2001 was a year to remember. For example, the first Oscar for animated feature was awarded (to “Shrek”). But more importantly, it was the year Freeverse Software released its terrific game, WingNuts. I have spent a lot of time being frustrated by Baron von Schtopwatch’s robot planes, and I’ve hammered on my Mac’s keyboard so frantically, I’m afraid it will stop working. So you can see why I am really excited about the recent release of WingNuts 2: Raina’s Revenge. The story begins where Wingnuts left off. Baron von Schtopwatch is in prison, and you are guarding it. Then temporal distortion (word to remember: temporal - it means time) is detected, taking the prison in to a wormhole, and your plane along with it. Parachuting out at the last second, you narrowly escape, then begin a race against time to capture the Baron.
WingNuts 2 has the typical Freeverse humor, from the Baron saying while you fight his boss plane, “I have to go now, Vingnut. My soap’s on and I don’t have Tivo!” to Jen, the Freeverse mascot, reading a book called “Time Travel And You.” The gameplay is just about the same as the first one, except that the carrier floats around the playing field so you can land on something to recover instead of trying to find goodies when there aren’t any left. And when you land on the carrier, you can switch planes. How cool is that? There’s just one catch: it’s difficult to land in the first place.
It’s appropriate for kids; the jokes appeal to young and old. The bullets aren’t really bullets at all, they look more like lasers. And the controls are easy to understand: arrow keys are “move,” and space is “shoot.” As the game progresses, the scenes get funnier. The mission names are also jokes (hey, it’s Freeverse, what did you expect?), such as “The Linguini Incident.” Oh, and the Baron’s lines are very bad - so bad they’re funny, like, “Join me, VingNut. I AM YOUR FATHER! No? – Well, we have a dental plan?” Freeverse has done a magnificent job with the graphics. It’s like you’re a bird watching from overhead. They’re not totally realistic, but they’re very good. They are quite like the first WingNuts, but they are better.
The System Requirements are fairly high; you’ll need OS 10.4 or higher. The processors you’ll need are a G4, G5, or an Intel 800. It’s Universal Binary, as it worked on both a MacBook Pro and a Aluminum PowerBook G4. It ran equally well on both and there was no difference between the two. Freeverse has done an excellent job with the game, and they should be proud. The WingNuts soar again. Take that, Baron!
Thomas Fogel, Posted 7/27/2006
For more information on WingNuts 2: Raina's Revenge, visit: www.freeverse.com
