I've never played the original Wai Wai World but maybe someday I'll finally get around to it. This one tries to be more of a simple sidescroller compared to the more exploratory based progression of the previous game. The game actually gives such a poor first impression with a really boring auto scroller and uninteresting shmup section. After that though the game becomes a fun if a little too easy platformer with stuff like Twinbee, Gradius, Frogger and even racing gameplay. This game really does make you feel like you're exploring many Konami worlds.
You play as a guy named Rickle and the player 2 is just called Blue Rickle and yes it is simultaneous co-op. If you grab the C icon, you can change into many Konami stars. You got Goemon from Ganbare Goemon, Upa from Bio-Miracle Bokutte Upa, Simon Belmont from Akumajou Dracula, Fuuma from Getsu Fuuma-Den, and Bill Rizer from Contra. Keep in mind you can only pick from a set of three. This meant I really only tried Fuuma and Bill for one stage since I couldn't use them for my first playthrough. If you had to ask me what I'd rank them from worst to best it would be
Upa < Simon = Fuuma < Goemon < Bill
While this is a fun game it sadly falters in its difficulty. I don't mind an easy game but the character changing really hurts the balance because they don't use the health Rickle uses, only time. This means as long as you keep getting pickups and don't fall into pits, you're pretty golden for most of the game. Only the other gameplay styles might trip you up since they use the lives from the platforming stuff. You don't even go back to checkpoints if you die, which caught me off guard when dying in the Gradius section. I wish actual Gradius games let me do that but that's just me being bad at games.
The game looks nice but I wish it had less flicker and there were glitchy graphics at times though that may be at fault of the fan translation. I liked seeing other Konami characters on the stages at times like Pentaro being on stained glass windows and even funny statues of Ebisumaru. It was surprising to see the stages that represented other Konami games like Stage 1 from Contra, Stage 3 from Akumajou Dracula and Stage 1 from Akumajou Densetsu. There's even a stage to represent the Arcade game Mr. Goemon which was cool to see. The music is nice but idk if it's just me but the songs used from the other Konami games just feel off but it might be because I'm used to how they originally sounded on the console.
Overall it's a good game, almost very good but again that beginning sucks and the stage representing Upa is also pretty bad. The game has some replayability which is nice and it's something I think any Konami fan should play. I just wish it wasn't so easy because I think it be even more fun if I had to try more. Also before I end I just wanna say the Princess you save named Princess Herb looks way too similar to the Princess you save in Detana!! Twinbee. Wait a second, is this the last game for the old Twinbee stuff before they did those new characters and stuff? Huh, how weird. And for gods sake Konami how did both of these games make you have to get way too close to the right of the screen to scroll it? Oh god this "short" review is too long, let me end it now before I keep finding new things to say.
You play as a guy named Rickle and the player 2 is just called Blue Rickle and yes it is simultaneous co-op. If you grab the C icon, you can change into many Konami stars. You got Goemon from Ganbare Goemon, Upa from Bio-Miracle Bokutte Upa, Simon Belmont from Akumajou Dracula, Fuuma from Getsu Fuuma-Den, and Bill Rizer from Contra. Keep in mind you can only pick from a set of three. This meant I really only tried Fuuma and Bill for one stage since I couldn't use them for my first playthrough. If you had to ask me what I'd rank them from worst to best it would be
Upa < Simon = Fuuma < Goemon < Bill
While this is a fun game it sadly falters in its difficulty. I don't mind an easy game but the character changing really hurts the balance because they don't use the health Rickle uses, only time. This means as long as you keep getting pickups and don't fall into pits, you're pretty golden for most of the game. Only the other gameplay styles might trip you up since they use the lives from the platforming stuff. You don't even go back to checkpoints if you die, which caught me off guard when dying in the Gradius section. I wish actual Gradius games let me do that but that's just me being bad at games.
The game looks nice but I wish it had less flicker and there were glitchy graphics at times though that may be at fault of the fan translation. I liked seeing other Konami characters on the stages at times like Pentaro being on stained glass windows and even funny statues of Ebisumaru. It was surprising to see the stages that represented other Konami games like Stage 1 from Contra, Stage 3 from Akumajou Dracula and Stage 1 from Akumajou Densetsu. There's even a stage to represent the Arcade game Mr. Goemon which was cool to see. The music is nice but idk if it's just me but the songs used from the other Konami games just feel off but it might be because I'm used to how they originally sounded on the console.
Overall it's a good game, almost very good but again that beginning sucks and the stage representing Upa is also pretty bad. The game has some replayability which is nice and it's something I think any Konami fan should play. I just wish it wasn't so easy because I think it be even more fun if I had to try more. Also before I end I just wanna say the Princess you save named Princess Herb looks way too similar to the Princess you save in Detana!! Twinbee. Wait a second, is this the last game for the old Twinbee stuff before they did those new characters and stuff? Huh, how weird. And for gods sake Konami how did both of these games make you have to get way too close to the right of the screen to scroll it? Oh god this "short" review is too long, let me end it now before I keep finding new things to say.