dspcleaning-blog

[alexandriaisburning]

028: Whip! Whip!

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With bright colors, cute mascots, a sweet pastry theme and a powerful gameplay hook, Whip! Whip! effortlessly captures the joy of the single screen arcade games it imitates. Whip! Whip! has distilled the style of games like Bubble Bobble, with level designs and mechanics that avoid the esoteric aspects of games of the era, and make the scoring system accessible and immediate. At the same time it brings a touch of nuance to the otherwise simple, traditional arcade controls, utilizing the full range of analog directions for aiming your grappling hook. 

Grappling an enemy will pull you towards them, through any walls that might separate you, while initiating a jump kick. Jump kicks can be maneuvered, so you can adjust the arc of the attack and land on several more enemies. Enemies hit with a jump kick will ricochet around the stage and turn into score items, with more value items generated if you hit multiple enemies with a single kick. Hit enough at once and not only will the coveted kakigori drop, but the letters to EXPAND, which give you bonus life when the set is collected.  

Level designs are set up so you can hit multiple enemies at a time, with a variety of timings and routes through them. Routing adds a slight puzzle aspect, but small variables keep stages from feeling “solved” on repeat playthroughs. The trajectory of the initial attacks, follow up on the jump kick cause enemies to ricochet in different ways, and the bonus items that drop can be grappled to move dynamically through the stage. 

Where Whip! Whip! really shines over other genre entries are the boss fights. Boss fights are often a perfunctory, passive affair that have you keeping your distance as you whittle away at the enemy. By tying attacking to movement there’s inherent risk to be managed, and boss fights often involve attacking multiple points. Weak points are often vulnerable at the same time, so you can complete them faster if you’re willing to risk overextending and taking damage. 

If you do overextend and get the dreaded game over, there isn’t a huge penalty, since you can continue from any stage previously reached. Attempting the one credit clear or challenge mode ramps up the stakes, and suddenly the very generous health system will begin to feel tighter. Scoring and racking up those bonus items becomes more important in this situation, which leads to a natural push and pull of trying to knock out as many enemies at once as possible, without slipping up. 

Whip! Whip! is definitely a pure genre game, but it does just enough to make it both interesting and fresh, and its adorable vibes and welcoming presentation give it a pretty wide appeal, which should make it much easier to recruit partners for its two player mode. It’s full of plenty of upfront sweetness, with touches of a more complex flavor to give it a long term appeal. 

Unfortunately, the ending to this story isn’t as sweet, with developer Alpha-Unit sadly going bankrupt after releasing this game. They were previously known mostly for licensed anime games, and Whip! Whip! has ended up as a bit of a standout in their catalog, among the few translated titles released in English. The game was subsequently delisted from the Switch eShop, though it currently remains available on Steam. 

[great-and-small]

I was walking on a rather remote beach when I came upon this Whip eel drying up in the sun. These are intertidal eels that can actually handle themselves out of water for a bit, but it’s not normal for them to be fully exposed in direct sunlight like this. The tide was at least six hours from coming in and I felt like this eel was in distress, so I made the decision to dig him out and return to the ocean. His body was too delicate to be simply pulled from the hole without injury, so I got to digging.

This endeavor took about 40 minutes as the eel was quite long and difficult to excavate. Also had to continually refill my temporary eel pond to keep him from drying out entirely while I worked.

If you are an eel aficionado like myself, please enjoy this silly little video of the relocation process set to some jaunty royalty-free disco music.

[fluorescentbrains]

me reading straight up pornography: hmm… this one just doesn’t have enough accurate character psychoanalysis to get me off

[ms-demeanor]

hey, don't cry. one cup heavy whipping cream, two tablespoons granulated sugar, three tablespoons cocoa powder and whisk until stiff peaks form for three ingredient chocolate mousse, okay?

[momoiro-hime]

putting my ocs in every AU i want part. 34791

| Do NOT repost or use without permission.

[toonyballoony]

our discord unanimously agreed that ratatouille is a mecha and I cried laughing after making this joke

[kaiju-krew]

big grumpass cat

[hoot-alex]

My first attempt at making a decoy!

[skullingwaydraws]

Remember you are one

[mildmayfoxe]

GET WEIRD! // shop

[valewritessss]

Percy waking up with no memories but that he hates a bitch named Ares and that he’s wifed up

[ohbother2]

Vox saw this man nearly dominating a powerful Angel and got a boner and had to pretend he was just happy Alastor was getting beat up

We know your secrets Vox, we know what you want

[hansoeii]

the doctor on their way to steal your heart

[ferngle]

Offence class are chaotic triplets, and you can't prove me otherwise

[soyochii]

<33

[mildcrow]

sketchy veggie laois before bed 🥕