Trip World DX (2023, Multiplatform)

Colorized port of: Trip World (1992, Game Boy)
Original Developer: Sunsoft
Original Publisher: Sunsoft
DX Developer: Limited Run Games
DX Publisher: Sunsoft, Limited Run Games
Clear Version: PS5
Clear Platform: PS5
Clear Date: 4/14/25

---

Why should I care?
If you like a short and sweet Game Boy platformer with a cute mascot and good tunes, you’re in luck.

---

Jump around

We’re back at the Nixon Computer with another Limited Run port of an underloved classic game. Trip World is a little platformer from the heyday of Sunsoft, but it notably was never released here in North America. This has probably made it a bit more noteworthy among collectors and purveyors of old games than it might’ve otherwise been on the merits, but I do appreciate Limited Run for colorizing this old Game Boy game and finally bringing it to market here in the New World. If you like smaller titles from Nintendo’s dot-matrix handheld like Kirby’s Dream Land and Super Mario Land, you should find the cute and fun Trip World DX to be a worthy title too.

Protagonist Yakopoo is a bunny-like Shabubu living in the eponymous Trip World. He’s got a bit in common with old Kirby, too, inasmuch as he can transform. In his base state, he can transform into a fish to swim or a plane to fly, but fruits scattered throughout each level imbue him with further powers. Combining those can give him yet more forms, a bit like Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. Some grant improved offense at the expense of mobility, another allows you to immobilize enemies, and another gives you a laser attack that can one-shot bosses. Some nice variety for the little guy.

Using his powers, Yakopoo must traverse Trip World to retrieve the Maita Flower, the guardian of which was his grandfather. The flower is responsible for maintaining peace in Trip World, and its removal causes the denizens thereof to become uncharacteristically violent. Yakopoo must negotiate his way through five stages of the poor fools to retrieve the flower and restore peace to his home.

Trip World is a brief journey. It took me maybe an hour or two to finish, and that was with a few restarts due to Games Over. If you take advantage of save or rewind features, you could easily clear it in about a half hour. I did so in my second playthrough in greenscale.

It’s a pleasant one, though, with beautiful sprites and environments in both its original format and its new colorized release. Its chiptune accompaniments are nice and catchy too, and LRG even got Grammy-winning artist Buttonmasher to compose a menu theme for this deluxe package.

The combat and platforming is simple and unchallenging, with the Game Boy’s two face buttons being used to jump and attack as one might expect. It’s a shame that a game with some neat transformation ideas is over so soon, but it’s also nice to play something brief and meant to be enjoyed a few times through in brief handheld sittings.

It’s also neat to have a little IP like this that exists in such a tiny package and has never been revisited. This is the full extent of Yakopoo’s virtual world and adventures, and that’s all right.

Although it will take players only a bit to see all of Trip World, its existence is the consequence of a lot of hard work and most of the daily lives of some nice folks for a period of time. That’s why it’s also nice that this release features a wealth of new interviews and design docs and concept art from the development of the game. I’m always banging the drum for that sort of thing, so I gotta tip my cap when I get it!

Thanks for entertaining me for a couple hours, Yakopoo.