Truxton

Truxton (Tatsujin or たつじん、タツジン in Japanese) is a vertical scrolling shooting game for arcades that started running in 1988. It was sold by Taito and produced by Toaplan, and licensed to Romstar for US distribution. It was also licensed to Midway Games for US distribution too. The game's name in Japan is "Tatsujin". The arcade version was voted the best shooting game in the 3rd Gamest Awards (1989) by the readers of the game magazine Gamest, and was ranked #4 and #16 in the annual Hit Game Awards.

Toaplan, which had been outsourced to Taito for a long time, pushed its own brand to the forefront with the release of this title, establishing the "Toa-style shooting" style. Sales in Japan were very strong, and developer Masatoshi Yuge cited the impact of the five thunder lasers that covered the screen of the tabletop cabinet as the reason. On the other hand, the game was not well received overseas.

In addition to the Thunder Lasers, another unique system introduced in this game is the "Bomber" (Tatsujin Bomb). As the name "TATSUJIN" implies, this game is known for its high difficulty level for expert shooters, and the use of the expert bombs is partly to offset this. The Bomber system itself was first introduced in Toaplan's "Tiger Heli", but while "Tiger Heli" had a time lag before the Bomber was activated after the button was pressed, the Bomber was activated immediately after the button was pressed (in this game, there is a slight lag, and in some demos, the bomb explodes after being hit). This is the first time in the history of games that the Bomber has been used. This type of simple bomber, which emphasizes defense over attack and emergency evasion over strategy, has been used in almost every shooter since.

Game writer Shin'ichi Yanemoto considers this game to be one of the foundations of modern shooters, as it established the elements that would be followed in almost all subsequent shooters: high difficulty and bombs to offset it, the simplicity of defeating enemies with a simple button press, and the visual impact of the weapons. It was a game that was easy to play even for those who were not used to shooting games to some extent, because the rules of the game allowed more than 50% of the game to be played by creating patterns.

On the other hand, after this work, the shooting genre, including Toa Shooting, pursued higher and higher difficulty and visual impact, and as a result, it became a genre for maniacs.

Gameplay
You control your ship with an 8-directional lever, and use your main shot (which can attack both in the air and on the ground) and master bombs (so-called bombers) to capture a total of 200 areas, 40 areas (screens) per stage, for a total of 5 stages [5]. In the Mega Drive version, the game consists of five stages because the normal BGM changes as you defeat the five bosses along the way. If you make a mistake on a boss, you will be sent back to a certain revival point. When you defeat enemies or ground objects, items with various effects appear, and you can get various effects by acquiring them.

Power-up Items

You can get various power-ups by getting items with each letter on them.

P

If you get 5 of these items, the weapon you fire with the shot button will power up by 1 level. Maximum of 2 levels. Even if your ship is killed, up to four of these items will remain in your inventory. However, once the weapon has been powered up to the maximum level, no more can be stocked.

Normally, this item is silver in color, but when you have four in stock (one more to go), it turns pink.

S

Increases your movement speed with each acquisition, reaching maximum speed with 4 items and a bonus score of 5000 points from the 5th item.

B

Replenishes one shot of the Guru Bomb. It is useful for emergency evasion and bullet removal, but it must be used at close range to deal damage (the arcade version has the bomb centered on your ship, while the Mega Drive version has the bomb centered on the screen, dealing damage evenly across the screen). There is a very small time lag, so sometimes the bomb will explode right after your ship is hit. You can stock up to 10 bombs. You can stock up to 10 shots, and the number of available shots is displayed in a row of skull marks in the lower right corner of the screen (in the Mega Drive version, information such as score and number of bombs is displayed in a strip on the right side of the screen).

1UP

Adds one of your own planes. It is contained in a ground object that can only be destroyed with a specific weapon. If you take it once, it will turn into a shot item in the next round.

2UP

Adds 2 more planes. Appears only once during the game when you make no mistakes in a certain area in a row. If you make no mistakes from the start, the first item carrier on the third screen will be a 2UP [6]. Note that unlike other items, 1UP and 2UP do not stay in place, but float in the air.

Weapon Change Items

The main shot can be changed into three different types depending on the color of the weapon change item you acquire. If you get an item of the same color as the one you have equipped, you will get bonus points. The hardness of the enemy can be changed depending on the timing of the weapon change.

