Trip World for the original Game Boy is a title that often comes up in discussions about the best side scrolling platform games. It was only released in Europe and Japan, and so there has always been an air of mystery about it for those of us who live in North America. What also makes it an intriguing title is the fact that it was developed by Sunsoft. This is a name that should be familiar to just about every retro gamer because they had a string of awesome releases on the Nintendo Entertainment System. My curiosity has finally reached the breaking point, and I decided to give it a look after finally swallowing the high price point. While there are some definite notes of Kirby I found myself disappointed overall when I hit the ending screen. Trip World is a fair game but in my opinion it’s hardly deserving of classic status.
The story is a little hard to decipher. You’re given a well done introductory sequence upon booting the cartridge, but there’s no text to help it along. With a little research I was eventually able to piece it together. The story takes place in the aptly named once peaceful Trip World. A magical flower has been captured by a wizard, and its absence has caused the cute bunny-like creatures to turn against one another. You play as one of these cutetsy animals named Yakopoo, and it’s your job to retrieve this artifact to return things to how they once were. The game is obviously geared toward children, but I found everything to be charming and endearing. As I’ve already mentioned this is a side scrolling platform adventure. As Yakopoo your basic abilities include moving left and right as well as jumping. Your basic attack is a short ranged kick that’s not particularly powerful. What’s interesting is the fact that most enemies do not damage your character. They push you around for sure, but only after first striking them will they actually hurt you. Some are aggressive (particularly the boss characters) but Trip World is pretty non-threatening in general.
The similarities to Kirby come in the form of Yakopoo’s ability to transform. By default he can change into two different forms by holding either up or down on the directional pad and pressing the B button. The first of these changes Yakopoo’s ears into propellers which allow him to fly by repeatedly pressing the jump button. The other transforms our protagonist into a fish. This is useless in most circumstances, but in water he can move much easier and even blow bubbles which hurt foes. Others are gained by picking up power-ups, but the effects are only temporary. These include expanding the size of Yakopoo’s tail which allows him to swing it as a weapon, throw seeds which cause flowers to grow out of the heads of enemies which stuns them, one causes his legs to grow long and he can shoot damaging projectiles while another causes him to roll into a ball and bounce endlessly. The default ability to transform is pretty interesting, but the power-ups are a little weak in my opinion. I still haven’t been able to figure out what the shrinking one is useful for, and the general effects are just too short to be very useful if you ask me.
One of the unfortunate side effects of being geared toward the younger demographic is that the game is just too darn easy. The fact that most enemies do not damage your character by default sounds interesting on paper, but it removes a significant amount of the potential challenge. Yakopoo also has a life bar and can take four hits before perishing. What’s more is that the environmental hazards aren’t particularly hard to get past. There aren’t even any pits. You’ll have to traverse spiked floors, windswept areas, and a few other obstacles but for the most part they present little challenge. Aside from the first few minutes where I had to get accustomed to the mechanics the only time I ever lost a life was against the boss characters. Some of these are fairly well done. They start off with some very basic patterns, but as they get closer to death the tactics often switch. I particularly liked the clam boss that would shut itself in its shell as you approach. This leaves only a small window of opportunity to get any strikes in, and dodging his projectiles while closing in presented the biggest challenge in the entire game. Unfortunately this is an extremely short experience and I completed it in less than thirty minutes. Even for a release on the original Game Boy this is disappointing.
Sunsoft’s releases have often been some of the best looking on their respective platforms, and Trip World is no exception. This is, in my opinion, the single best looking game on the original Game Boy. They must have had some wizards on staff while designing Trip World because aside from being black and white this looks better than many of the early Super Nintendo releases. Yakopoo features several frames of animation, and the transforms all look distinct and wonderful. The enemies are also fairly detailed, but there just isn’t a lot of diversity among them. The developers had to re-use their designs in just about every stage, but this is likely due to the small storage size of the cartridge. The scenery is the major highlight. Every platform is chocked full of detail and it all looks magnificent on the small screen. There’s also very little slowdown compared to most other Game Boy titles which is quite impressive. The soundtrack is typical fare with bouncy lighthearted songs. The music is another area that reminded me of Kirby. While each track is well done nothing is particularly memorable in my opinion. You’ll quickly forget each piece of music mere minutes after completion. It’s still quite impressive what the composers were able to churn out here.
Trip World is decent. It’s not great, and it’s not bad. If the game was released in higher quantities and in more regions in the world I don’t think anyone would still even talk about it. Many of the gameplay mechanics are unique, but the execution is a bit lacking. Trip World is a mildly entertaining albeit short romp, but it’s hardly deserving of the prestige that surrounds it. The game is certainly not worth the high asking price on today’s market. There are many better side scrollers available on the platform.
