Retro Review: Trip World (3DS Virtual Console)

Trip World reminds me a great deal of Kirby games. It’s an obscenely cheerful platformer that stars a blob-like critter who can take on a variety of forms.

It’s also obscenely short, just like Kirby games. To get the big reason why you might not want to invest $Aus5 on this game; it’s over in around half an hour. With just the five worlds, each over in just a few minutes, Trip World might even be thinner on content than Kirby’s Dream Land. So you’ve been warned.

That said, this is half an hour of real fun. Yakopoo, the little bunny-crossed-with-Kirby critter bounds around the five levels with real spirit. He’s capable of turning into two extra forms – a helicopter (allows him to fly for brief periods, though he can no longer walk), and a fish (allows him to swim). Thanks to the brevity of the game, these extra forms are not used to their maximum potential, but they help spice up a level design that is quite simple.

Yakopoo has a cute little kick as his main attack, which is very limited in range and that limitation gives Trip World a reasonable challenge, especially in the boss battles. It’s easy enough to run though the levels by avoiding the regular enemies, but the boss battles are mandatory. Those bosses have a limited range of moves and attacks, but they are fast, and Yakopoo is quite weak.

Then there’s the powerups, which are unnecessary but fun. Each of these turn Yakopoo, Kirby-style, into a different form, and give him a new ability. The ball is invulnerable and can jump really high. The flower allows Yakopoo to spit seeds at the enemy. If they hit, the enemy grows a flower on his head and is pacified for a while. Levels can be completed without these powerups, but they’re fun to play with.

What really helps elevate Trip World is the presentation. The music is utterly charming and really pushes out your expectations of what the Game Boy was capable of. The visual presentation is also superb. Yakopoo has a lot of personality as he bounces around. The animation is fluid, the enemies are adorable, and there are even backgrounds that are worth looking at. It’s not exactly common to single out the visual presentation of a Game Boy game as a selling point, but it really is with Trip World. This is by far the best looking Game Boy game on the Virtual Console.

That makes Trip World a curiosity, rather than an essential purchase. There’s already a lot of good platformers available for download through the eShop Virtual Console; from the classic Super Mario Land 1 & 2, to the hardcore Gargoyle’s Quest, the obscure Avenging Spirit and, of course, Metroid II. Trip World is the least essential of all of those as a game, but there is something – call it an X-factor – that makes it a really good second string title to have sitting on that SD card.


-Matt S

Our Scoring Policy

Combat arms brings more zombies to iOS

Wow. More zombies huh? Combat Arms: Zombies might be more of the raging undead that you've probably overdosed on at this point, but don't speak to soon because this shambler actually looks pretty good.

House of the Dead 3 & 4 come to PSN

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Did Santa bring the first PSN update of 2012?

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Review: Six Guns (iPad)

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Samurai Sword Destiny headlines this week's somewhat 'meh' list of offerings on Nintendo's online service. You know it's not going to be a big week when one of the biggest 'titles' is a scribbling app.

Cthulhu Saves The World coming to iOS, Android, and Mac

Zeboyd's quirky indie RPG is celebrating its first anniversary, but that's not the only news. Previously released on PC and Xbox 360 (via the indie games service), Cthulhu's adventures in Cthulhu Saves The World will soon be available to a much wider audience on the iOS, Android, and Mac platforms.

The game also received a price drop on Xbox Live today, conveniently coinciding with Microsoft's announcement of revised indie policies.

There is no announced release date for any of the three platforms as of yet, but we do know that Tinkerhouse Games will be involved with the porting.

While you`re waiting, why not check out our interview with the man behind Cthulhu, Robert Boyd?

Xbox Live`s indie games policy revised

A few developers have been rather vocal about their disdain for Xbox Live's indie game service, but perhaps some of those complaints will be disappearing this year. It was officially announced today that several policies regarding indie titles on the marketplace will be altered, in turn leading to a more consumer-friendly setup.




The three major changes are as follows:

• Bundles can weigh in at as much as 500MB, more than three times greater than previous 150MB restriction
• Any game under 150MB can be priced at 80 Microsoft Points, triple the limit of  50MB where a game needed to cost 240 or 400 Microsoft Points
• Developers can now release up to 20 indie games, double the previous 10 cap

If these numbers are confusing, they essentially mean that developers can now produce more, bigger games that can then be sold to you at a cheaper price.

Blitz in the New Year this week on XBL

This week's Xbox Live update (the first of the apocalypse 2012) may be a little thin in the goodies department, but it nonetheless scores with the return of an arcade classic- NFL Blitz.

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones; the perfect preview for Fire Emblem 3DS

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Preorder King Arthur II, get Dead Legions free

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Review: F1 2011 (iPad)

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Icon Games Entertainment Limited gives us an interesting insight into download sales figures

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Everyone has played a Mario Kart game at some stage. They've been around since the SNES with the original, and brilliant, Super Mario Kart. So, rather than review the free (for ambassadors) Mario Kart Super Circuit; the second most "primitive" Mario Kart after the SNES original, I'll use this "review" to compare the game to the recent, and most modern, Mario Kart 7.

Review: Tetris (3DS Virtual Console)

Tetris is unarguably the game that cemented the original brick Game Boy as the dominant console in the early era of handheld games. That doesn’t make it worth paying for now for most of us, though.

Packed in as a little freebie (a move Nintendo would pull off with equal success later on with the Wii and Wii Sports), Tetris personified everything that the Game Boy did well; good for short and sharp play sessions, and purely functional visuals masked the primitive hardware brilliantly.

All the game did was no-frills Tetris, and as everyone has played some form of Tetris now, there’s no need to explain how that game works again. Greyscale graphics aside, it’s also an instantly recognisable game; anyone would be able to pick it up and get straight into the game.

And, ironically, because it’s such a primitive version of the game, in some ways it provides a greater challenge that people who have started to play Tetris later may even find frustrating. Later versions of Tetris (including a DSiWare downloadable game priced at roughly the same price point) introduced the ability to “store” one block for later use. That’s not available in this version and you’re going to have to make do with the blocks that are provided to you. Invariably this means you’re going to have to deal with some gaps in the wall of bricks that you wouldn’t have allowed to happen in the more modern games.

There’s also no “fast drop” function in this game, meaning the lower levels play out painfully slow, and crucially there’s no multiplayer in this game. Given that Tetris is a puzzle game best experienced with friends, the high score chases that are on offer between the two different gameplay modes give this game a very short lifespan indeed.

That said, the pleasant feeling of nostalgia in playing this game, and what it did for the Game Boy is a massive incentive to purchase. Despite the score you'll see before, I don't regret buying this game; It was my first handheld game and indeed it was the first game for a console that I owned. As such, the cheerful (and now classic) Tetris theme song, blaring out through such a primitive sound trip does take me right back to my childhood.

Often, nostalgia is a curse, making us elevate games (or books, movies or anything else) well above the reality. And that is the case here, since this is far, far from the best version of Tetris available out there; even if you consider just DS, DSiWare and 3DS games. Anyone interested in building a library of classic games needs to have this one, even if you’re not going to get your money’s worth, it’s that important. Everyone else should stick to one of the better (modern) versions of Tetris out there.

-Matt S

Our Scoring Policy

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Happy New Year from Digitally Downloaded

Happy New Year, and welcome back to Digitally Downloaded! We've returned from the busy holiday season and will resume our coverage of the latest news in the digital industry, as well as reviews for all the games you love and love to hate.