I wanna do these again. Let’s go.

The Saturn is a TREASURE TROVE of obscure goodness. Most people have not played a bunch of Saturn Games. But everyone does have the littlest bit of information about a few of the more special Saturn games. This one is one you MIGHT have heard of, if you are a fan of another very popular 90s series. But probably not. This is the Hudson Soft Saturn exclusive, Willy Wombat!

Cover

Now, what did I mean by you may have heard of this game? Well, Willy Wombat is a Saturn exclusive released in 1997 by Hudson Soft and developed by Westone, exclusively in Japan, and never had a particularly large showing even over in Japan. But it has a single accolade that means people can and will still talk about it today. And that’s that it made Naughty Dog think an extra five seconds.

When Naughty Dog was designing their next game, they went with Willy Wombat, and were deep in the stages of making it when they found out that name was already a thing. So they went “oh, huh, what other weird animal can we call this”, thought for five seconds, and then went with Crash Bandicoot. That’s right. Willy Wombat’s only claim to fame is that it’s why you know what a bandicoot is.

Westone

Hudson published it, but Westone created it. Who is Westone, have you heard of them? Almost certainly. Westone made a lot of Sega console Hudson games from the 80s and even into the 2000s, many of which you’ve played. Ever heard of a little series called Wonder Boy? Yeah, Westone were actually the ones who developed those. Some of em, at least, including one of the best games on the Genesis, Monster World IV, which fuckin’ SLAPS. What a good game. They also worked on a few other games, like a Bomberman game on the Genesis, a Dreamcast Evangelion game, but Monster World is mostly what they’re known for. And also this.

But how is the game itself? Let’s find out.

Title

Willy Wombat is a very… weird game. I did say it was a Japanese exclusive, but that doesn’t mean much, because it is in fact entirely in English. All the TEXT is in Japanese, but the dialogue is in perfect English, spoken by English speaking voice actors (never mind that the actors are really bad). The style itself is CLEARLY reminiscent of American comic book action heroes, except it’s all furry bait. This game was CLEARLY the brain child of the world’s BIGGEST nerd, some Japanese dork who grew up super interested in American culture. And I really love that. It’s a great, fun vibe.

a cutscene

The game will start, and you get to hear Willy’s theme song. It is also in perfect English, and is extremely of its time, and it fucking SLAPS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_QlzMF1AO4

Now, after all that build up, after all the amazing vibes, I really wish I could tell you this game is a perfect forgotten gem. Unfortunately, I don’t think I like this game very much. I REALLY, REALLY want to like it, but there’s too much holding it back.

Level 1

Willy Wombat is kind of a 3D platformer, but also kinda 2D. You play at a tilted angle from the top, walking Willy, a 2D sprite, through a 3D world, platforming and collecting collectables. It’s a really striking and interesting style for a game, but also it’s kind of frustrating and hard to play. Platforming isn’t super easy, and it does kinda make me motion sick. You can twist the camera around with L and R to get better angles, but you will prolly find yourself missing an enemy anyway or falling in some lava.

Level 3

Willy has a boomerang-like attack he can use to hit enemies throughout the different worlds, on his quest to find the Rainbow Gems which will open up Eden. It starts pretty good and lulls you in, I was REAL excited when I was first playing this, but eventually the camera and the gameplay kinda wear you down. Even if you can handle it and get used to it, the actual act of exploring these levels kinda isn’t fun.

The game is mostly exploring through big rooms, killing hordes of enemies, doing occasional platforming to pick up a key, then finding the door it goes to. Honestly what this game reminds me of the most is kinda… Doom, but without the frenetic exciting gameplay of dodging through hordes of demons. Instead, you’re angled up and all the enemies slowly lumber towards you with no personality.

Level 2

Oh, I also forgot to mention the gems and collectables system. Each level has gems to collect, alongside these little… slates, of some kind? The slates are used to save the game, so if you don’t have enough, uh, tough luck kid, you can’t save. It’s a weird as hell system, but you can go back to earlier levels and collect the slates. It kinda feels a little Donkey Kong-ish, if I’m bein’ honest. You can also collect all the gems in a level for it to be 100%’d, and maybe there’s a reward for that, but I can’t find any video proof of anyone ever doign that, and I never beat this game, it wore me down too much.

In conclusion, Willy Wombat is not a bad game. I know I slagged it off a lot, but I’d still prolly give it a 6/10 and recommend it, cause someone else might like it way more than me. And the game DOES have style for DAYS, but I can absolutely see why this didn’t become the next Crash Bandicoot. Instead, it’s little more than a footnote in another company’s career.