by Amr (@siegarettes)

• Whipseey and the Lost Atlas
  
• Developer: Daniel A. Ramirez
• Publisher: Blowfish Studios
• Switch, PC

Charming, cute, and deceptively difficult, Whipsey and the Lost Atlas is short and simple platformer that doesn’t quite make the most of its truncated run time. Comprised of five uniquely themed stages, Whipseey stays varied throughout, but never explores the possibilities of its whip mechanics or sliding physics. 

Whipseey can bounce on enemies’ heads, whip, helicopter himself to safety and swing on grappling points, but those abilities aren’t used for more than the obvious. And while the emphasis on sloped level layouts might initially call to mind something like the momentum platforming of NES’ Mr. Gimmick, slopes mostly end up as obstacles that slightly inconvenience you while climbing a hill or making a jump. 

The whip action doesn’t fair much better, with the enemies’ basic patterns not providing much in the way of interesting situations. If anything, a lot of the challenge in Whipseey involves taking on enemies placed precariously close to bottomless pits, trying to jump and whip just right to avoid bumping into them and being nudged to your death. When it’s not bottomless pits, it’s walls of spikes, which you of course don’t have invincibility from if you get bumped by enemies. Almost none of my deaths came from losing health to enemies, but from being nudged into either a pit or spikes, quickly making a joke of the fact that you have a health bar. 

It’s not all bad–I did enjoy most of the boss fights, and the dedication to making every area unique went a lot way to keep me invested in seeing the next area. Whipseey’s got an undeniable charm, which is what caught my eye in the first place. But between the constant annoyance of instant death, and the underexplored premise, Whipseey like a character that’s yearning for a more complete game.