Truxton Extreme

Full Walkthrough: https://youtu.be/XhHY1_Ug9Ew Story: Very Good (3 characters) Graphics: Excellent Music: Good Game Time: 4 - 8 hours (campain) Here I will leave the cat, friends who pass by can pet it and give it a thumbs up 　　　 　　／＞　　フ 　　　 　　| 　　 l 　 　　 　／` ミ＿xノ 　　 　 /　　　 　 | 　　　 /　 ヽ　　 ﾉ 　 　 │　　|　|　| 　／￣|　　 |　|　| 　| (￣ヽ＿ヽ)__)

Quite enjoyable actually! I want to say "great" but I need more time for that call. (edit: after putting another 2 hours in, and how much I've tried to sneak in playtimes during every free moment of a busy weekend, and how I'm pumping my fist in the air after the completion of every level: Yes, great.) Plenty of people, myself included, had reservations about a vertical shmup in 16:9 ratio, as always happens when developers make that choice. It can work, but it usually feels a little sluggish and crowded when compared to the traditional vertical letterboxed STGs. I look at it like widebody pinball -- it has its charms but people looking for the traditional feel and speed might not jibe with it. The more room there is to go sideways, the more slow and meandering it appears. But they did a real nice job with it here as the game makes design choices that utilize the full aspect ratio without seeming like a square peg being forced into a round hole. Your bullets are one of the main things that make this work as most of them take up the full screen, picking off enemies far left and far right without your ship having to make the long journey all the way over from one side to the other. You are also afforded a hot swap speed system where you can make your ship move as fast or slow as you want once you collect some speed powerups, and it's useful to change that up as sections of the level demand. There's also a button to hold for fine/focus movement to dance between those bullets, so they really got the motion sorted about as well as you'd hope in this wide screen aspect. Where Truxton Extreme really stands out is in its attention to scoring and leaderboards. There are a lot of risk/reward opportunities for scoring here and a lot of it revolves around the EX shot, which seems to be roughly a double (or maybe triple?) speed version of whatever weapon you're currently holding. When you use the EX shot it produces collectibles that are key for scoring, but also key in helping to remove stubborn, tanky enemies. But it has a depleting meter that's refilled by killing enemies with normal shots, so not only does this game require the usual shmup memorization to know where to move and when, your scoring is also greatly aided by knowing when to use the EX shot and when not to. Also towards the scoring, the game drops a lot of weapon pickups out there, sometimes a few and sometimes there's 10 of them on the screen at once. I've seen some potato brains who want to hate this game (and every other game) say Truxton Extreme is a joke because it's filled with weapon pickups, but there's reasons for them. You might want to change your weapon depending on the next section you're approaching, but always it behooves you to pick up every weapon as long as you pick up your desired weapon last because they're nice scoring bonuses in a score-focused game. These pickups have purpose in a game with a lot of leaderboard activity -- one for each of the 18 levels (6 levels with 3 different pilots), arcade mode (no story), and other modes and other difficulties. The look and sound are fine. I'm a old head who thinks pixel art and synth sound are absolute peak and will never be surpassed, but what's here both looks and sounds good enough. The backgrounds aren't very special but the lighting effects are quite nice, everything glows and explodes with some eye-searing goodness. The game looks like an early 2000s era shmup on the Dreamcast/Naomi, more on the realism sci-fi angle than pushing creative boundaries. I'm just scratching the surface, there's plenty more to talk about here but as usual I'm already wordy enough. I think most shump fans will find a lot to like here.

Tatsujin Extreme is pretty baller. Arguably the most defining facet of a Toaplan STG was just how satisfying it was to blow enemies up compared to peers. And although hit effects and explosions on popcorn enemies could be a little weightier, Extreme delivers this very well with a very fun to use EX shot as well as a very generous supply of bombs. With Yuge returning as director, its no surprise how faithful the game is to the original in many regards, but just as equally important is how this game is different. The new EX Shot makes enemies drop point items on kill, and stationary upgrades increase your score multiplier which resets upon death. Alongside a single loop option in arcade mode makes this a much more exciting score attack game than the original, which survived due to its unparalleled difficulty and thrill of looping the game potentially infinitely, showing true mastery of the game. Survival play is far less important these days, especially with this game only being a home release, so the push this scoring system gives you is a really big boon to the game's potential future. And to go back to the earlier point, score play, more importantly than being the most complicated system out there, is just so much fun in practice. And its still plenty old school in the important areas. Even with an infinite lives option, releasing an STG in todays market that works exclusively off a check point system oozes confidence. The new easy mode bafflingly only covers the first stage, so there's really no shortcuts here. Extreme knows its audience and doesn't want to disappoint them. Ultimately, this is the kind of game you already know if you're interested in or not. The game certainly does it work to appeal to new fans with the much easier story mode, but this is a game most of its players will have been frothing at the mouth for every since announcement. It clears its expectations and is seriously good

Toaplan's classic shmup, remade and optimized for the current generation. Thumbs up! (9/10)

This is the right way to update a classic shooter. The Cygni devs can learn a thing or two from this banger of a shmup.

Masahiro Yuge tatsujin beams posers into deep space by making a good verti(ultra)zontal. Warning: Era-authentic stage design may be unpalatable to those with attention span issues.

Tatsujin Extreme doesn’t feel at all like hollow, modern throw-away like so many reimaginings of classic shmups tend to be. It isn’t there to simply cash in on a popular name, and a current retro trend. Tatsujin Extreme feels like an authentic arcade shoot’emup from the heart of a group of veterans who know exactly what they’re doing and do it for the art not the notoriety or profit and games like that tend to be the best. Tatsujin Extreme is pretty close. Everything feels like you’re in the 90’s playing your favorite Toaplan shooter for the first time, even moreso if you actually are (I can’t imagine) and it’s pretty surreal because while everything is so familiar it’s also so perfectly transferred to a modern format and visual style. The 16:9 aspect and removal of bars for a vertical shmup feel so seemless, and the controls are so much tighter that the jankiness that often comes with these ‘modern visions’ of old arcade classics. If you’re an old fan it’s pretty exciting, and if you’re new it’s an incredible place to start. For more unique, abstract, arcadey and retro indie game recommendations check out [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/6857352-Cue-Review/]Cue Review[/url], the indie game Cue-rator

OMG...I love it. I've played like 5mins and can tell this is Truxton from my Mega drive youth. If you liked the orignal then I thnk this is for you.