Developer: Daniel A. Ramirez
Publisher: Blowfish Studios
Platforms: PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox One,
Tested on: Switch
Whipseey and the Lost Atlas – Review
A lot of platformers are out there, and since they are quite easy to understand, they often are enjoyed by both young and old players. Mario and Kirby being just two examples of the more famous platformers out there. Well, it seems like the developer of one of the newer platformers, Whipseey and the Lost Atlas, got inspired by those two platformers and created their own special platformer. In the game, you will be a whip-wielding blob, collecting gems and jumping all around. Whipseey and the Lost Atlas was developed by Daniel A. Ramirez and published by Blowfish Studios and we got a chance to review the game. So, with our controller in hand, we were ready to whip the haters away.
Story
There isn’t a lot of story value present in Whipseey and the Lost Atlas. There are a few fragments present where it shows you that a girl, presumably named Whipseey, gets turned into a little blob because of a book she was reading. A tall lady then helps her out by giving her a whip to defend herself within blob form.
The images are the only form of story you get, during the gameplay, there is not even any trace of this story. The latter might have been a choice from the developer, but it does feel a bit odd to include the images and not give more actual story to go along with them.
Graphics
From the moment you first see Whipseey you might be reminded of Kirby, but the game is actually more reminiscent of Mario games. There are a lot of similarities in enemies and levels which feels like a love note to Mario. Whipseey and the Lost Atlas has 5 levels with each their own colorful design. All the levels have tiny sub-levels that are connected by a door. The visual for the door never changes no matter what level you are in. It is also odd that the sub-levels are all so tiny, the Switch could handle bigger levels, the developer could have easily pasted the sub-levels together to reduce the feeling of levels dragging on and on.
Enemies go from a simple design to a more eccentric design. Animation wise it isn’t always clear what the enemies will do until you get close enough to witness it yourself. Whipseey herself has a simple blob design that could remind you of Kirby but with more hair. Her whip has a little ball at the end which is what kills enemies.
Sound
The music in Whipseey and the Lost Atlas is very upbeat which fits the colorfulness of the entire game. Whenever you enter a boss fight, the music will tense up to hype up the fight. When Whipseey uses her whip, you hear the clear slashing of a whip. Other sound effects are also very logical including the coin sounds when you pick up some jewels.
Gameplay
Whipseey and the Lost Atlas is a platformer where you have a whip to slash your enemies away. As you jump in the game, there is no explanation, luckily the controls are easy enough to figure out. There are only two buttons, a button for jumping and a button for using your whip. Whipseey can only use her whip straight in front of her. So, if you want to hit behind you, you will have to turn around first. Most of the time you’ll be using the whip to get rid of enemies but Whipseey can also jump on enemies to stun them for a limited time.
Whipseey starts with six lives and every time your health drops below zero you lose a life. When you run out of lives you have to fully start over a level. You can regain a life by collecting 100 gems. One thing that is a bit odd is that, instead of losing health when you accidentally touch a spike, you fully lose a life. This can be quite annoying certainly cause being hit by an enemy can push you in a spike trap as well. Unlike Mario where you only sometimes have a boss level, Whipseey’s level all have a boss at the end. If you lose too many lives before getting to the boss you might not make it and you would have to start over.
Besides just simply jumping, when you hold the jump button Whipseey helicopters with her whip, letting her slowly float down. At certain points in levels, there are also rings where you can grab on with Whipseey’s whip. For some reason, it seems like the hitbox of this ring isn’t very big. You can very easily jump and use your whip and it doesn’t grab on at all. It certainly doesn’t help at all that you can’t use your whip in any other direction than forward. The mechanic of the rings tends to be a bit tedious as you’ll often fall to your death because of the tiny hitbox. Also, you don’t have wall jumping so you can’t even save yourself if you accidentally fall in a cliff or get pushed in by an enemy.
Conclusion
Even though Whipseey and the Lost Atlas only has 5 levels, the game can be quite challenging and even frustrating. The game is visibly inspired by Mario but more as a tribute and not as a rip-off. The little story fragments feel a bit thrown on and might have been nicer to be extended or maybe even left out if they didn’t want to build further on the initial pictures. Hardcore platformers might finish Whipseey very, very fast, since the 5 levels aren’t that extensive but casual gamers or kids might have a bit of trouble with it. Even with some harder moments included in the game, it is still enjoyable and fun to whip enemies.
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