Review: Arcade Archives Warp & Warp (PS4|5 - Switch)

[Sturmvogel Prime]

PROJECT REVIEWER (EPISODE XVI)
WARP AROUND: THE CHALLENGE OF TWO WORLDS


PROJECT PROGRESSION

Spoiler

I: CROSSING THE CODE - (CrossCode)
II: THE LORD OF THE GUNS - (Gunlord X)
III: MASSIVE ISLAND DESTRUCTION - (Arcade Archives: Dig Dug II)
IV: A BIT OF THE COSMOS IS GOOD ENOUGH - (Cosmos Bit)
V: NON-STOP MOTORCYCLE FUN - (Super Night Riders)
VI: RAIDERS OF THE EARTH'S SATELLITE - (Moon Raider)
VII: LIGHT-UP PUZZLE FUN - (Cubic Figures 2)
VIII: MASTERING THE TETRIMINOS AGAIN - (Arcade Archives: Tetris The Absolute: The Grand Master 2 Plus)
IX: AND THEN ALL THOSE GHOSTS TURNED BLUE... - (Pac-Man Museum+)
X: LIGHT OUR FINEST HOUR - (Arcade Archives: Finest Hour)
XI: CORDIUM WARFARE - (Project Wingman)
XII: SKIDMARKS ON YOUR SOUL - (Arcade Archives: Pole Position
XIII: SKIDMARKS ON THE SOUL...AGAIN - (Arcade Archives: Pole Position II)
XIV: PREHISTORIC ARACHNO-MIX UPS - (Spidersaurs)
XV: THE TIMELESS BRAWLER - (Arcade Archives: Double Dragon)

The 2024 Namco Spring Festival is over and unfortunately, with nothing for me to offer.
Oh, well, in the meantime it's time to revisit the ancient past of the company with an obscure hybrid game: Warp & Warp.




Attack of the Spacelickers.

At first, the gameplay of Warp & Warp seems to be like a simplistic Arena Run N' Gun shooter called "Space World" where the objective is to eliminate all the 20 Beroberos that will appear across the screen. Your firing rate is very limited allowing one shot on the screen, restricting you from keep firing until the bullet hits a wall or a Berobero. Same for the Beroberos, they can only shoot one bullet per character, but keep in mind, there will be three or more of them, so that increases the on screen bullets to three. The key element of this "Space World" is the color changing enemies. The longer they stay on the arena, their color will be changing in a constant cycle. Each color represents a specific score; Yellow Beroberos are worth 60 points, Orange 90 and Red 150 points. Sounds simple enough, but as you keep shooting you'll discover than this is more than just a hi-scoring factor, it also plays a role on the Mystery Bem. Mystery Bems are creatures that appear after destroying three Beroberos of the same color in a row. Taking three Yellow Beroberos will spawn a green frog-like Bem, Three Orange Beroberos will bring a blue octopus Bem and a the Red ones a purple crab-like creature. Like the Beroberos, Mystery Bems die with one shot, but the score granted varies depending on the type of Bem that shows up. Green Mystery Bems are worth 500 points, Blue Bems worth 1000, and 2000 for the Purple Bems. The best scoring strategy will be to wait until you get three red Beroberos but as long as they stay on screen, they will become more faster and aggressive, so you can't rely on waiting for more than six red Beroberos and you'll have to conform with taking down orange ones and blue Bems.

But what gives Warp & Warp its name is on the "portal" on the middle of the screen. After a certain period of time, the portal will blink and the text "ワープ" (Wopu) will appear. If you pass through the portal the level will change and you'll be sent to the "Maze World".




BOOM! Here comes the BOOM!
Ready or not, here comes the boys from the Lasal.
BOOM! Here comes the BOOM!
How you like me now?

Maze World is the alternate "World" of this game and the gameplay changes in this world. Your objective remains the same as in Space World: Killing all the Beroberos, but unlike Space World, you'll be using timed bombs instead of your rifle. Your bombs have a blast radius that goes in a cross shaped blast. The idea here is that rather than accumulating three Beroberos of the same color to bring a Mystery Bem, this time you have to take as many Beroberos as possible in a single explosion in order to multiply your score, making this an early instance of Combos and Multipliers in a videogame. But you've gotta be careful in this mode since the explosion can take you down if you are careless. The portal rules are the same as in Space World, so you can switch back and forth as long as the portal activates.

