Whip! Whip!

Let me begin by saying that, despite the recommendation, I do not feel this game is worth the $9.99 asking price. It's great for what it is, but for the amount of content, I wouldn't price it above... $1.99? Anything above $4.99 is definitely out of the question. Anyways, Whip! Whip! is an adorable arcade-style game in the vein of Bubble Bobble. You clear stages (or "Recipes") by defeating all the enemies in each level, with a unique mechanic of shooting a ranged glove onto them. The glove will latch on, and you will fly up in the direction of glove, which causes your character to do a kicking attack until they land. You can hit multiple enemies while remaining airborne; this allows for combos that increase your score, with the highest score from any individual run being saved in the records menu. Aside from that, however, there is no purpose to the score. The game itself and the mechanics are very well-done and competently executed, which is why I have to recommend it. It's very fun once you get started to keep on going! The controller works [i]almost[/i] flawlessly, although I have had this strange issue occasionally where it will move left or right on its own. This is especially apparent in the menus where it will scroll through the entire menu at a very fast pace, but I've also witnessed it in-game a few times where my character will move in a direction I'm not pushing. I played with an Xbox 360 wireless controller, but it may have been a battery issue since it was low the entire time. Falling in line with other arcade games, it does get a bit repetitive fast. The game also includes a local co-op mode which I have yet to try, but I think it's safe to say that would be a bit more entertaining than single-player. The story is simple, but it does include cutscenes that I personally find very cute, apparently with a different ending if you do co-op (for reasons that make sense once you've done the story alone). So all in all, I think it's a safe bet for fans of classic, simplistic arcade games who appreciate cute and colorful music, atmospheres, and characters. You're not getting a masterpiece of a game, but you are getting something memorable that you may feel compelled to go back to once in a while. With all of that said, my main complaint is how little content there is to the game. The entire main game will take you about an hour and a half to finish, which unlocks a "challenge mode" that is just the same game all over again where you play until you lose (in the story mode, you can go back and continue from whatever level you lost at, which makes it a bit more relaxing). Because the challenge mode doesn't offer anything new in terms of gameplay, I would say that you've basically seen the entire game after an hour and a half of playing, which, again, does not warrant the current price upon release. So in summary; very cute and simplistic arcade-style game with a fun story, probably a lot more entertaining with a friend, but extremely short and not worth the $9.99 price tag at the time of this review.

昔はボチボチとゲーセンでも見かけた画面内の敵をすべて倒すとステージクリアの固定アクションゲーム。 ハリーアップからの永パ防止キャラやアルファベットをそろえるとライフアップなどのバブルボブルあたりを意識した作りになっており、この手のゲームをやったことある人なら懐かしく感じるのではないだろうか。 しかしバブルボブルと比較するとアイテムは少なく隠し要素もほとんどない。その為、やや物足りない感がある。 この手の固定画面アクションは、敵をまとめて倒すと高得点という要素（バブルボブルだと泡で閉じ込めた敵をまとめて割る）があり魅力の一つだと私は思う。 このゲームの場合は、つかんだ敵に向かってアタックでまとめて倒せるのだが、敵に突っ込んでいるアタック中に敵の弾や攻撃すると逆にダメージを受ける状態の敵に当たるとダメージを受けるので、それらがまとまった敵の中に混じっているとダメージ確定なのはめんどくさいと感じた。アタック中は無敵でもよかったのではないかと思う。 色々と不満点はあるけど、敵をつかんでアタックからさらに敵をつかんでアタックの繰り返しで画面内を暴れながら敵を次々倒すのは爽快。 レトロ感を出しつつ固定画面アクション特有のシンプルだけどやりごたえと面白さも上手く再現されていると思う。 キャラも可愛くＢＧＭも良いので取っ付きやすいのではないだろうか。 ゲーム画面を見て懐かしいと感じた人、シンプルなゲームが好きな人、キャラに魅力を感じた人にオススメ。

