Classic of the Month - Truxton

Manufacturer:	Toaplan
Genre:	Shoot 'em up
Board:	Toaplan 68000/Z80-based hardware
Year:	1988

I ended last year with a classic shmup, Lifeforce, so, when it came time to decide what game to cover for January's classic, I found myself thinking about other brilliant, but perhaps lesser known shoot 'em ups.  So for the coming months, I'm going to discuss some of my favourites, starting with Truxton by Toaplan.

I first saw Truxton in a Computer & Video Games annual from 1989.  Now I've always been a fan of shoot 'em ups, but the screenshots for Truxton blew me away, especially the ones that showed the Borogo fighter shooting great arcs of lightning at the enemy Gidans.  I finally got to try it at The Mint in Great Yarmouth several years later and playing it was even better.  It quickly became my favourite shoot 'em up after R-Type, but unlike Irem's classic, I was rubbish at Truxton.  Unfortunately, as amazing as the power-ups look, they take a long time to acquire and are actually severely under-powered.  There are still enemies you can kill with one shot, but there are also lots of enemies that take dozens of shots to kill; playing Truxton is hard work, even by arcade shmup standards.

Truxton is also noteable for having a playfield that extends beyond the edges of the screen.  It really pays to move as far left and right as you can as frequently as you can, because you never know if there's an power-up waiting out of sight.  Something my teenage self did not realise is that Truxton is not a stages game, as most arcade games of that era were.  Truxton is one long, continuous level, that takes about 40 mins to complete - if you're good.  As far as I know, in this regard, Truxton is unique and well worthy of being this month's classic.

YouTube user MamePlayer has uploaded a 3-part play through. Below is the 1st part.

Here's an interesting side note: when Toaplan folded in 1994, a bunch of the dev team went on to form a new company called Computer Art Visual Entertainment, better known as Cave, makers of bullet hell shooters such as DonPachi, Progear and Death Smiles.  Their pedigree certainly shows.

MTW