Willy Wombat -20th anniversary webpage-

Page originally created in 2017 to celebrate the game's 20th anniversary.
What is WILLY WOMBAT?
  • Willy Wombat is an isometric action game released on June 27, 1997 for the Sega Saturn in Japan only.
  • Developed by WESTONE (Wonder Boy/Monster World series) and published by HUDSON SOFT. It retailed for 5,800 JPY.
  • AQV System (Around Quarter View) let's you rotate the camera 360 degrees around to see enemies, pathways, and other objects.
  • Features full English voice acting, opening and ending theme songs, and comic book style graphics.
  • Import friendly title: only some menus and the written dialogue are in Japanese.
  • Features 6 worlds and 27 levels.
  • Requires 9 blocks to save and allows up to three save files.
STORY


Dark souls who taste the forbidden fruit...
Lost souls who yearn for freedom...
Search the foreign lands for Miracle Gems.
When six Miracle Gems reunite...
The doorway to the garden of freedom, Eden, shall show its way.

Willy, once an enforcer of the "perfect society" Prison, escapes into the outside world to seek the mysterious Miracle Gems and find Eden.
But just what are these stones? Where is this Eden? He only has that one message to go by in his search for a new world.
However, he is being pursued by his former fellow enforcers that seek to eliminate him.
Just then, an old man appears offering his help...
HOW TO PLAY

Upon starting the game you are asked where you'd like to save your data to: the Saturn's internal memory or a Backup RAM cartridge.
Then, you can choose to start a NEW GAME, CONTINUE (provided you have a save file already), or KEY CONFIG to map controls the way you'd like.

Willy's abilities
  • Willy has double boomerangs at his disposal. He can throw them one at a time in quick succession but be mindful of the time it takes to return or you'll be open to attack.
  • Boomerangs can also grab items for you. When enemies get really close, you can do a slash attack.
  • Willy can jump to reach platforms but can't jump over enemies.
  • To get out of a tight spot, double tapping any of the directional buttons will send Willy dashing.
  • Be careful as getting damaged or descending/ascending platforms/stairs will halt the dash.


Ancient Scripts
These come in three flavors: Blue, Yellow, and Red. They are used to unlock powerful screen clearing attacks.
If you come across one of the colored books in a stage, bring them to one of the save points after clearing the stage.

Afterwards, you can pick up corresponding Force items and use them to unleash a powerful attack.


Pressing the left and right shoulder buttons on the controller will make the camera rotate around Willy.
Use this feature to explore stages efficiently.
Try combining dashing with rotating the camera.



Items & Gimmicks
The amount of these crystal shards vary by stage.
Collecting enough will net you elusive hexagon medals.		 Pick these up to replenish lost health.
Yellow restores 1 unit while pink restores 5.		 Hexagon Medals are required to save your progress at save points in each world.
Three are required each time you save and up to
three can be earned if you collect all crystals shards in a level.
Collect five of these to increase your maximum health units by one. These come in various guises
and will activate things such as platforms and doors.		 These are scattered about the stages to keep you from getting lost.
Jumping into one of these can take you to another part of the stage. Collect keys and bring them to the key holes to unlock new passages. Step on these to bring up a map of the current surrounding area.
It shows where the exit is and highlights spots you've traversed.

Watch out for spikes and lava as well. (There are no bottomless pits however.)
CAST
WILLY JAVA GHOSTS
With only a cryptic message to go by,
he escapes from Prison.
He believes in free will and isn't afraid to show an attitude with foes.
Voiced by Tom West		 Just an old man down on his luck...
Voiced by Dennis Falt		 The enemies seen during stages.
Many ghosts tend to travel in packs so be mindful of your surroundings.
NOTES TAGDOR MAIL
Leader of the team sent to apprehend Willy.
Believes Prisons law is absolute.
He is curious about what Willy knows however...
Voiced by Jason Russel		 The brawn of the team who would do anything to earn respect from the higher-ups and get a promotion.
Voiced by Jeff Manning		 Acts as the tactician of the team.
Like the others, is devoted solely to the mission and Prison.
Voiced by Deidre Merrell-Ikeda
EXTRAS & SECRETS