I never heard of this game until today but good lord this is like something that would have been an actual arcade game back in the day except if it were given a dab of spice. The controls for Whip! Whip! are simple enough, and the game also shows you in the first few levels the basics and what you are expected to do, leaving the rest of the intricacies behind wraps for you to discover on your own. Even though this game says it requires a controller (due to it tying movement to left analog stick), I was able to use a joystick set to PS3/360 left analog stick. Not sure why this game specifically requires an analog stick, but whatever you may be able to use to set something to read as a controller left analog stick you might be able to use something else. The basic concept of the game is to grapple into enemies initiating a kick until you land, and the higher combo you get leading to more rewarding sweets for bonus points and expand balloons aka your ticket to getting extra lives. The game itself isn't long at all and can be finished within an hour or so casually playing through it for the first time, but this game offers a challenge mode after finishing the story which is the real deal no holds barred difficult achievement of the game to go for. For story mode you are able to select and start from any stage you reached for the sake of practicing before going for Challenge runs or to pick up from where you left off if you had to quit previously or when continuing after a game over. There are various settings to toggle if you want to mess around or make things easier or harder in story mode, but not Challenge Mode where it's arcade rules playing on all defaults and cannot continue. People relate this game a lot to Bubble Bobble, so this seems like a mix of that and another arcade game, so understand that this game appeals to the arcade mentality where you turn the game on and just start playing asap for quick runs and see how far you can get before you game over. There are a few different music tracks, and honestly they are all pretty much boppin and what drove me to keep playing. Also, one final important thing of note. If you try to go into the options screen and the game crashes, this is due to some fonts missing. Downloading fonts if on Windows under Settings > Personalization > Fonts > Download fonts for all languages should fix this issue. If on another OS I'm not sure how the issue would be fixed if this was an occurrence on those platforms as well.

Do you like TAITO games like Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands or Parasol Stars? Just play this game. Do it right now! You're in for a treat.

This game is full of good design decisions, wrapped in an unfortunate number of bad UX decisions. Movement is really fun once you get the hang of it. It felt clunky at first, but after playing through the story mode it started to feel very natural. Challenge mode is structured very well in the old arcade model. Beating it is tough and takes a serious amount of time, but because the game does have a definite ending, getting a good score requires skilful play and risk-taking. It tracks both score and time, and they feel like two different challenges, you don't get a better score just by going faster. The main character is very cute, and the story is charming. Enemies can be pretty cute too sometimes, though less so when they kill a good run. The UX leaves a lot to be desired. Controls aren't particularly configurable, and it requires analog input, which is a big disappointment. Resolution options aren't great either, there's a good range of sizes but the game is always the same aspect ratio, letterboxed if need be. There are no leaderboards, and the game only displays your current best score and time. It also doesn't display your last score on the game-over screen, so if you don't pause right when you die, you may not be able to see your score at all. While movement feels very good, the game doesn't have a great tactile feel. The actual hand movements are pretty simple, without a lot of technical flourish. Over all, I like it. It's a good game and I expect to keep playing it for a while.

※手持ちのコントローラーのアナログがちょっと ぐらついてて勝手に移動しちゃう誤作動があるため switch版に買い替えてのレビューです とても昔のゲーム、バブルボブルを彷彿させる 可愛らしい動物キャラとスイーツを題材にした 一画面アクションゲームです 見た目と反してシンプル操作ながら アクション性が高くボスステージも見ごたえがあります BGMも一昔前のゲームセンターで聞いたことある様な 懐かしさを感じました 現時点でほしいと思うのは、ミトンを飛ばす方向の ガイドラインを常に表示してほしい位でしょうか シンプルにケモノが好きな方はACTが苦手でもおすすめできます

R.I.P. Alpha Unit This game was sadly delisted off the Switch Eshop a year after they went bankrupt. Steam is the only way to play it, but it'll crash without Windows 10 fonts. :( The game itself is a very fun single screen elimination platformer, similar to many of Taito's arcade games. The characters are adorable, and the game has this this big food aesthetic. Trust me, this game is worth it. HOWEVER, for some reason, the game crashes when you go to settings, so be wary of that.