An infinitely better megaman clone than Krion Conquest with just enough going on to make it stand out despite the painfully obvious similarities.

That being said, the final level is horrible and the only reason I can't give this four stars after finishing it again for the first time since I was a teenager. The final boss is literally impossible without three gourds (basically the game's version of e tanks) and spamming a weapon that takes your own health away. Every non TAS longplay I've seen of this game shows the player simply tanking the damage from the billion bouncing balls the asshole sends out. A prime example of bad game design. Shame too...but would make a good rom hacking project for somebody to balance it out.

There are a lot of stand out titles that defined various eras of video games, and each of them have managed to last all the way up to this day, such as with series like Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Mega Man, and so on and so forth. Over the years though, plenty of competitors had risen up to try to achieve what these games managed to do, with some of them even succeeding for a good bit, but the way that they would go about doing this was the same method that the kid in school who didn’t study would do so: by copying. Yes, there are plenty of different clone games out there, games that try to look new and unique compared to everything else out there, but manage to copy many elements from other games that they are inspired by, to the point where they ultimately just become a worse version of those other games. There are many clone games out there, and I have covered several at this point, but one that is more shameless when compared to others would be with Whomp ‘Em.

While looking through a list of NES titles that I had yet to play yet, I saw this game, and from the screenshots I could find, it looked generic, yet fun enough to where I figured it would provide a fun enough time, so I decided to give it a shot. When I did though, it was then where I found out that the game was essentially a Mega Man clone. As you could probably tell at this point, I am a massive fan of the Mega Man franchise, so you’d figure a game like this that tries to do a lot of what Mega Man did would appeal to me a lot. However, after playing through, I wouldn’t necessarily say that is the case. It is a good game for the most part, and it does do some interesting things, but I would definitely play any of the NES Mega Man games over this game anyday.

The story is a little more complex than your typical NES plot, being about a native american kid who sets out to defeat an evil warlock and collect a bunch of totems to prove to his village that he was a warrior, which is a neat setup, even if it is still very basic, the graphics are pretty good, having a good art style and plenty of different animations for the kid and enemies, but it does come off as a bit generic when compared to plenty of other titles, the music is… not very good, to be honest, and while I do appreciate that it is something different from what you typically hear in NES games, it didn’t really leave much of an impression at all, the control is fine for the most part, even though the switching around of weapons could’ve been a little better, and the gameplay is mostly what you would expect from a Mega Man clone, but there are one or two elements that somewhat make it stand out.

The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of this random native american kid, go through a set of eight different levels, with you being able to go through six of them in any order you want, defeat plenty of different enemies using your trusty spear which you can thrust in plenty of different directions, gather plenty of items that will not only increase your health, but also give you a boost in attack, defense, health, and even restore your health when you die, fight plenty of different bosses who will either provide quite a bit of challenge when taking them on, or end up being a complete joke, and gather plenty of different totems from said bosses to use as additional weapons against enemies. It is essentially Mega Man at home in the most broad sense, but to give it some credit, it manages to be fun enough, and I was able to enjoy the gameplay for what it offered as a big Mega Man fan.

Not to mention, this game did have some differences that made it stand out from any Mega Man game at the time. Like I mentioned earlier, there are plenty of items that can help you out in raising your defense, giving you temporary invincibility, as well as even increasing how much health you have by collecting enough of a certain item. This was pretty interesting to see, especially since the Mega Man game that would introduce that concept to the series, Mega Man X, wouldn’t be a thing for two whole years, so seeing it in a game like this was neat, and considering some of the stuff that you have to deal with in this game, it is absolutely necessary in some cases. With that in mind though, aside from the general setting of the game, the characters and enemies, as well as the plot of the game, there isn’t much here in this game that makes it stand out from others.

Trust me though, that is the least of my concerns when talking about this game, as it does have several issues weighing it down. First and foremost, while a lot of the weapons you get can help you out in certain situations throughout the game, in general, they all suck. They don’t help out nearly enough as they should, and feel useless when using them to fight regular enemies and bosses. Yeah, some of them are necessary to beating certain enemies, and some are used more so as a means to progress through the stages, but they become more situational because of this, and therefore making them useless otherwise. And speaking of being somewhat useless, I just don’t like the main weapon you use in this game. Like I mentioned before, you use a spear as your primary weapon, and when paired up against enemies and bosses like this, it really doesn’t do the Mega Buster or any other similar weapon justice. That’s not to say it is completely useless though, and there are certain weapons that you can use as projectiles, but considering a lot of the projectile weapons do less damage then the main weapon, then you have to question why you would use any other weapon then the main one.

And finally, there is the final boss of the game, who also just flat out sucks. He is way too overpowered, having way too much health, and having a base attack that is essentially a screen nuke, which can wipe your ass flat faster than you have time to process what had even happened. Sure, you can stop this from happening, but then you are at the risk of getting hit by even more projectiles, and when you double that with the floor constantly rising up from under you and potentially hurting you, this does not make for a fun boss. The only way to properly beat him would be by using this Dragon power that you get near the end of the game, but every time you use this power, it drains your health, so if you want to even stand a chance at beating him, you have to have, like, four life vials with you when you come to this boss, and trust me when I say that getting these life vials is easier said than done.

Overall, despite some useless weapons, a somewhat poor main weapon, and a shitty final boss, Whomp ‘Em was still a decent enough Mega Man clone that I am sure any fan of the franchise would get some amount of fun out of, and I myself had a decent enough time with it to where I didn’t hate it at all after I initially played it. I would recommend it for those who are fans of other similar NES platformers, or if you are a fan of old-school platformers in general, because while this game certainly does have its problems, they aren’t enough to completely ruin the entire experience. Also, little fun fact for you, this game in Japan is known as Saiyuki World 2: Evil Spirit of Heaven, which is a sequel to the original Saiyuki World, which was an adaptation of…….. Wonder Boy in Monster Land. Man, so many people were ripping off that series like crazy, I feel kinda bad for it now.

Game #463