The overall distribution of this game was was very limited for the time being. The Arcade version was not well known here, despite being distributed by Rock-Ola under the name Warp Warp, odd choice for Namco since they've got a better distribution with Midway after the success of Galaxian, Pac-Man and Galaga. Homeporting was obscure as well, being only limited to Japanese computers. The MSX was one of the first ports and while retaining the gameplay mechanics, the graphics are quite inferior to the arcade, this is notorious in the Maze World as the explosions are not as colorful as the arcade and the spare Berobero count is stacked vertically due to the screen resolution, but at least the sprites keep the arcade accuracy. The Sord M5 port is quite faithful as well. Like in the MSX port, it manages to retain the large arcade sprites but there's minimal differences which are the same as the MSX version being the spare Beroberos stacked vertically instead of horizontally and having different pitches in the music, but removes the level clear sound in the process. The Casio PV-1000 had a port is the worst of all, the music sounds horrible, the portal was simplified due to the computer's limitations, the Maze World is now a 6x4 row of blocks and the only sound effects in the game are the Berobero's death sound and the Bem's walking effects. The saving grace of this game is that the spare Berobero count is now horizontal like the arcade and the sprites are accurate like the previous ports. It got a sequel on the Famicom known as Warpman which featured better 8-Bit graphics and new gameplay elements in both modes, but still retaining the same repetitive music. Along with older Pre-Galaxian titles like Navarone and Gee-Bee, it wasn't released on the Namco Museum compilations as if the company either decide to forget its existence, until 2023 when the game was released by the Hamster-BNEI binomial on Arcade Archives where the game only carries the Japanese version on the original mode. Probably this was done to avoid the references to Rock-Ola which was a single text disclaimer saying "© 1981 ROCK-OLA MFG. CORP." I think BNEI should at least tried to edit Rock-Ola out just like they did with Midway on Pac-Man's releases, not to mention the english version replaces the katakana with "WARP", so you know what to do.

Since we're talking of an 1981 game, don't expect too much about the graphics and sound. But if we compare this with Galaxian, it looks quite inferior in terms of colors and even detail, but the walking animation looks quite good for the astronaut and the expanding explosion effect on the Maze World was decent enough to fill its purpose as an enemy killing blast. Sadly, I can't say the same for the music which is a "Turut-teret-turut-teret" repeating constantly from the moment you start the game until you die.


FUN FACT & FUN FACT

- The name "Berobero" comes from the japanese onomatopeia "ベロベロ" used for licking.
- Maze World's mechanics were the basis for Hudson Soft (now Konami) Bomberman series as it uses the same mechanic as Warp & Warp.
- Namco's Exvania follows the "Maze World" Bomberman-esque play style.
- The Arcade Archives release is the fourth home port of the game, but the first Arcade-perfect port.
- The arcade instruction card calls the game "Warp and Warp" (ワープ アンド ワープ Wapu ando Wapu) writing the word "and" rather than using the "&" symbol.
- Rock-Ola renamed the Berobero as "Bobo" and the Mystery Bems as Hopper, Octo and Snapper.
- "Bobo" is a spanish word used for a light way to say stupid or idiot (Example: Que bobo eres / How stupid you are).
- A Berobero is used as a Warp & Warp billboard on the Namco Museum Virtual Arcade and Arcade Archives versions of Pole Position and Pole Position II.




Just checking another 80's obscurity.

Warp & Warp is like Gorf, an experiment of its time which established the basis of "Action Variety" by combining different game genres in one single game. In Warp & Warp's case are the basic Arena shooting and the bomb-maze which Hudson Soft picked for its legendary Bomberman franchise. If you're into 80's arcade obscurities, you may want to pick this up.




If you are into "Older than gramps" games,
Then this is for you.