Truxton review - Sega Megadrive

Aliens are steering five asteroids towards Earth, guarding them with a host of nasties armed to the teeth! Guess who'd the only one stupid - sorry - brave enough to try and stop them?

This shoot 'em up casts you as a space fighter pilot inflicting as much damage as possible on the swarms of flying aliens and ground installations that are, naturally, trying to shoot you down.

There are a host of power-ups to be collected, as well as extra weapons, extra lives and more smart bombs. The smart bombs themselves are represented as skulls, and unleashing them causes a huge skull-shape to flash across the screen, killing everything.

The end-of-level baddies come in a variety of shapes and sizes and usually in numbers of two to four. It takes a lot of firepower to eliminate them and even when you do, it's no rest for the wicked - the alien scum are still coming!

What the Mean Machines staff thought

Truxton grabbed my interest from the beginning despite its unoriginality. The graphics may not be the flashiest seen on the Megadrive, but they are large and colourful and serve their purpose well. The power-ups are excellent, my favourite being the lightning bolt - this allows you to unleash electric death on the nasties from any angle, your beam following them around the screen! All in all, a great game that should be welcome in any shoot 'em up fan's collection.

Truxton is a fine example of a pure, no-frills arcade blast. Just fly up the screen in your Supa Deathmobile and dish out laser doom to the oncoming baddies. At first the going is quite easy, but once the aliens start firing back and begin to attack in large numbers, the game becomes very challenging indeed - just wait until you tackle the exploding light bulbs (well, that's what they look like) on level three! The graphics are pretty straightforward, and the sound is alright, but when it comes down to gameplay, Truxton has plenty of blasting thrills and spills on offer.

Retrospective comments

As one of the first shooters released for the Megadrive, Truxton (AKA Tatsujin) isn't likely to turn heads in terms of graphics and sound. Even when this conversion was released the arcade original could hardly be deemed as 'cutting edge'. However the game is still hugely enjoyable. The gameplay is pretty basic but it's fun, and the visuals have actually aged quite well - the trademark 'skull' smart bomb explosion is still impressive and some of the end of level bosses are scary, screen-filling affairs. Not exactly the best shooter on Sega's 16-bitter but considering how cheaply it can be obtained these days, you can do a lot worse.

DannyleeT - 29 Mar 2008, 16:11 GMT

hey man,just picked this up fer a few quid and wanted to gen up a bit as dont remember it from back int day?
neary crying cos when i got my Jap magadrive back in 90ish i could select from a box of 3obsure lookin titles,all japanese but i always prfered the artwork anyways but one o them was this game called musha aleste which i absolutely loved to bits,.any way i just found out that its worth a bit after missing it and having a look on the ebay and now regret swappin my 1st MD with about 10 games for a snes with Marioland,.mind you,. that was how much i was impressed with tendos finest ever console at the time and i still love both even after having to re buy half the stuff i originally had again since getting back into it all a few years ago,.Halcyon days,.,.now where can i get my hands on a PC engine and a neogeo,.all the stufff advertised off the back o your mag that i used to stare lovingly at for hours all them years back,.,.at least we have virtual conslole but it just aint the same as re-kindering the feel of an old pad and dunkin a fat cart into the original machines,.innit?

Tris Wicks - 11 Nov 2008, 03:34 GMT

Truxton is a fat cart I like to dunk into my MD on occasion, the resplendent weaponry is as smite worthy as the best of em.
I can't believe i'm making this reference, but, the Emperor cooking Mace Windu? You Know? That's how Truxton feels. Unlimited Power!

Neo Geo Carts are for mounting, a friend can ride side saddle. The handful worth owning are gradually being re-released. Beautiful machine though.

Godpikachu - 18 Feb 2009, 01:26 GMT

Another game from the people who brought us the "all your base" meme (dont toaplan like their shoot em ups?).

Like the MM review says, there are no frills really in this game, but, its a nice, simple to play and fairly addictive shooter, the likes of which we dont really see any more.

With a nice selection of baddies to shoot at using a series of nice ship upgrades (which you lose the minute you die, which is a bit of a bugger at times), Truxton is one of those forgotten games from the early MD catalogue which most people dont even think about when they are looking back at classic games.
While the graphics arent much to talk about, they, like many other Toaplan releases, are nice and colourful and you are never scratching your head wondering what to shoot at and what you should be avoiding.

The in game music isnt too bad either for an MD game, and it doesnt intrude on your playtime.

All in all, this is a nice game to add to your collection if you can find it, as it has something for seasoned shooter players as well as newbies.

baz - 21 Feb 2011, 01:48 GMT

Being an eager 13 year old with Xmas money burning a hole in me pocket I actually bought this game BEFORE my Japanese import megadrive turned up!

Anyway, my brother persuaded me to buy Tatsujin, saying it was "wicked" or some other early 90's superlative. He later admitted this was a joke. Git.

Anyway #2, I played it to death back in the day and completed it... although the game didn't have an end, it just went back to level 1 :/

Steve - 19 Jan 2013, 21:29 GMT

This was one of the first games I ever saw on the megadrive when my cousin bought one when they first came out in the uk and it really got me excited at the time.
I remember my cousin knew a cheat whereby when you were fighting a boss you used the big skull bomb and paused the game for a bit. when you un-paused the game, voilà the boss was destroyed!
Happy days! I wish life was still that simple.

Tens - 17 Apr 2013, 16:30 GMT

This is an excellent shooter for the Mega Drive, Some impressive weapons and power ups, Good bosses and a very good challenge.
The music may seem a bit dated now (it is over 20 years old), But who cares as the gameplay is class.
If you like your shooters then give this one a try.
9/10 I give this one.