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