Truxton

EU flyer

**Truxton**, known in Japan as **Tatsujin** (達人, lit. *"Expert"*) is a vertical scrolling shooting game developed by Toaplan and released in 1988 for arcades. It was published by Taito in Japan and Midway in US. The game was voted the best shooting game in the 3rd Gamest Awards (1989) by the readers of the game magazine Gamest, and was ranked #4 and #16 in the annual Hit Game Awards. The game was ported to the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1989 and to the NEC PC Engine in 1990. In 2023 it was released digitally for PC on the Steam and GOG storefronts by Bitwave games.

## Story

### Western version

"Tom, we're under attack!"

"That's why I'm here, sir."

"The Gidans came on like bats out of Pluto. Our trans-port ship, the Belery, didn't have a chance. Now its cargo — our secret weapons — is out there stuck in space. And the Gidans are between it and us. Tom, we've got to stop them! They've got something enormous out there. It fills up the radar screen. We don't know what it is, we can't prepare for it — we don't even know how to fight it!"

"I'll fight it, sir."

"Take the Super Fighter. It's got everything you need — weapons so powerful we've been afraid to use them. You'll blow their boosters off, Tom. You're our only hope! But it's gonna be dangerous."

"I'll risk it, sir. See you back here on Borogo, after I make our planet safe!"

### Japanese version

In UC3018, the Bolgo system forces created a groundbreaking weapon. It was a space fighter named "Super Fighter" that had the main armament as an option and could be instantly exchanged according to the purpose. And the transport ship "Belery" full of the optional weapons was supposed to arrive at the space station "Star Ship" soon.

There was a young man who was looking forward to a Super Fighter right now. He was the pilot of this plane and his code name was "Tatsuo". However, it was not the arrival signal from the transport ship but the emergency signal that jumped into him.

"This is Belery ... Emergency ... Departure ... Giant meteorite ... Collides ... No ... Ah ... Organism ..."

At the end of that signal, the Belery lost communication. In response to this emergency, the commander of the Bolgo Star Defense Force immediately ordered Tatsuo to scramble.

"The giant meteorites turned out to be a mimicry of the Gidan aliens. This clearly seems to be an invasion of our star area. Superfighters immediately head for interception!"

Since the Gidan aliens have lived in a harsh natural environment that is completely different from humankind, they themselves have strong defensive power and strong destructive power. And the only spacecraft that can counter it is the Super Fighter.

A start signal was given and the Lepton engine started to rotate. The white light of Nutorino melts into the darkness of the universe.

And... The battle of Tatsuo has just begun!

## Gameplay

You control your ship with an 8-directional lever, and use your main shot (which can attack both in the air and on the ground) and master bombs (so-called bombers) to capture a total of 200 areas, 40 areas (screens) per stage, for a total of 5 stages. In the Mega Drive version, the game consists of five stages because the normal BGM changes as you defeat the five bosses along the way. If you make a mistake on a boss, you will be sent back to a certain revival point. When you defeat enemies or ground objects, items with various effects appear, and you can get various effects by acquiring them.

### Items

* P: If you get 5 of these items, the weapon you fire with the shot button will power up by 1 level. Maximum of 2 levels. Even if your ship is killed, up to four of these items will remain in your inventory. However, once the weapon has been powered up to the maximum level, no more can be stocked. Normally, this item is silver in color, but when you have four in stock (one more to go), it turns pink.
* S: Increases your movement speed with each acquisition, reaching maximum speed with 4 items and a bonus score of 5000 points from the 5th item.
* B: Replenishes one shot of the Guru Bomb. It is useful for emergency evasion and bullet removal, but it must be used at close range to deal damage (the arcade version has the bomb centered on your ship, while the Mega Drive version has the bomb centered on the screen, dealing damage evenly across the screen). There is a very small time lag, so sometimes the bomb will explode right after your ship is hit. You can stock up to 10 bombs. You can stock up to 10 shots, and the number of available shots is displayed in a row of skull marks in the lower right corner of the screen (in the Mega Drive version, information such as score and number of bombs is displayed in a strip on the right side of the screen).
* 1UP: Adds one of your own planes. It is contained in a ground object that can only be destroyed with a specific weapon. If you take it once, it will turn into a shot item in the next round.
* 2UP: Adds 2 more planes. Appears only once during the game when you make no mistakes in a certain area in a row. If you make no mistakes from the start, the first item carrier on the third screen will be a 2UP [6]. Note that unlike other items, 1UP and 2UP do not stay in place, but float in the air.

