They're mainly used as a score on the leaderboards. Collecting 100 nets you a life, and if you manage to beat the game without seeing the Game Over screen, you'll get a 100 coin bonus for each life you have left. If you run out of lives then your coins reset to zero (however your progress is unaffected), so only the best of the best will be on the top of the coins leaderboard. They're also used for achievements -- there's one for collecting every coin in every level, and another for holding 1000 at once, and a few others. There aren't any cosmetics to buy or anything. Kid Tripp's very much an arcade-like experience, and the typical freemium stuff you find in most App Store games is completely absent.
So the goal is always just to get to the end of the level? Restarting from the beginning each time you die? No upgrades or special mechanics beyond this?
Game Impressions This is a joy to play taken on its core gameplay experience, and I really want to like it, but the frustration level as early on as level two began to outweigh the fun factor for me. I'm not sure I'll ever get past level three. Having to restart from the beginning each time, level design which asks too much of the player before properly familiarizing them with the gameplay, and what appears to be compete lack of depth with respect to both overall progress and gameplay mechanics, simply leaves me with little desire to come back. I do know there are folks here who will go gaga for this, so don't let my impressions put you off. What's here is incredibly solid, and if "what's here" will suffice for your gameplay experience, I'm certain you'll find little to complain about.
I submitted an update a few days ago that tones down the difficulty in level 3 a bit. I do think it's a bit too hard for an early level. I probably made a mistake in not telling players this right off in the game because it seems lots are missing it, but you can sprint by holding the right side of the screen. It makes parts of the game -- especially those long gaps -- much easier.
For anyone concerned about the difficulty, trust me when I say stick with it. I know the time it takes to nail down a certain level could be used to finish off 20 levels in another game, but the level design in Kid Tripp is so top-notch, believe me...you want to stick with it to see what comes later on. Once you get the hang of it...it seriously feels like being able to flawlessly glide through a level in Super Mario Bros. There are times when I've wondered just how the hell I'm doing what I do...particularly in the last set of levels. If you'll notice in the upcoming thread, I mentioned something about being horrible at the coin collecting in the game. A couple of days later, I managed to get all the coins in all the levels but...one of them. Not telling you which one.
Just to mention it, level 1-3 is harder than any level before and many levels after it. When you beat it you'll notice the difficulty drop down a little again. If you like wonderboy / adventure island and can handle a game that is as dificult as old mega man games, you'll enjoy this. I know I do.
I have to say, despite being annoyed at some parts I haven't mastered yet, I'm greatly enjoying the feel of the game when it opens up. There's nothing quite like making it through a level without a single slowdown or stop, hitting every enemy perfectly. This must be what playing Mario whole holding down right on the d-pad felt like. The levels so far have been really well-put together. I will admit though, this game is not for the faint of heart. You really need to persevere to hit that sweet spot.
I got no idea if this game can be played on an icade joystick, but can it have icade joystick support?
@Echoseven - "This must be what playing Mario while holding down right on the d-pad felt like." So glad you picked up on this! That was one of the ideas I worked in during the design phase. @Connector - No, Kid Tripp doesn't currently support iCade, sorry!
Looks cool but I'm confused- is the lack of 4" screen support the 'orientation' bug that has already been fixed? Or something that is going to be addressed soon?
This is so cool, it's a damn nice change to have something old school hard again. It's got a real feeling like your playing an old Nes/Snes era game works great on my iPad.
The orientation glitch is a separate issue. It only happens when you close the GameCenter popup window after tapping "RECORDS" on a 4-inch device, and I think you have to flip your device around or restart the app to fix it. It never happens during gameplay, but yes, it's been fixed and I submitted the update last week. It's currently in review at Apple.
I was lucky enough to win a copy of this early, and while it's definitely challenging, this is a definite must-buy!
I don't usually buy games without the new screen support but since you have submitted the update to apple to fix this problem I'll be buying this tonight.
I managed to make it past level 3, but honestly for the life of me just cannot see why this is fun. More anxiety-inducing than enjoyable. Guess it just isn't my thing. (Neither is torture, for the record.)
No, full widescreen support isn't in the update I submitted. That will be a pretty major upgrade a ways down the road (possibly months away). What I did was submit a fix for a glitch that only occurs on 4-inch devices. I'm really sorry to hear that, but yeah, when I made it I knew it wouldn't be to everyone's taste. It's a bit of a niche game and it's definitely risky as an iOS game, but I'm really, really happy that there are people out there enjoying it for what it is. Big thank you to you all!
