Yeah, really mixed feelings on this. The quality of execution seems there for sure. But the kidde-Foo-Fighters storyline seems... really odd if not perhaps waaaaay too coincidental ("Beef up a red van! Aliens! Area 51! Other random weird stuff!" *ahem* ????). Plus I never felt WW needed more multiballs, personally.

But again, what it is, seems to be well done.

That's what applejuice has been going for in his original project. Slow going but much more authentic IMO.

Someone compared it to a wholesale retheme and yeah, if you look at the translite it really is more "Science dude battles all manner of whack attacking from all directions"... the stormcloud itself is but one of many characters, himself reduced to a corner. (Which is more than a little odd because the STORM is the literal tie-in to the functional topper, which is arguably THE main "toy" of the game! How would plants and scarecrows and Area51 and... shitmonsters... make use of that?)

In fairness, if you really consider Whirlwind's pf art, it almost is sort of generic: just plain colored areas, lines, and a van. Yes, the Storm envelops the spinners but even those use generic art stickers. So maybe a new full plastic set (and spinner stickers?) to bring the 2.0 characters into display (and maybe a better name like "Whirlwind: Psychic Apocalypse" that downplays a focus on storms) would have improve the overall integration. Still a mess, but I can almost see what they were going for. Just falls well short of the goal IMO.

According to Pedretti, the original version/code is selectable. That might be the sole advantage over Applejuice's version, which is fully locked to his code with no way to go back short of swapping the boardsets and hardware back.

I applaud the effort, I really really do. Some clever and even funny ideas in here!

But - and this is my subjective opinion: the fact this is "a NEW and different game / and you can still play the original if you want" does NOT hide that this NEW game seems like a horribly disjointed and random mess. I mean the skill shot - the very first scene in the game! - opens the setting in The Old West?! Fer chrissakes what is this, a Cactus Canyon homage that time travels to Area51? Does the tornado do that? Did they have vans in the old west? Or phone zombies?

I do like some of the new rule ideas: the different skill shots; the use of drops; better rewards for tolls and scoops. But in actual gameplay most of it seems spammy. Like the combined individual elements of original WW (roving targets, single drop, skyway ramps) were broken out into single-mode focus which I fear could get boring. I mean the original one is arguably more chaotic since you do all of that combined in normal play. Breaking objectives into exclusive "modes" is not necessarily better IMO.

Adding to concern, there is no tension in the new game! At its core the theme is about TORNADOES which means tension and anxiety and danger and suspense: from music and effects to callouts, the original does a SUPERB job with this, while layering in some fun humor and relief. Now maybe the new game is supposed to be more than just tornadoes.... but the simple flash animations of tornadoes spinning in stasis in some modes, along with slow, plodding music diddies in others, and dumb kiddie sound effects, just KILL the tension for me. They most certainly do not convey "danger" or "chaos" let alone "total".

So even considering it as "a new game that is NOT Whirlwind": despite reasonably good concepts and ideas, the execution falls flat. And to be fair it's exceptionally difficult to see it as "only a new game" when it literally trades on the name "Whirlwind" for its title, along with storm clouds, before adding extra "chaos" and such.... which only makes the flat gameplay, animations, and music even more disappointing.

As others have said, a more obvious narrative story line to connect everything might help greatly. I would argue this is desperately needed. Maybe the animations and music/effects could improve with time. I appreciate the ideas and effort that clearly went in to this and don't wish to poop on the talent. But as it stands I must constructively express why I'm rather disappointed in the outcome.