Red Item (Power Shot)

Shoots a 3-way Vulcan in a fan shape. The power-up increases the number of bullets in each of the three directions from 3 shots x 3way to 5 shots x 3way (9way to 9way + barrier in the MD version)[1]. With its non-penetrating nature, multiple shots can be concentrated to hit the enemy when shot at close range, effectively damaging the enemy. The power of each shot is weak, so it struggles against durable enemies at long range.

Green Item (Master Beam)

Fires a short beam directly in front of you. Penetrates and destroys enemies with low durability. Power-up from three to five stacks. This is a linear weapon, so it will struggle against attacks from the side.

Blue Item (Thunder Laser)

Fires a long, uninterrupted, lightning-like laser. It can be fired continuously by holding down the shot button. It will penetrate enemies with low durability, and will continue to lock onto enemies with high durability until they are destroyed. The power-up increases the number of guns from three to five. Some enemies will run at your ship when you lock on to them. Since it tracks the enemy, it is difficult to hit the enemy that the player intends to hit, so some ingenuity is required when playing.

Ports
Truxton was ported and released for the Genesis and Mega Drive in 1989 and the PC Engine in 1992. In 1990, Europe saw release of the game on the Mega Drive as well. The game was also ported to IOS and Android too.

Genesis/Mega Drive Version

Developed by Toaplan and released by Sega. As mentioned above, some arrangements were made to the power-ups, and the original ED was also included. This was Toaplan's first entry into the Genesis/Mega Drive market, and was one of the earliest software titles for the Genesis/Mega Drive. The reason why the consumer titles developed by Toaplan have only been available for the Genesis/Mega Drive since then is because Toaplan was not focusing on consumers at that time and the CPU of the Genesis/Mega Drive was the MC68000, the same as the arcade version. The unusually fast tempo of the sound is due to the fact that Yumie learned about the Mega Drive's sound specifications just before the master-up and was not able to adjust it enough. In fact, the game was made with PAL frame rate, and the result is that the game runs 1.2 times faster on NTSC output.

Although there is a drawback that the screen feels too small, there is also an improvement in that stage information has been added to the screen so that you can clearly see the stage you are currently playing, indicating that the stage structure has had a clear separation since the arcade version. Overall, the game is generally regarded as being highly ported.

PC Engine Version

Released by Taito for the PC Engine HuCARD. Although the announcement of the port was made at the same time as the Genesis/Mega Drive version was released, it took about two and a half years before it was released. The game features 15 power shots, which were omitted from the Genesis/Mega Drive version. The game also featured the ability to stock up on P-items even when the shots were at the second level, which was not possible in the arcade version, as well as an original ED. The BGM was composed by Tsukasa Masuko, who is known for composing BGM for the Megami Tensei series.

iOS/Android version

Released by Mobirix. A port that faithfully reproduces the arcade version. This was the first app in which the company distributed Toaplan works, and the system is as follows.

The game is mostly free to play, but ads are shown before and after the game starts.

In exchange for diamonds, you can start the game from full power. The same goes for continue. You can accumulate diamonds as you progress through the game, or you can pay for them yourself.

The difficulty level can be selected from four levels. However, the Hard and Very Hard difficulty levels cannot be played unless certain conditions are met.

The demo screen and name entry in the game have been removed.

Trivia
The design of the Thunder Laser that covers the screen, one of the features of this game, was based on an image that flashed in his mind when he woke up from the shock of bumping his head in his sleep, according to the developer, Masatoshi Yuge. At that time, Yumigami kept a memo by his side when he went to sleep, and he wrote down anything he saw in his dream that he could use, so that he would not forget it, and he later showed the memo to the designer and adopted the idea of the Thunder Laser.

In the Fuji Television variety show "Ucchan Nanchan no Somebody Gotta Do It! (1990), a Fuji Television variety show, he was featured in one of the program's corners, "Find Nanchan! (1990), a TV variety show, used background music from this work and the company's "Wordna Forest" (1987).

Truxton's own machine appeared in a collaboration project for the home shooting game "Game Tengoku CruisinMix Special" released in 2018.

Sequel
A sequel, "Truxton II", was later released in 1992.