I have to say, it’s been a while since I’ve played a game that I honestly couldn’t put down. Usually hunger or a bathroom break is enough to break up my game play experience; but not yesterday. Yesterday I got my hands on Who’s That Flying?! (or WTF?! for short) and I had a blast. WTF?! is the latest game from Mediatonic; the same guys who brought you Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess earlier this year. Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess was a great game, so if you played it you probably already have all the reason you need to pick up WTF?! If you didn’t, perhaps I can help push you in that direction.
In WTF?! you play as the Guardian of Earth (all of the other guardians just call you Earth) and you are on trial for allowing your planet to be attacked by Ravagers. Earth, for lack of a better word, is just plain awesome. He’s cocky, showboats, smooth talks, cracks jokes, and kicks ass all at the same time; my kind of hero. In the game you are playing through your memory of the attack, explaining to the other guardians how things really went down. If you fail to convince them that you did everything in your power during the attack, then it’s off to the prison planet for you.
The first thing I noticed about the game is how smooth it plays. The frame rate mixed with the great artwork and animation really makes the game look good. The objective is pretty simple; in each level you will come across many Ravagers. You are too awesome to be damaged so the Ravagers can’t hurt you, however, they can hurt the city. Each level has a health count for the city that starts with 50. For every Ravager that gets buy, you lose one health. Reach zero and its game over. You can stop Ravagers by shooting them or grabbing them and tearing them apart. Along with your primary weapon, you have awesome powers which are activated by the awesome meter. The meter has three levels: first is turbo fire which doubles your rate of fire when you activate it, second is super-beam which is a power beam that wipes enemies in its path, and last is hyper-beam which is bigger and stronger than the super beam. These powers will definitely get you out of some tight situations.
Ravagers don’t actively try to engage you; they try to juke so they can get past you. The patterns they run aren’t too complex, but you will definitely be surprised sometimes when they take an opportunity and get past you. Ravagers aren’t the only enemies you will come across however. Each city will have a specific enemy type whose only job is to distract or disable you while the Ravagers get by. They will do things like block you from hitting Ravagers, stun you, shoot you with sticky goo, charge at you, or just make more Ravagers to try to overwhelm you. As you progress through the game you will find that Ravagers will use these other enemies as cover more efficiently, giving you a progressively challenging experience.
Some of the enemies are too large for you to destroy with just your gun; you will need to grab them, charge up, and blow them up. Sometimes you charge your energy into a bat and do a home run hit. When you kill larger enemies most of the smaller enemies, if not all, will explode as well. As you progress through the game this is something that can give you a tactical advantage when you’re surrounded by Ravagers with no way to get to them all. There are five areas to protect and at the end of each you will fight a boss, which is usually a buffed up version of that area’s special enemy. The boss fights are a bit different because not only do you need to worry about Ravagers getting buy, but you will also need to deplete the boss’s energy and do it within a specific time limit.
The main game is moderately challenging. The real challenge is getting perfect medals. Based on how many Ravagers you allow past you, you will be awarded a medal that ranges from bronze to perfect. Usually you need at least 45 health left to get a gold and of course to get a perfect you will need to be 50 for 50. On most of the levels it was challenge just to get a silver medal so getting gold and perfect medals will take time, patience, and skill. As you play you will unlock extras. For each city you complete you will unlock that city in Infinite Mode. Infinite Mode is really about getting a high score. There is no end to the level and you will go on forever until your cities last health point is dropped. Naturally, the difficulty will increase the longer you stay in that mode.
If getting all perfect medals wasn’t challenging enough, you can also play the challenge mode. Challenge mode is a set of levels with specific goals you need to meet. An example would be not letting any Ravagers past you or finishing a level moving at twice the normal speed. These challenges are exactly that… Challenges. Most of them will require quite a few play-throughs to complete them successfully. You can unlock trophies by accomplishing certain goals in the story mode like destroying a certain amount of Ravagers or getting all perfect medals. If you get all golds or perfects in story and challenge mode you will unlock magazine covers.
Overall, I felt this game was excellent. It has a fun story with an awesome hero, fun and challenging gameplay, and lots of replay value. You really can’t ask for too much more; especially from a game that’s only $5.99. I would highly recommend picking up this game to anyone that enjoys having fun. If you purchase it, it’s also playable on the PS3; it just doesn’t look that great. Mediatonic gave us another great game and I can’t wait for the next one!
