Previous Next

Whirligig the game is set far in the future, casting you in the role of a lone starfighter pilot whose mission is to fly around a strange surreal universe (known as Whirligig) in order to collect five perfect solids that are drifting about in the void. Although there are only five solids to find, each one could be in any of 4 billion (!!) levels (called 'Eigenspaces') so obviously some serious searching is going to have to be done. Relax though - you don't actually have to go to all of them. That would take until eternity.

You view your ship from outside as it flies about the Whirligig on its quest for solids (or should I say 'pitches and rolls all over the place on its quest for solids' as the mouse control is infuriatingly difficult to use).

As your ship makes its way across the star systems, it will inexorably encounter the many objects, both friendly and hostile, that feature in the game. Depots are some of the most useful, and are used to replenish your ship's supplies. What supplies? Oh, I almost forgot. Your ship, a Meson Class Fighter, is equipped with some rather useful weapons, namely missiles and chaff. Missiles are used to destroy the nasties that appear in the game (more on that later) and since they are heat-seekers, they lock on to their target with frightening accuracy and hardly ever miss. However, should you be so trigger happy as to fire a missile with no enemies on screen you're in for a fright as they lock onto you! In addition, chaff pods are defensive drones used to destroy enemies, or any missiles they may have fired at you.

Anyway, the depots I mentioned earlier float around in space and can be used to re-chaff and re-arm, depending on what kind of depot it is. Refuelling depots are slightly more important, as if you run out of fuel, you're dead!

Travelling from one Eigenspace to another is achieved by travelling through Stargates, strange swirly rings that need some practice to get through safely. Each Stargate will only transport you to one other Eigenspace, and that destination is indicated on the region map on view at the beginning of every level. By travelling from sector to sector in this manner, you will eventually stumble across one of the five 'perfect' in the game, each one housing one of the solids you're after. When you do find a solid, you can use its attractor field to put it in tow (after dealing with the nasty that accompanies each one) and by dragging it back through a stargate you can capture it. Capture all five and you've won the game.

As far as I can see, Whirligig is very similar to Virus insofar as the pig of a control mode will have you tearing your hair out for a while, but once you've got the hang of it, you'll find an absorbing game there. With an alleged four billion levels and over 100 billion nasties you could be at it for quite a while. The game possesses some lovely 3D filled-in graphics, both well animated and defined, but not as impressive as its stablemates, Carrier Command and Virus.