Pippols is a vertical shoot-em-up in which you control a guy trying to retrieve a holy ("holly") gem located at the end of a...I suppose you could call it a hedge maze of some sort. As you scroll up, enemies charge you from above and below, and you can only change your lane by hopping through gaps in the vegetation, but many of your enemies can hop over when they want. So a major part of the challenge is to know when to change to a different row so that you're not caught by an enemy while in mid-hop, especially since your character is relatively tall and an easier target to hit. You also need to be careful of dead-ends in the maze.
There are branching stages that you choose after completing one stage, and when you get the gem at the end, you have to go backwards (i.e., it becomes a downward scrolling game) through all the stages again. There are some power-ups you can find, such as shoes that let you jump over the plants
Konami was in its peak years when making this one. They used some tricks to get around the MSX's jagged scrolling problems, the graphics are clear and have a storybook charm, the music is great, and the game is easy to just jump right into but deceptively challenging.
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