Trip World Game Boy

In the early 1990s Sunsoft was at its best, developing many fine platformers, several of which were even licensed properties. Its Batman games were almost all excellent, especially the Game Boy release, which combined Mario-style platforms and blockbusting with gunplay. Much of Sunsoft's NES catalogue is also fondly remembered, with titles such as Blaster Master, Journey to Silius and, despite its obscene difficulty, Mr. Gimmick / Gimmick! to name a few. Trip World for the Game Boy is another Sunsoft goodie, regularly featuring on lists for obscure or overlooked games and, in the US at least, lists for import exclusives. Released only in Japan and Europe in small quantities, a boxed copy of the original cartridge now sells for ludicrously high prices. At the time of writing, two unboxed copies were on eBay for around £115 / $180; Yahoo! Auctions Japan had nothing. Trip World at first appears to be like any conventional platformer – perhaps a little too conventional. There's an intro showing the Maita Flower from atop Mount Dubious being stolen from an elderly Shabubu who is also kidnapped (a bunny-like creature not to be confused with the culinary shabu-shabu dish). Cue the old creature's grandson, Yacopu, to venture out, save his grandfather and retrieve the flower, thereby bringing peace back to the world. Players move across the screen, avoiding spike pits, jumping along collapsing platforms, and karate kicking enemies... Except the enemies don't seem to fight back. Very few of them in fact cause any damage at all, with only the bosses posing a genuine threat. Apart from the harmless enemies, it's all very standard. Yacopu can collect fruit items which imbue him with special powers: the ability to fire paralysing seeds that sprout from the skulls of enemies; a bouncy ball power-up; and a third which allows him to attack with his tail. These powers are timed and soon wear off, but in some stages it's possible to collect an additional power-up which, when combined with the first, grants something entirely new. The best of which causes Yacopu to sprout legs and gain the ability to fire instant-death projectiles.

- TheGamesDB