Thank you Four Horses for sending us this game to review!

Kid Tripp was minding his own business and flying peacefully in his plane until he crashed into a giraffe with an exceptionally long neck. Now the whole animal kingdom is mad at him and he must keep running to avoid being trampled by the angry mob. The story is pretty simple, and the controls are pretty easy (A button), but the rest of this game is brutally hard. It took me about 100 deaths before completing world 1-1.

My fragile ego was restored once I beat the first level and the rest of them seemed to be easier after doing so. Or perhaps I just got better at this challenging 2D platformer running game. Like all runner games, your character keeps moving and dies upon touching any enemies or obstacles in their way. Upon your death you have to start from the beginning as there are no checkpoints in the levels.

I'm grateful for the 10 lives, but they never seem to be enough. More lives can be earned by collecting one hundred gold coins. Gold medals are also given for collecting all of the coins available in a level. I did earn that medal once or twice, but I didn’t have the desire to go back and re-do a level after finishing it. I was happy enough, if not ecstatic for managing to complete it in the first place. In the event that you need to leave the game, your progress will be stored so you won’t have to start over from the first world again.

Each level is riddled with various animals, platforms, spikes, and other obstacles that require the utmost precision to get past them. Most of the animals can be stomped on, but there are some that you’ll need to avoid doing so in order to avoid the next threat. Sometimes a wave of frogs or bats will be coming your way and you may have to stomp on all of them or only some of them to get through unscathed. With so many opportunities to die, I couldn’t help but feel that many of the obstacles/enemy placements were sadistic and cruel.

The first level had a blue bird that I was never able to dodge. I took to the water to bypass it, which is surprisingly effective as long as you keep jumping and don’t have any platforms covering your head and causing you to drown. Knowing your environment is half of the battle. The other half is timing. There are some catapults and balloons that have to be activated at the precise millisecond in order to successfully use them. There is a precision timer on the top of the screen which some may find helpful while others could consider it intimidating as it reveals how quickly they can die in a level. If I could survive longer than twenty seconds, I was doing pretty good.

Kid Tripp is best enjoyed in small doses as dying quickly and repeatedly is only fun for so long. I often found that I did better after taking a break. This game is not good for those with little patience. While it feels good beating a level, I prefer my games to be more relaxing.

Though Kid Tripp is family friendly, it’s probably not good for kids who get easily discouraged. It is a cute game that is ideal for anyone looking for a challenge though. The $3.99 price tag is reasonable as this title provides twenty levels that are not for the faint of heart.