Mastery #19: Whomp 'Em (NES)

 

        So brings on a new year with all new retroachievements to master this year. This year I have decided to try mastering 25 retroachievements, well at least that's what I have on my vision board this year lol. Last year I had one up there for mastering only 20 and I walked away with about 10, but with the release of the PS2 retroachievements in October that messed up what I originally had planned to master other games. Ah well, it's not that big of a deal. My goal of this really isn't to be the number 1 spot of retroachievements leaderboard or anything. Not to say if I did hold the number 1 spot I wouldn't be happy, but really it would be a title I could care less about. My only enjoyment is coming from playing these games in a different way & play games I would normally pass up on. Also sometimes being a collector you also carry the mentality of being a "completionist". But I digress, my most recent mastery was the game "Whomp 'Em" the rather interesting Mega Man clone from Jaleco. The concept of this game is rather really cool. Given there really isn't any Native American type of games out there or that many where you play as one, this game was somewhat ahead of it's time if you ask me. Although the name could be changed, not saying I don't like it but it's just ehhhh for me.

        Right off the get go you're dropped in this game with nice assets & graphics. The character sprite is nice and the different actions his weapon can do make it just look even crispier. The game will immediately remind you of basically most platformers, bright skies, gaps to jump over, oddly placed enemies. Yeah, one of the few odd things about this game is the oddly placed enemies. There are a few enemy placements that feel weird or off, not that big of a deal but it can cause for some unwanted damage at times. Speaking of the hit detection in this game drives me crazy. There was many times where I feel the hit was unwarranted or the hit box was just too far out from the sprite. This was massively more apparent when fighting bosses. Being that you're main weapon is a melee close range weapon you can understand more why the hit detection can be even more frustrating. For the most part everything else felt really smooth. 

        The game as follows puts you in a first opening level. The level is rather short and boring but the opening music puts you in the right mood for the rest of the game. But we will get to the music soon, I have much more to say about that. After the introduction level you are presented with a stage selection screen with 6 levels. Some levels being called 'test' can be rather confusing but when playing this game since there is a giant mountain in the middle all the levels I thought it was like, "Oh you have to overcome all these trails before you can defeat the last boss. That's cool". It technically became that considering after each boss you defeat for each of the six levels you get a new power up to your weapon. Each level has it's own 'theme' to it, but it can be kind of a loose theme. And what I mean by that is there is two forest levels. One being the 'Sacred Woods' the other being the 'Magic Forest'. After beating all 6 levels & their bosses next is taking on the last level & the last boss. Now, most of the levels in this game were rather simple & easy, the only real struggle challenge came from the bosses. Well, the last level they went all out. Including the last boss. 

    The last boss gives you very little to work with at first. It definitely takes some trail & error with it. Thank goodness there wasn't a achievement for beating the last boss damageless cause I'm not sure if that would be possible. Now to spare everyone the time of this, I will discus the music to this game but I won't go on a very big rant I promise. That's the magic word though, promise. Cause this game's music holds so much promise to it, it honestly almost feels incomplete in some places. Like the opener is just absolutely jamming. Almost on par to a point I honestly thought this was a Capcom game. But by the time you get to the last level the music just goes on & on.

    There is one other major factor I want to talk about this game with. The bosses. This game has some similar traits to like how Joe & Mac is, short levels with a more emphasis on the boss fight. This game has a similar feel, small short levels with a boss fight, which makes this game not a very long game at all. But a really fascinating feature this game includes is the boss can steal your health potion. A game trait I would assume would be in a game such as Dark Souls was in this one. And honestly I'm not surprised no other game has really implemented this. Throughout the level you can get a energy tank...I mean a potion to refill your health when it depletes. Opposite of it's counterpart the energy tank this items activates automatically when you reach 0 health, which is a nice feature. But if you come across a boss and have one of these potions if you don't use it inadvertently on the boss, well the boss will have no problem using it on itself. I can't express how much I loved this feature but also hated it with obvious reasons. 

    The achievement set for this game was fun but I won't lie I was surprised it wasn't filled with more achievements but considering how short the game is the achievements could theoretically be broken up into smaller pieces to seem to be "more" but honestly I think this set was perfect for what it is. Also the only other thing I can think of is cheevos for "not dying" in the level...better not be damageless boss run. I could talk on forever about this game and the pros & flaws but I'm still getting use to this writing thing. So hopefully I haven't bored you so far. This game will one day be in my collection of games, now playing it and mastering it. It shall be mine.