nd health bar, so if you take a hit, you only lose the power-up and not your life.
This does give you a bit more leeway compared to other schmups, and you'd think the game would have the easiness that Arrow Flash had from the first few levels, but as you progress along, it really cranks up the difficulty. Especially the battleship area, good grief. And the bosses don't fair any better, but I think my least favorite thing about them is that their music isn't that great, and they use it for all the bosses in the game, including the final boss. Which is pitiful because some of the music in this game is actually quite good.
The visuals in this game are also really nice although it doesn't seem out of the ordinary from other shooters featuring aliens and machines. Well, except for that mech with the weird blue face, and the final boss which literally looks a penis.
On the note of the final boss, when I saw it, I thought "Ok, this is another one of those core final bosses, I'll just chill in the back, maybe move out of the way for a projectile and just mow it down." Well, they actually thought about it and give the boss the ability to stretch forward which allows for its claws to hit which turns a fight from what could've been a cakewalk to a chaotic madhouse that's really difficult to avoid.
It's decent enough of a game, and I did like the ideas it brings to the table, but I'm fine to just only play it once
Whip Rush is another 2D on-rail flight shooter on the Sega Genesis. I've grown quite familiar with the genre at this point, and it's now just a matter of what new mechanic this game offers compared to the others. This time, you can control your speed and I'll admit, it seems like an excellent idea as one of my complaints with Wings of Wor was that everytime you level up, you become faster and while it can make dodging in open areas much easier, when it comes to more narrow points in the game, now that is a real challenge. Here, however, you can adjust speeds at any time which allows for more precise evasive maneuvers. The bad news is that there is only one button, so if you went from fast to medium and want to go back to being fast, you have to be slow for a moment, then medium, and then you can be fast again.
Other than that, you have four power ups with Laser, Missile, Directional Shot, and Assist. Laser allows more damage output in a horizontal direction, Missile allows for multi-direction attacks the more you upgrade it, Directional Shot fires in the opposite direction where you are facing, and Assist will fire in a set direction. What I find interesting is that the game has it to where they also act as a 2nd health bar, so if you take a hit, you only lose the power-up and not your life.
This does give you a bit more leeway compared to other schmups, and you'd think the game would have the easiness that Arrow Flash had from the first few levels, but as you progress along, it really cranks up the difficulty. Especially the battleship area, good grief. And the bosses don't fair any better, but I think my least favorite thing about them is that their music isn't that great, and they use it for all the bosses in the game, including the final boss. Which is pitiful because some of the music in this game is actually quite good.
The visuals in this game are also really nice although it doesn't seem out of the ordinary from other shooters featuring aliens and machines. Well, except for that mech with the weird blue face, and the final boss which literally looks a penis.
On the note of the final boss, when I saw it, I thought "Ok, this is another one of those core final bosses, I'll just chill in the back, maybe move out of the way for a projectile and just mow it down." Well, they actually thought about it and give the boss the ability to stretch forward which allows for its claws to hit which turns a fight from what could've been a cakewalk to a chaotic madhouse that's really difficult to avoid.
It's decent enough of a game, and I did like the ideas it brings to the table, but I'm fine to just only play it once
No
I'm not very good at these environmental-hazard-heavy shooters (lord help me whenever I get around to trying R-Type).
Whip Rush is a pretty mediocre one, although I will say that I did enjoy the "signature" mechanic--acquiring rotatable options and bouncing them repeatedly off of enemies for huge damage.
All in all it was a fun little diversion, but not something I care to sink my teeth way into.
Whip Rush is a pretty mediocre one, although I will say that I did enjoy the "signature" mechanic--acquiring rotatable options and bouncing them repeatedly off of enemies for huge damage.
All in all it was a fun little diversion, but not something I care to sink my teeth way into.
Average shoot'em up that features a whip ability to smack your enemies.
Not too remarkable, really. Starts pretty promising but kinda falls over and eats shit by the last couple stages, notably having near unavoidable hits during some later bosses. Either way, Vic Tokai would go on to knock it out of the park in later shmup outings, so it feels more like a small misstep leading up to that.