Kong Wen wrote:A Beta Fu7ure wrote:I've heard improbably great things about this gravity inverting platformer based on some obscure cartoon licence and developed by WayForward.
I like how you described this. There are a lot of staunch WayForward apologists out there. I'll be interested to hear what you think about it. (Not that I ever knew this game existed before you mentioned it, but it'll still be interesting to hear whether you think it's worth the praise it apparently gets.)
I'm not massively familiar with WayForward's work. My experience with their titles amounts to
Contra 4 on the DS.
Lit on Wiiware and
WWF: Betrayal on GBC. The latter was a really bare bones scrolling beat-em up and had some of the most horrendous "music" I've ever come across (one youtube comment referred to it as being "akin to a robot commiting suicide" which wasn't far off). I was surprised it was apparently put together by the same developer that has legendary status for creativity with some gamers.
As for
Wendy, I'd seen it crop up on several "hidden gem" articles and videos for obscure Game Boy games so picked up a copy a few months back, planning to play it as part of a Halloween fest. I did so last night. It took less that an hour to beat it.
It's apparently based on a secondary character from Caspar the Friendly Ghost. You'd expect then, a developer to knock out some cheap platformer. Perhaps it's because WayForward chose to do something more original that the game has been singled out for praise because, unfortunately, it does have it flaws.
Graphically, it's very good, with a pleasing color palette, nicely animated, personality filled sprites and some nifty parallax scrolling (I'm from the generation who still thinks Parallax scrolling is impressive whenever he sees it)...the music though is less well done. While it's certainly better than Betrayal's depressed robot it has the sound of a developer who doesn't really understand the hardware he or she is using with odd, tinny sounding beeps and boops. Alarmingly, in one stage a sudden patch of slowdown seems to turn off the music completely! On another stage, floor spikes appear to have no ill effect on my character which may also suggest a slightly rushed nature to the development time.
All of which is strange because the gameplay is really quite interesting. If you've ever played VVVVVV, the gravity stage in one of the old Mega Man games or the 2d sections from the Super Mario Galaxy games you'll be at home here but it was probably fairly pioneering to have the whole game focused on such tricks when this title was released.
As well as running and jumping and firing her magic wand (which can be charged up by collecting stars that are liberally scattered throughout stages), pressing up and A also reverses gravity in the game causing everything, Wendy, bad guys, toxic slime and certain platforms to fall upwards, this is used to lend a puzzle aspect to the platforming as you need to decide which way around to tackle the various jumps, while later levels introduce further challenges such as gravity controlling monsters who can undo your work and large vertical mazes that require constant flipping of gravity.
While these are all enjoyable the game's main issue is that just as you get into each level it ends. Even given the nature of Game boy games these stages are short and with only four worlds (split into 3 stages each) it doesn't take long to see them all. While there is a high score to aim for the game doesn't really give any other purpose to collecting the stars scattered around the levels and so if you have a fully charged up wand (which acts as both your health and the radius of your weapon) the temptation is just to get through it as quickly as possible and ignore the detours.
In between each world (which form the four towers of a castle) there is a brief broomstick riding scrolling shooter section which is reminiscent of a sort of Cotton-lite but these are also short and offer no boss fight at the end (the game only has one, very easy final boss).
There is a hard mode to try after beating the game on its regular setting and also, curiously an "Advance World" - another world that is only selectable if the game is being played on a GBA (unfortunately I left my SP in England so can't try it!).
The length of the game is ultimately it's downfall because the ideas presented in it are good ones. I suppose though, ultimately, this was aimed at a target demographic of young kids and it's difficulty reflects this. Still, it's hard to dislike a developer who takes a relative turd of a license and polishes it into something that's quirky and surprisingly inventive to play. It's certainly worth a play through if you see a loose cart floating about but will probably only remain a Halloween tradition after you've beaten all it has to offer.
. But to each their own - it's understandable.
