They'll laugh even harder if they're stuck playing this sub-standard, cookie-cutter, and cheap excuse for a shooter. That's assuming of course they can still use AC adapters and haven't advanced too far that all of the Genesis' in the world no longer work in 200 years. They may miss some classics, but at least they would avoid playing this.
Pretty much everything that can go wrong with a shooter goes wrong in "Whip Rush." The biggest complaint here is the level design. You really need a weapon that can fire behind you. That's just how the stages and enemy patterns are set up. Unfortunately, while it seems that the people of 2222 may have mastered the art of interstellar travel, they can't make the world's final hope fire lasers out of its exhaust ports.
Yes, there are power-ups to aid you in that way. They're basically useless. The missiles offer up your best chance of survival but hardly give you enough range to really tackle the challenge put before you. The fire-like shot is an uncontrollable mess. A powerful uncontrollable mess mind you, but it's impossible to play a shooter where maneuvering through millions of bullets also controls the direction of your fire. Once hit though, you lose whatever you've gained. Get hit without an extra weapon in tow, and it's time to go down in an embarrassing array of flames.
Maybe this could all be forgiven if you and a friend could fight through this mess together, but that wasn't meant to be either. It's a solo struggle. Slowdown wouldn't have been a problem since the bosses are meager, unthreatening, and cheesy in their appearance. All of your opponents are of that same generic variety too. Actually, variety isn't the right word either. You'll face the same barrage of around 15 enemies throughout.
Backgrounds offer up a little eye candy, showcasing some nice parallax scrolling and few technical effects. That's about it for the graphical presentation, which seems perfectly content to be average otherwise. The programmers in their infinite wisdom have managed to avoid the usual pitfalls of slowdown or flicker, so that's at least commendable.
They've also crafted a fine soundtrack. The sound effects have taken a major hit as a result (it's impossible to have an explosion sound any less puny), but that fast paced music keeps pace with the game. There are very few tracks to complain about, each one offering up the variety the rest of the game lacks entirely.
So, if you're reading this from the year 2222, slap together a letter to the now fully robotic Digital Press writers and tell them how wrong the developers were back in 1990. Their memory banks probably won't be programmed enough to allow information on "Whip Rush," so you may have some explaining to do. If they were, they'd likely revolt and go on some murderous rampage, killing everything in their path. If that happens, we here at DP sincerely hope you've concocted a ship that can fire out of its butt. Otherwise, you're as screwed as the people playing this game.
