This is tempered, though, with a strong sense of humour, so that none of the tests or their subjects are offensive. The experiments that players will come across are reasonably entertaining to watch in the cut-scenes that introduce each lab, in the same way cartoon violence is entertaining. Players will see monkeys floating in zero gravity or flattened by a 1-ton weight, or hamsters fired out of a cannon at a dartboard. But the way this is presented is not disturbing for players.

One experiment at the start of the game involves the fusing of a weasel and a rabbit together to form a 'weasel-rabbit'. What improvements this fusion will make to our way of life are unknown, but it is probably not something the weasel or the rabbit are looking forward to. As it happens, one such pairing manages to escape this experiment; these are the heroes of the game, Spanx and Redmond.

Spanx, the weasel, and Redmond, the rabbit, have been chained together for an experiment. This proves to be handy for Spanx, though, who sees he can use the lighter Redmond, mainly as a weapon but also as a tool for things like swinging on grappling hooks, floating in the air or short-circuiting machines. Ironically, throughout the game the seemingly indestructible Redmond will see more danger than he would have before escaping, causing him to complain constantly.

It is this relationship between Spanx and Redmond that provides the game with much of its appeal. Using Redmond in a variety of ways where he is at times filled with helium, or electrocuted, or set on fire allows for a lot of humour and some interesting solutions to problems. It also helps to differentiate Whiplash from the myriad other platforming games available.

The goal of the game is to destroy Genron, a company that specialises in such testing, by freeing the animals and destroying its equipment while looking for a way out. Spanx and Redmond must find their way through the large facility, causing mayhem as they go. A lot of the environment is destructable, and searching out and breaking everything possible is necessary to fully complete the game. This makes a nice change from searching out stars or coins, though constantly having to attack objects can become a little tiresome.

And it is this constant need to attack everything that makes the game slightly boring and repetitive. Most of the animals are freed by destroying certain pieces of equipment, generally a big red button, rather than puzzling out an escape plan. The destruction of Genron also involves constantly attacking everything, and most enemies can be defeated by repeatedly pressing the square attack button. There are some areas where a little more thought is required as to how to get from one place to another, and some bosses that require something different than direct attack, but these are few and far between. It doesn't help that Whiplash is fairly linear, either, with certain doors being locked or unlocked depending on current progress.

If players can get past this issue, Whiplash can still be quite an enjoyable game. Spanx is fairly easy and quite responsive to control. Various attacks are available, but as noted above, players can get through most of the game with just the basic attack. If nothing else, players can keep themselves amused through the game by all the mean stuff Spanx does to Redmond, all of which is fairly simple to execute. Most of the machinery Redmond can be inflicted on and pretty much all of the other movements like swinging on hooks are activated with just one case-sensitive DualShock button.

The cut-scenes are reasonably well done and are entertaining to watch - the whole game is very cartoonish in nature, no more so than in the cut-scenes. This style fits Whiplash well, especially with the more serious subtext of the story. All the characters are similarly cartoonish with voices to match. The voice acting is of a fairly high standard and runs through the in-game sequences as well as the cut-scenes. A chuckle at a scientist exclaiming "Slow down! You move too swift for my legs!" is never very far away.

While Redmond and Spanx are animated well, the other characters in the game seem to have been a bit rushed, despite the fact that most of the employees of Genron look the same. There are other graphical issues within the game, such as characters moving through walls or enemies floating in mid-air, that could have been tidied up had more time been given to development. The levels tend to be quite bland and similar, although we would expect that to be the case in such a research facility. We occasionally found ourselves lost, not knowing which way to go next due to the hallways in each area all looking the same. The map system didn't help at all - we found that to be extremely confusing and tough to navigate with. Again, Whiplash is redeemed a little with a few inspired areas that both look and play well, but they appear quite infrequently.