Truxton
1988 · Shooter · Arcade
Overview
Truxton (1988), Tatsujin in Japan, is Toaplan's vertical shooter with three switchable weapons and a devastating skull bomb.
Deep Dive
Truxton's ship switches among three weapon types — a spread shot, a powerful lightning beam and the Truxton beam — by collecting coloured power-ups, and its skull-shaped bomb wipes out almost everything on screen. Enemy formations are dense and relentless. The Japanese title Tatsujin means 'expert', a fair description of what it demands. Its Mega Drive conversion was one of the console's early showcase arcade ports.
Developer Story
Truxton (Tatsujin in Japan) was developed by Toaplan in 1988. The vertical-scrolling shooter featured a powerful screen-clearing bomb and intense enemy formations. The Mega Drive port was considered one of the finest early conversions for the console. Truxton represented Toaplan at the height of their creative power.
Did You Know?
- Tatsujin means "master" or "expert" in Japanese — the name was a statement of the difficulty level Toaplan aimed for.
- The Mega Drive port was one of the showcase titles demonstrating the console's superiority over the NES for arcade conversions.
- Truxton's bomb was so powerful it was limited to three uses per life — the only mechanic preventing players from trivialising encounters.
- Toaplan's colour palette and enemy design in Truxton pushed against the limitations of late-1980s arcade hardware.
Sources & further reading
- Truxton (video game) — Wikipedia
