When Pac-Man hit the arcade scene in 1980,
he secured his place in gaming history as
the world's first video game mascot. The public's
overwhelming response to "Pac-Man Fever" spurred
the industry to create many of the cutesy
mascot characters you know and love today.
But this trend wouldn't truly blow up until
1991, when a certain blue dude injected 'tude
into the mascot character formula. Sonic the
Hedgehog was a huge sensation that seemed
to perfectly capture that 90s kid demeanor.
So of course, other companies tried to ride
that wave of popularity, and soon the market
became flooded with games starring mascot
characters, often accompanied by a hefty dose
of 'tude.
More often than not, these characters were
some kind of animal, and some of the more
awful or uninspired ones include Aero the
Acrobat, Awesome Possum, Rocky Rodent, and
of course, the infamous Bubsy Bobcat, with
his trilogy of smelly cat hairballs. But the
mascot character craze of the 90s also gave
rise to some really great gaming stars, like
Sparkster, the rocket pack-wearing, sword-wielding
Possum, and Klonoa, the adorable, dream traveling...er,
whatever the hell kind of animal he's supposed
to be. Then there's Crash, the fun-loving,
crate-smashing bandicoot that provided an
iconic face and game to help generate buzz
for Sony's first foray into console gaming.
But before Crash Bandicoot debuted in 1996
and became a household name, the character
went through a lot of conceptual changes,
and was originally dubbed "Willy Wombat."
This goofier, more-family friendly version
of the Crash character essentially died on
the drawing board, but the name "Willy Wombat"
would soon find its way slapped onto a game
of its own.
Hudson Soft, who's well-known for their own
popular mascot character Bomberman, published
Willy Wombat exclusively for the Sega Saturn
in 1997. It's a fun 3D action puzzle game
that never saw a release outside of Japan,
and has no relation to the Crash Bandicoot
series. The environments are made up of polygons,
but characters are presented as pre-rendered
sprites that remind me a lot of those found
in Shining Wisdom, due to the thick black
outlines. Character designs were done by Susumu
Matsushita, whose art style gamers in the
West may recognize from Adventure Island or
Maximo: Ghosts to Glory. But in Japan, he
is most well-known for the extensive amount
of artwork he does in Weekly Famitsu, the
country's premier gaming publication. The
star of the game, Willy Wombat, is an elite
member of an advanced society called Prison,
where there is no sickness or death thanks
to the creation of special regeneration units.
As long as one works, he or she is granted
access to these units and can live forever.
Willy gives up the promise of eternal life
in Prison, however, and sets out to find the
land of Eden, which is home to something essential
that he believes Prison sorely lacks--freedom.
I know it sounds like a bunch of awful, obvious
metaphors, but it makes for an interesting
setup. And despite having a rad, blue mohawk
and pimp-tastic purple cape, Willy's levels
of 'tude are surprisingly on the low side,
and he's a pretty mellow character compared
to other mascots of the era.
Anyway, in order for Willy to gain entrance
into Eden, he must acquire six special stones
called "Miracle Gems," spread out in the lands
beyond Prison. The miracle gems attract ghosts
however, who will try to attack and kill anyone
they come into contact with. Willy can deal
with them using his trusty pair of boomerangs
by either throwing them or hacking and slashing
at close range. Most of the enemies will just
try to rush Willy and cause damage by touching
him, but there are some foes with slightly
more varied AI and attack patterns. More attacks
are unlocked by finding hidden tomes that
teach Willy how to use special force attacks,
which can be used by finding power up items
scattered about in most of the stages. There
are three types of force attacks in total--one
creates a whirl of energy that surrounds Willy,
one shoots out a powerful blast wave that
bounces off of walls and large objects, and
one just obliterates everything on screen.
Combating enemies is mostly just a minor nuisance
however, as the core of gameplay revolves
around puzzle solving and platforming. In
order to clear any stage, you must navigate
Willy through a series of well-designed puzzles
consisting of switches, pressure plates, pulleys,
platforms, and the like to reach an exit.
Willy can jump with the press of a button
and dash by double tapping the d-pad in any
direction. The camera is stuck at a fixed
height and angle, but can be rotated left
and right using the shoulder buttons. The
control scheme is really intuitive, though
toggling with the camera to get the best view
of the action can be frustrating sometimes,
as Willy and other things of interest are
often blocked by walls or objects.
Stages are accessed through a rather cheap
looking overworld map divided into six areas.
The difficulty of these stages starts off
relatively simple and a bit on the easy side,
but gradually increases in complexity and
challenge as new gameplay mechanics are introduced.
Some of the final levels can be pretty brutal.
There are a lot of power up items to be found
in any given stage, ranging from the aforementioned
force items, keys, life recovery vials, and
life orbs which increase Willy's maximum health
when five are collected. Once in a while you'll
come across a green tile that brings up a
map, which can help point you in the right
direction or find secret areas. There are
also a set number of blue gems to collect
in every level, which can be checked by pausing
the game. The more blue gems you acquire,
the more tokens you receive upon completing
a stage, up to a maximum of three. These tokens
don't unlock any cool extra features or mini
games--rather, using them is the only way
you can save your progress, which is done
by visiting a mysterious stranger named Jaba,
who requires payment of three tokens each
time you want to save. There are no lives
or continues in Willy Wombat, so if you happen
to die, it's back to the title screen, making
collection of blue gems and tokens an absolute
must.
The story in Willy Wombat is surprisingly
interesting and fleshed out for this style
of game, and unfolds through cutscenes that
will sometimes play between levels. Aside
from Willy and Jaba, there are three antagonist
characters from Prison hot on Willy's trail
in order to bring him back in. There's the
leader, Notes, who acts as a kind of Rival
to Willy. Mail, who is determined to uncover
the motives behind Willy's quest to gather
the miracle gems. And Tagdor, a scheming brute
who kind of looks like a cross between Ganon
from the Zelda series and Bebop from the Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles. I won't spoil anything
from the story here, but there are a few interesting
twists that get all Matrix on your ass...before
the Matrix was even a thing! One surprising
feature of Willy Wombat is that all voice
acting is performed completely in English,
and for the most part is quite well-done,
especially compared to other games at the
time.
*English voice clip*
Even some of the more mundane bits of dialogue
are voiced in English.
*English voice clip*
Because of these English cutscenes and the
simple control scheme, Willy Wombat is a very
accessible game for non-Japanese speakers
and readers. I wonder if the decision to have
an English-speaking cast in Willy Wombat was
a part of Hudson Soft's plans to release the
game internationally. There's a cliffhanger
ending that sets up a sequel, and a Willy
Wombat theme song that plays during the intro
and ending, so it's fair to believe that Hudson
Soft did indeed have bigger plans for this
series. But whatever the intentions were,
Willy Wombat never became anything more than
this one, Japan-only game. The experience
will last about five hours from start to finish,
and while Willy Wombat starts off a little
boring, it's a great action puzzle game that
should be a part of any Saturn fan's library--at
least I think so! Unlike some of the other
games I've covered with this series, it's
easy to find and can be purchased for a very
low price, often under ten dollars, so pick
it up!
As always, thank you for watching Import Gaming
FTW, and I hope you'll continue to support
this series and channel. Take care.
