Whiplash

Anyone with a PS2 will tell you that this is the year of the platform game thanks to two very surprisingly original and addictive sequels called Jak II and Ratchet and Clank 2: Going Commando.  Unfortunately, these games are well beyond the reach of your average Xbox owner and we’re forced to wait for our own platform games for our beloved black box.  While Voodoo Vince was a pleasant surprise, it didn’t quite make it as a truly satisfying platformer in the same vein as the first two games I mentioned.  Now Whiplash makes its way to our favorite console.  Is this game’s arrival reason enough to cheer or will we still continue to wait for that platformer that will blow us away?  Let’s find out, shall we?

Whiplash’s premise is set in the most interesting of places - an animal testing facility that is witness to man’s most cruelest treatment of animals all in the name of designing and marketing new high-tech gizmos.  Yes, the Genron Corporation is every animal rights activist’s worse nightmare until one day a wily long-tailed weasel named Spanx (victim of electro-shock treatments) and a mouthy white rabbit called Redmond (used to test so many cosmetic products that he’s virtually invincible) escape the torturous Genetic Recombinator. Chained together, Spanx and Redmond begin causing enough chaos as they get back at all those scientist that did them harm.

The game’s definite appeal is the humor and there’s plenty of it throughout the game’s many areas.  You see Spanx finds plenty of creative uses for the poor and indestructible Redmond - he’s a weapon, a crude grappling hook and swing him fast enough and he can even serve as a helicopter of sorts.  Oddly enough, it's so fun to see Redmond in so many painful situations that finding new ways to abuse him sort of becomes the highlight of this otherwise so-so platformer.  The real payoff here, though, is the pain you’ll inflict on all those scientists and ruin Genron CEO Franklin D. Mann financially by literally destroying the testing facility.

Redmond and Spanx make their way through several different passages, vents and doors while they try to make it past the small army of radiation suited henchmen, robotic animal catchers and search lights that set off alarms and booby traps.  Along the way, both critters free a number of test subjects such as chimps and rodents.  Yet the game is basically you running around hallways and experiment rooms smashing consoles, bashing Redmond over the heads of scientists and other thugs.   Sounds like a repetitive cycle, doesn’t it?  Well that’s because the game doesn’t offer variety . . . not even a few mini-games that will take gamers out of the story for awhile.

The game’s saving grace is its humor and there’s plenty to find funny about the many uses for Redmond.  Stuff him into a mini-freezer and the poor rabbit becomes a block of ice that’ll knock a scientist off his feet.  Toss him into a furnace and he becomes a ball of fire attached to a chain. Fill Redmond with helium and he becomes a furry little balloon that you can use to float up to other locations above.   Smash enough things and you can activate a combo that does double the damage of normal attacks.  The controls, thankfully, are easy to get into and thanks to the various tips you’ll know exactly what to do.

Unfortunately, Whiplash doesn’t take advantage of the graphical capabilities of the Xbox.  In fact, the game actually looks more like a PS2 game.  While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, much of what we see in this game would have been far more impressive with tighter graphics.  Spanx and Redmond look great jumping and causing much destruction, but the environments surrounding them are often boring and sterile.  Sure you’ll come across some room with beautiful effects (an electrically charged pond of water gives off an eerily gorgeous blue glow) but the walls and other things in this place look drab.

Sound-wise, the game also fails to impress through its audio features as well.  The score, which feels like a good old-fashioned Looney Tunes cartoon, is heavy on the bouncy Super Mario Brothers theme.  The music becomes dramatic during animated cut scenes involving the evil humans, but other than that the music continues its zany tune throughout the game.  Much of the game’s dialogue is performed nicely enough by the human cast of characters but the only voice you’ll be hearing a lot from is Redmond.  He cracks wise and makes a few jokes that are actually pretty funny, but it becomes so repetitive that you won’t be chuckling at much by the middle of the game.  It would have been nice to hear different things from Redmond since what he says actually works. 

Unfortunately, while edgy and slightly humorous, Whiplash loses its fresh platformer goodness way too early in the game.  This is too bad, really, since there are a lot of interesting concepts and plenty of fun moments scattered throughout the game.  The action is just too repetitive to come close to the fun seen in most of the PS2’s most recent platform games.  Rent this one if you’re in the mood for an uprising of the most humorous kind.

Gameplay: 8.0
The controls are pretty basic and this is a good thing for platform games.  Sure you can run, jump, slide and smash your way through the game’s levels but finding inventive uses for Redmond is what really stands out.  You can use him to rappel down to another platform and you can even scurry in true weasel fashion.  And while you can level up on the smashing, the action just becomes one continuous cycle. 

Graphics: 7.0
No Xbox-exclusive visuals to tantalize platform gamers in the same way Voodoo Vince did, and much of what we see is rather plain.  Aside from the well-detailed characters (most notably Redmond and Spanx), the game is filled with plain hallways and sterile labs that contain some pretty decent special effects.  Electrify Redmond and you’ll see plenty of electrical charges and sparks, and setting the white rabbit on fire make for some great flame effects.  Other than that the game looks just like a PS2 game.

Sound: 7.2
The sound doesn’t fare any better but extra points should go for the Looney Tunes-inspired score that, strangely enough, doesn’t become annoying and the small number of funny comments Redmond makes.  Since Spanx is the silent partner here, Redmond often makes a few hilarious observations when placed in different situations but these comments tend to repeat themselves often.  The sound effects of swinging the rabbit are funny at first but hearing it all throughout the game can become tiresome.

Difficulty: Medium
Like most platform games, the challenge is keeping from falling to your doom or that bubbling brew that often means instant death or the depletion of your life meter.  Because Spanx was tortured through shock treatments, water causes him to fry.  The enemies you’ll face are not intelligent enough to cause much of a threat and tossing Robomice in there direction causes them to get distracted or can clear the room of a few cowardly scientists. 

Concept: 7.0
PETA will love the fact that animals are rising up and destroying the work of those heartless evil scientists and hurting them back for all the pain they’ve caused them.  Platform fans will love the characters and the fact that you can find so many uses for our unbreakable bunny, but there is little else that will have gamers coming back to this one after playing it once.  While it has a wonderfully humorous edge, this isn’t enough to really sustain the platform goodness.

Overall: 7.2
Whiplash doesn’t break any new ground as a platformer and it’s on the repetitive side, but there are plenty of fun moments scattered throughout the game.  The jokes are pretty funny and the characters make up a nicely twisted cartoon with its own message: Animals feel pain too!  A recommended rental, indeed.