Game

So I was playing a cult classic NES game called Gimmick. That game is hard as shit, and I didn’t really have it in me to grind it out right now, but I still wanted to play it. So I did the next best thing.

This is Trip World, a gameboy platformer by Sunsoft, and it’s a bit of a spiritual sequel to Gimmick. It’s not a perfect comparison, both games have their own things about them. But it’s a cutesy platformer with a bunch of scrimblos and you go through level to level, jump on enemies, and beat up bosses.

In Trip World you play Yakapoo, a Shabubu, TOTALLY not a Pikachu (this game predates Pikachu, they were onto something). Yakopoo lives with his grandfather, who protects the holy Maita Flower, which keeps peace over the world. One day shadowy creatures appear and attack grandpa, stealing the flower of peace. Now everyone starts quarreling and fighting with each other. Yakapoo must travel forth to find the flower!

Game

Yakapoo can run, jump, and kick his way through five distinct levels. It’s a physics platformer, so you’ve got momentum to deal with when it comes to slopes, very much like Gimmick. You can also press a direction and kick to transform! Yakapoo can turn into a helicopter, which allows him to fly but it’s awkward, he can only go up while also moving forward, and if he hits anything he falls right the fuck back down. Down and kick turns you into a fish, good for the few water areas, bad everywhere else, you’ll flop on the ground. You can also find fruits through the level which can transform you into things like mini Yakapoo, a ball, and Yakapoo with a long club tail. If you COMBINE fruits, you get even MORE combinations! The fruits are in the same place every time, so you can route what powerups you want at what time.

Game

Trip World is a very charmingly cute platformer with amazing Sunsoft music, though it lacks a bit in a few ways. First, it’s short. You can beat this in like 15 minutes. Second, it’s really, REALLY easy… kind of. The first three levels are basically piss easy, the fourth level is normal difficulty, and the fifth level is really REALLY hard. There’s no continues. So you’ll be replaying the first four a LOT to get through the boss gauntlet at the end. Is that good? Ehhhh. It wasn’t unfun, at least! I managed to beat the game without dying, after some save state practice at the final boss gauntlet. Took some doing.

Trip World isn’t like, transcendent, but it’s charming and cute and prolly good for road trips. Yakapoo would be seen in a few other Sunsoft games, before fading off the face of the planet… though the game DID semi-recently get picked up for a re-release, with a modded “DX” port, which is pretty neat!