Thank you Bitwave Games for sending us a review code of the Toaplan Arcade Shoot'em Ups Volume 1 collection!

Truxton was originally released for the arcades in 1988. It did better in Japan than in the USA. The game was later ported over to the Sega Genesis, and then on PC. The computer version of the game allows for quick saves, as well as save slots. You can also enable game rewinding to reverse mistakes. The ability to record game clips is also possible. Steam enhancements include fifty achievements and an online leaderboard.

Before starting your campaign, I highly recommend tweaking a few settings. You can adjust the size of your hitbox, game difficulty, and the ability to continue when you run out of lives. You can adjust the number of starting ships and how many hits they can take before you die. You can also configure the number of points needed to add an extra life.

Once you have your settings tweaked, it’s time to jump in your ship and blow up some hostiles! Whenever you re-launch the game, you’ll want to double check the settings as my system didn’t save all of my preferences, just most of them.

There’s no backstory in the game itself, but according to Wikipedia, you play as a pilot named Tatsuo and his goal is to stop the invading Gidan armada. Armed with his Super Fighter, Tatsuo must stop the evil Dogurava and his asteroid fortress.

Truxton is a vertical Shoot ‘em Up with enemies coming at your ship from all directions. The Super Fighter seems to have an unlimited amount of ammunition and what it fires is determined by the power ups it has gathered. The Super Fighter can spray bullets, shoot in bursts, or shock enemies with bolts of lightning. Bombs are limited, but super-handy for the swarms of bosses.

Enemy ships come in all shapes and sizes, but they typically have a red orb embedded into them somewhere. If you see a ship with a Skull on it, be sure to hit it. Those drop power ups. If you see a circle with a B on it, that will add an additional bomb to your arsenal. An S will increase your ship’s speed. P’s I assume increase your attack power. After five P’s are collected, you’ll see a significant increase in firing power.

If you die, you’ll be re-spawned at the nearest check point with your ship back at stock configuration. Thankfully, the number of P’s you have collected will not be reset. You’ll see how much you’ve taken the ship’s increased for granted once it’s gone!

In total, there are twenty bosses and after you beat the final one, the game will loop back to the beginning again. You can beat the game in ninety minutes or less if you abuse the save slot features. The bosses range from tank-like structures to swarms of annoying ships. It *is* possible to continue without beating them, but you’ll only get a Steam achievement if you do. If you bypass them on your first round, you can always try to take them out next time. The Sega Genesis has a gamepad combination that let you select the level to start from, but I couldn’t trigger it in the Steam version.

When it comes to the visuals there are many options available to make the game look smooth or "old school" arcade style. You can set the visual effects to be smooth or have steps, pixels, or scanlines. There's a visual border that fills up space on widescreen monitors. This border can be changed or disabled if desired.

Morally, there’s little to complain about. There are aliens that won’t hesitate to shoot down your ship, so you have to beat them to it.

If you enjoyed the arcade version of Truxton or just like Shoot ‘em ups in general, this title and collection is definitely worth checking out. The bundle is a better bargain and we’ve enjoyed the games we’ve played from it so far. I look forward to future Toaplan re-releases!