Here’s a short story. Around the turn of the millennium, when retro gaming was in its infancy, I was at a house party, attempting to mingle with people I barely knew. A few hours in, someone turned up with a bulging carrier bag. It wasn’t full of cheap booze as you may expect, but rather loose Mega Drive carts, allegedly purchased for £2 each, along with a tatty Mega Drive. After dusting off an old(ish) TV, the rest of the evening was spent switching out carts every few minutes to see what treasures lay within that thin white bag. The only game I can recall playing was Truxton, largely thanks to the over-the-top weapons. Everything else played that night is a blur, which says a lot about the impression Truxton made. It’s still the first shooter I think of when it comes to the Mega Drive, and that’s despite knowing it wasn’t the console’s greatest.
Like the recent Psyvariar 3, Truxton Extreme is a follow-up over twenty years in the making. It sees the series embrace modern tech, featuring smooth and curvaceous 3D visuals, detailed backdrops, and a dazzling line of explosions. Developer Tatsujin, named after the franchise’s Japanese moniker, managed to bring Masahiro Yuge back on board to lend his shoot’em up expertise. Japanese manga artist Junya Inoue, meanwhile, has provided artwork for the comic book panels that punctuate the story mode, with his past work present in Batsugun and DoDonPachi. So, this is very much ‘the real deal’ and not a case of an indie studio being handed the IP, no discredit to Red Art Games’ Psyvariar 3 – which turned out rather well.
If the lavish visuals weren’t enough, Truxton Extreme is able to justify its £20-odd price tag through its range of modes, some of which unlock upon reaching new Service Record milestones. To help welcome newcomers, there’s a text-based ‘how to play’ section, a brief interactive tutorial, and a Heart Starter mode that allows you to play the first level with infinite lives. This gives the chance to try out different weapons – which vary from homing shots to forked lightning that latches onto enemies – and, more importantly, get used to the adjustable movement speed settings. There’s a main gimmick too. Every weapon can be overpowered temporarily, swiftly draining a gauge. This turns enemies into score-boosting tokens, in addition to duly increasing firepower to effortlessly churn through entire waves of foes.
The story mode is the ‘meat’ of the package, featuring three playable heroes with six episodes each and said comic book panels detailing the battle against the Geranium – a self-replicating alien machine lifeform with a slight demonic appearance, hence the frequent use of skull motifs. You’re able to continue from the start of a chapter upon death, and can increase the number of lives and bombs – although this will omit online score rankings. To begin with, five lives is the max, with the limit eventually increasing to ten. Arcade mode isn’t dissimilar, allowing you to toggle the amount of lives/bombs, and continue from the start of the stage.
Then there’s the local two-player Team mode that sees players share lives and bombs, plus a two-minute caravan-style Arena mode that’s based around chasing high scores to claim online leaderboard dominance. Other features include a model viewer and the Pipiru village – which is home to oddball aliens that can be rescued from certain enemy craft. The former is a late addition requiring a few hours of playtime to unlock.
Now seems a good time to oh-so-casually mention that Truxton Extreme is… extremely hard. It’s welcoming to newcomers, sure, but it’ll also push your shoot’em up skills to the max, with even the first stage providing a challenge. While being able to select ten lives may sound generous, a one-hit death system is in place. Tricky sections, of which there are many, can see a handful of lives depleted in under a minute. The stages here are also remarkably long, lasting 8-10 minutes, and each ends with a boss that spews tricky-to-dodge bullet formations. Additionally, you’ll have to master luring away red-hued homing shots by deftly skirting around them. Ground troops can also suddenly emerge from bunkers, whereas some enemies will approach from behind without warning. There’s certainly a lot to learn and avoid. Or rather, learn to avoid.
There are no invincibility frames; upon death, you’re cast back to the last checkpoint. These are sensibly spaced, though, and in most instances a few power-ups and weapon change icons are dotted around to help you get back up to max power. Most boss battles provide a weapon swap prior, fuelling experimentation.
Generally, each stage took me around two hours to master. To reiterate, they’re rather lengthy – so much so that the music changes halfway through – and there’s usually more than one hazard on screen at once, be it a wave of several enemies, a larger adversary requiring concentrated fire, ground troops/turrets, bonus targets, or hazards such as asteroids. It’s an incredibly demanding experience, requiring you to manoeuvre around the entire screen and not just dwell within the centre. On that note, and as the screenshots suggest, Truxton Extreme’s action is spread across the entire screen, with a bit of extra wiggle room on both sides.
You’ll also need to experiment with different weapons, with some giving an advantage in certain situations, and master using bombs sparingly. Bombs cancel incoming fire, allowing you to escape the jaws of death, but ideally, they should be saved for the boss to damage them directly or escape their bullet hell formations. Just to highlight how challenging the bosses are, not even five bombs will wipe out later examples instantly – you’ll need to survive for around a minute while using overcharged shots too. Now bear in mind the one-hit deaths, and you’ll hopefully get the gist of how hard Truxton Extreme is.
The tools are here to succeed; you just need to use them proficiently. Weapons are joyously overpowered, while bombs are equally devastating, saving your hide time and time again. It’s never expected that players will be able to achieve a 1CC, with both Story and Arcade modes allowing you to continue, ergo chip away and progress. If you enjoy the piecemeal approach to conquering a shooter, you’ll relish the challenge Tatsujin has prepared. The polished presentation helps soften things too, with its upbeat musical score helping spur you on. If you’re expecting to waltz in and beat the whole thing in the space of a couple of hours, liberally adding extra credits, then this isn’t the game for you – it requires a lot of practice. There is no easy mode here and I’d argue that it’s a richer, more rewarding, experience for it.
Tatsujin’s Truxton Extreme is out 30th July on PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2 and PC. Published by Clear River Games.