A boy opens a magic storybook and gets sucked inside.  He gets turned into a little pink blob, but a princess gives him a whip thing to help him along.  Now he must travel through challenging 2-D platforming levels in this 8-bit styled action game.  It’s available to download on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.

You can jump and hop on enemies to dispatch them, or slap your whip at them instead.  Hold down the jump button while in the air to swing your whip around like a propeller to slow your decent.  And that’s pretty much all you can do.  Defeated enemies will drop gems, collect 100 to get an extra life.  Graphically, the game reminds me of late NES titles like Kirby’s Adventure or the ‘never-released-in-the-US’ Mr. Gimmick.

But just because this game and character reminds me of Kirby, don’t think for a second that this game is easy. It starts out simple in the first few screens, but gets way more challenging as you progress.  The problem is that a lot of the deaths feel cheap as you get knocked back quite a bit when hit.  And the hit detection is awful.  Stomping on enemies is very inconsistent.  And like Mega Man, spikes are an instant death.  And since the hit detection is so awful, any time I got killed by a spike, it never looked like I actually hit it.  The game is also pretty short with only a few levels, although the ones I played will take a pro player to get through.  I would recommend this game to 2-D platforming experts only.

Kid Factor:

Whipseey and the Lost Atlas is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Fantasy Violence.  You can stomp on enemies and hit them with your whip, but they just flash and disappear when defeated.  You do the same thing when you get hit as well.  Reading skill isn’t needed as there is very little text, but younger gamers may find the challenges a bit too difficult.

Tags: Game Reviews