Sora Tobu Henry is an unreleased Nintendo Virtual Boy action game developed by Human.
In this game you play as Henry, a fluffy, floating, dog-like creature. Flapping with his huge Dumbo-like ears, Henry slowly flutters through the air in a light and airy as well as sluggish manner. Equally to the relatively slow pace of the main character, the whole game progresses slowly, without the need for quick reflexes.
The goal is to clear multiple stages, each of which is comprised of 3 areas. Each of these areas has requirements for clearing it, such as collecting the items and defeating all of the enemies, such as small devils, by crushing them underfoot or dashing into them. To dash, you have to charge some power; it also lets you attack to the back of the screen. Enemies approach from all directions, including the back of the screen. The final area has a boss that you have to confront.
While the main game is a side-scrolling platformer with interconnected areas in both the foreground and background, the boss area at the end of each stage plays like a shooting game in a vast open 3D space.
Sora Tobu Henry was planned to launch in December 1995 in Japan, but was never released due to the Virtual Boy’s commercial failure. At that point, the game (at least) almost complete.
Developer Gōichi Suda, also known as Suda51, shed a little bit more light on the project in a 2014 interview with Game*Spark.
First of all, could you tell us about your memories of Virtual Boy?
Suda: A long time ago, there was talk of developing Virtual Boy software during the Human era. When the development kit came to the company, I actually touched it. It gets very exciting within the company, and everyone plays through it and is satisfied with it.
After that, there was a development team, but unfortunately it never went on sale. I think it was a game where a dog with big ears, like Dumbo, flies through the air. It was a game planned by Koike-chan from Dragon’s Earth, and I can’t remember the title. Ah, I just searched for “human + virtual boy” and it came up. The title is Flying Henry” (lol).
It’s a cute game. Mr. Suda, are you not involved in the development at all?
Suda: In terms of development, at the time Human had a planning department. There were a lot of planners there, and one of them was Koike-chan. Then, an in-house programmer was assigned to his project. Maybe even a prototype was made. We also held demos within the company. However, I think they stopped development midway because the market situation was not good.