### Weapon Change Items

The main shot can be changed into three different types depending on the color of the weapon change item acquired. Getting an item of the same color as the one currently equipped will earn bonus points. The hardness of the enemy can be changed depending on the timing of the weapon change.

## Stages and Bosses

 2
 3
 4
 5

## Enemies

* TE-Fighter
* TB-Fighter
* Stoppern
* Baebae
* Red-3
* Green Tank
* Buster
* Vacuum
* Meteorite
* Storon
* Tank Roller
* Boorgoma
* Gurkur
* Mini Gairun
* Chain & Drill
* Blue Tank
* Purple Tank
* Yellow Tank
* Red Cannon
* Poise
* Chen
* TE-Laser
* Roguis
* TE-Shutter
* TB-Shutter
* TB-Laser
* Cannon
* Mini Cannon
* Bearang Acid
* Bordan
* Bordan Head
* Gairun
* Tiger
* Zun
* Capsulan
* Pukupu
* Bearang
* Gaga
* Lapper
* Bubu
* Energy Boy
* Gulkul
* Georsa
* Blow
* Roon

## Legacy

Toaplan, which had been outsourced to Taito for a long time, pushed its own brand to the forefront with the release of this title, establishing the "Toa-style shooting" style. Sales in Japan were very strong, and developer Masatoshi Yuge cited the impact of the five thunder lasers that covered the screen of the tabletop cabinet as the reason. On the other hand, the game was not well received overseas.

In addition to the Thunder Lasers, another unique system introduced in this game is the "Bomber" (Tatsujin Bomb). As the name "TATSUJIN" implies, this game is known for its high difficulty level for expert shooters, and the use of the expert bombs is partly to offset this. The Bomber system itself was first introduced in Toaplan's "Tiger Heli", but while "Tiger Heli" had a time lag before the Bomber was activated after the button was pressed, the Bomber was activated immediately after the button was pressed (in this game, there is a slight lag, and in some demos, the bomb explodes after being hit). This is the first time in the history of games that the Bomber has been used. This type of simple bomber, which emphasizes defense over attack and emergency evasion over strategy, has been used in almost every shooter since.

Game writer Shin'ichi Yanemoto considers this game to be one of the foundations of modern shooters, as it established the elements that would be followed in almost all subsequent shooters: high difficulty and bombs to offset it, the simplicity of defeating enemies with a simple button press, and the visual impact of the weapons. It was a game that was easy to play even for those who were not used to shooting games to some extent, because the rules of the game allowed more than 50% of the game to be played by creating patterns.

On the other hand, after this work, the shooting genre, including Toa Shooting, pursued higher and higher difficulty and visual impact, and as a result, it became a genre for maniacs.

## Gallery

US Mega Drive coverJP Mega Drive coverPC Engine cover
## Trivia

* The design of the Thunder Laser that covers the screen, one of the features of this game, was based on an image that flashed in his mind when he woke up from the shock of bumping his head in his sleep, according to the developer, Masatoshi Yuge. At that time, Yuge kept a memo by his side when he went to sleep, and he wrote down anything he saw in his dream that he could use, so that he would not forget it, and he later showed the memo to the designer and adopted the idea of the Thunder Laser.
* In the Fuji Television variety show "Ucchan Nanchan no Somebody Gotta Do It! (1990), a Fuji Television variety show, the game was featured in one of the program's corners, "Find Nanchan! (1990), a TV variety show, used background music from this work and the company's "Wordna Forest" (1987).
* Truxton's own machine appeared in a collaboration project for the home shooting game "Game Tengoku Cruisin' Mix Special" released in 2018.

## External Links

* GOG store page
* Steam store page
* Bitwave Games