Back in 2017, we reported on a little game called Tobu Tobu Girl, a homebrew Game Boy game with all the aesthetic charm and simplistic story of one. That same game is now coming back with a ‘DX’ version with Game Boy Color support, just like many games did back in the day.
Once again, the little girl’s cat has stuck on a balloon, and the young girl must hop across various stages in order to save it, eventually ending up in space. The player can bounce across the heads of various enemies, and do up to three air dashes to reach the next platforms. You can also flap your arms to rise upwards, although this uses limited energy.
The game’s all about getting that one perfect run to the very end, and while the game has the difficulty to match the age it’s from, it keeps sucking you in to keep trying, no doubt thanks to composer potato-tan’s catchy tunes that keep playing even if you fail. It’s a small, focused game that knows what it wants to do and sets out to do so, and really has that ‘handheld’ quality to it, making use of its intended platform (heh) to its advantage.
The DX remake adds in color in palettes similar to The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, with the player character colored in one color, and the backgrounds in various shades that make the visuals pop. Of course, like other DX games of the era, Tobu Tobu Girl DX will be compatible with the regular monochrome Game Boy as well.
Thanks to a Kickstarter that was run from April 4 to May 4, where 611 backers pledged 50,972 Euros, Tobu Tobu Girl DX is also getting some extra content, such as Super Game Boy support, as well as an Infinite game mode with new music, and other memorabilia.
Tobu Tobu Girl DX is a passion project, and is set to be playable for free via a ROM download on Itch.io, just like the original, but the game is getting a limited GBC physical cartridge release, and while the Kickstarter is over, the physical release is still up for pre-order via First Press Games’ store, as they are helping publish the game physically. The physical release comes with a sky-blue custom cartridge, a fully colored 16-page game manual, a collective coin, and a box that closely resembles the Japanese Game Boy Color’s game boxes.
Tobu Tobu Girl DX is set to come out for free as a Game Boy open-source ROM in Summer 2019. In the meantime, try out the original monochrome version here.