Spoilers below!
  • Three cheat codes are known: To restore health one by one, pause the game and hold Z then press X+Y simultaneously.
  • To instantly complete a stage, pause during a stage then while holding A+X+Z, press Y to instantly get to the stage clear screen. It will tally all gems you collected at the time of inputting the code.
  • If you want to return to the title screen anytime, just hold down A+B+C then press start.
  • An additional code exists exclusively if you own Hudson's SBom Joycard game pad for the Sega Saturn. Flip the switch on the front to the "Hu Position" and mash the Start button 15 times a second on the stage select screen to access a cutscene viewer.
  • If you place the game disc in a computer or CD player, you can listen to music from the game. Interestingly, track 11 is never heard in-game. It was likely used for a bonus world as the unused character Canvas makes mention of it. This track can be heard at the very end of the Caravan on the Radio CD as the narrator says goodbye to the listener.
  • If you idle during the game, a random screensaver will appear. Hidden screensavers are revealed depending on the date in your Sega Saturn's internal clock. (Dates: 6/27/97 - 6/28/97 - 7/4/97 - 7/5/97 - 7/11/97 - 7/18/97 - 7/19/97 - 7/25/97 - 8/1/97)
  • There is no special bonus for getting 100% completion on your save file. When you beat the game you can revisit stages to find hidden Hu cards. Unfortunately, finding all of them doesn't give you anything either.
  • For Willy Wombat scans and images, visit Quirky-VG.
  • Sprite rips can be seen here at The Spriters Resource.
  • Complete Willy Wombat dialogue script (includes OP/ED song lyrics.)
  • Theme songs: Opening (Here To Stay) - Ending (Fearless Heart) - Vocals by Dawn Marie Moore, Music by Masayoshi "Chamy" Ishi
  • The above full version of the credits song was only released on a CD titled Caravan on the Radio, released by Hudson Soft in 1997. In-game, only 1:57 of the song is played.
  • During the credits sequence, a voice actor named Lynn Harris is credited to a character named Canvas. However, this character is never seen or heard in the game normally. They were likely scrapped due to time constraints. An event where you meet the character does exist in the game's code but crashes if you select either Yes/No. An unused Canvas graphic also exists among the level complete graphics. Discovered by @ragey0.
  • Located within the games files is an unused conversation between Willy and Canvas. Listen!
  • Willy Wombat was once known as Combat Wombat: The Adventures of Willy Wombat.
  • Willy Wombat started as a Super Nintendo side-scrolling action title but switched to the Sega Saturn as the gaming market was shifting towards 32-bit titles. [Source]
  • Willy Wombat was designed by Susumu Matsushita. His artwork appears on the cover and in the manual. Other works include Motor Toon Grand Prix, the Adventure Island games, and Maximo: Ghosts to Glory.
  • Mail's character design differs the most between the one seen in-game and the one in the manual compared to the other characters.
  • Real wombats can run up to 25 miles per hour and maintain that speed for a minute and a half. This is likely the inspiration for Willy's dash ability.
  • Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot character was known as Willy the Wombat (or Willie) during development. Crash was released in 1996, a year before Willy Wombat.
  • Hudson Soft merged with Konami in 2012 and now WW's copyright likely lies with them.


Links: Hudson Soft's old Willy Wombat page (Wayback Machine) - willywom_bot on twitter - Ryuichi Nishizawa's twitter (WW director) - Susumu Matsushita's website

 WILLY WOMBAT (C) WESTONE/HUDSON SOFT. Character Design By Susumu Matsushita Company. SEGA SATURN (C) SEGA.
Site by @mushroom32x. This site is purely fan-made and not associated with the above entities.
I hope this page was convincing enough to be from 1997. Since 6/27/17, ported from fc2 to neocities 1/20/24.