This representative title of the vertically scrolling shooter genre helped solidify Toaplan's distinct visual style. The impact of the flashy weapons and the simple gameplay combined with a high degree of difficulty to captivate fans everywhere, thereby laying the foundation for modern shooters.
TRUXTON
Japanese title: TATSUJIN
| Release | 1988 |
| Genre | Vertically scrolling shooting |
| Platforms | Arcade iOS/Android EGRETII Mini Astro City Mini V Mega Drive Mini 2 Steam Others |
Controls & How to Play
The game is played with an 8-way joystick, a Shot button, and a Bomb button.
Use the Shot and Bomb buttons to destroy enemies.
If your ship is hit by enemy fire or collides with an airborne enemy, it will be destroyed and you will lose a life.
You will not lose a life for colliding with enemies located on land.
When you restart after losing a life, your power-ups will be reset and you will begin with three bombs equipped.
The game is over if you lose all of your lives.
【Items】
"S" item
These appear when you destroy certain enemies.
They increase the speed of your ship by one level (up to 4 levels).
If you pick one up when you are already at top speed, you will receive 5,000 points instead.
"P" item
These appear when you destroy certain enemies.
Pick up five of them to power up your shots (2 levels).
Even if you lose a life, your "P" item count will not be reset.
However, you are unable to stock "P" items when fully powered up.
"B" item
These appear when you destroy certain enemies.
Pick up this item to add one Tatsujin bomb to your inventory.
You can store up to ten bombs, and for each one after ten that you pick up, you will receive 5,000 points instead.
"1UP" item
These appear when you destroy certain land-based objects with a specific kind of shot.
They are located in three locations and each one only gives a single 1UP.
"2UP" item
This appears if you reach a certain stage without dying and destroy a specific enemy.
It is only available once per game.
Shot switching items
These appear when you destroy certain enemies.
There are red, green, and blue shot items, and picking one up lets you change the type of your shot.
If you pick up an item that is the same color as your equipped shot type, you will receive 5,000 points instead.
Red shot item
This is the standard shot that you start the game with.
It fires a three-way shot forward in a fan-shaped path.
Each time you power up, the number of bullets fired per shot will increase, thereby increasing the shot's range.
Green shot item
Fires a linear Tatsujin beam forward.
Powering up the beam will increase the number of beams to three, and then five.
Blue shot item
You can hold down the Shot button to lock onto an enemy and fire a Thunder Laser.
Powering up the beam will increase the number of laser beams to three, and then five.
Impressions
This was Toaplan's first sci-fi shooter in a while, and it successfully captured the hearts of fans everywhere with its high-impact graphics and fun gameplay. At the time, it was known as one of the most difficult shoot-'em-ups around, but was still a big hit due to its simple yet surprisingly deep gameplay! Various arcade game magazines also heaped praise upon the title, and it even won fourth place in a Best Shooting Game award contest. Reviews in overseas game magazines also lauded the title for its action and sense of speed, as well as its exciting gameplay. The ported version of the game was also well-received in Japan and overseas. Looking at the current retro game boom today, you can easily see why Truxton had such a large impact on the gaming scene in its day.