Truxton Extreme Review: Arcade Nostalgia | The Gamerheads Podcast

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2

Also on: Xbox Series X/S, Playstation 5, PC (Steam)

Price: $24.99

Truxton Extreme taught me a valuable lesson: I'm really bad at bullet hells. But not right away.

The game opens with a level that teaches me the ropes. I made it through the level pretty easily and beat the boss without much trouble. I thought I was a bullet hell genius. Little did I know it was supposed to be easy.

I called my kids downstairs, wanting to show them how good their dad was at bullet hells. Then I started the first real level. And I died. Right away.

There was a moment of shock as my kids looked at me with confusion. "This is why I was called down here?" Determined, I kept going and made it a bit farther. Yeah, I died again. Truxton Extreme is hard. It offers a serious challenge. But I soon learned there were ways to make it more accessible.

If you're not familiar with Truxton, don't feel bad. The original game was released in arcades in 1988 before making its way to the Sega Genesis. A sequel, Truxton II, followed in 1992 for both arcades and the Genesis.

I wasn't a Sega kid. I was playing the SNES at the time, so I never experienced either of those games. I'm glad Truxton Extreme found its way to the Nintendo Switch 2. It's a beautiful game, and it looks fantastic on the TV.

Truxton Extreme is a vertical scrolling shooter. If you're familiar with games like 1942, then you get the idea. The game feels like an arcade classic. The colors are vibrant and really pop, and the music is stellar. I really want to play this game in an arcade cabinet, or at least with a joystick arcade controller. While the previous games may have been decent console ports, Truxton Extreme feels like it captures the arcade experience as we remember it.

One of the unique aspects of Truxton Extreme is its color-changing weapon system. Like many vertical scrolling shooters, there are power-ups I can pick up to level up my weapons. Some drops also change the color of my ship, which changes the projectiles it fires.

It was fun experimenting with the different weapon types. There's the Wide Shot, which fires bullets in a spread; the Thunder Laser (my personal favorite), which shoots lightning that locks onto targets after hitting an enemy; and the Homing Shot (my second favorite), which fires a spread of bullets that track enemies. There are a few others as well, but I found myself getting picky about my weapon of choice.

I always wondered if the game intended me to pick up a particular weapon type that dropped because of the encounters I was about to face.

There are also bombs that deal massive damage, but these are in limited supply, so I save them for the boss battles. The game gives me plenty of opportunities to pick up more bombs, which is a welcome relief. But normally I need to beat a certain enemy or wipe out a bunch of enemies that are lined up. When a bomb goes off, the explosion fills the entire screen and displays a giant skull, adding to the feeling of just how powerful these things are.

One of the aspects I really love about Truxton Extreme is the story. The game takes place in a future where humanity has explored different planets and established settlements. However, an alien race attacks those settlements and threatens humanity's existence. The president, who is an artificial intelligence, determines that the only way to fight this war is by turning pilots into cyborgs (this doesn't sound problematic at all) and asking them to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect humanity. This is all told through a series of comic book pages, and it's really well done.

The game is hard, though. Like I said, I died a lot. There are accessibility features that let me increase the number of lives and bombs, but doing so means any score I earn won't be added to the leaderboards. This is one of the things I love about Truxton Extreme. If you're a high score chaser, the game supports that. But if experiencing the story is more important, it also gives you the flexibility to adjust the settings and play your way.

Final Grade: A-

Truxton Extreme captures the feeling of an arcade game through and through. The graphics and music are both excellent. I want to play this game in an arcade cabinet. It's that good.

The game is challenging, but its accessibility features let me change the starting number of lives and bombs, with one tradeoff: my score won't be added to the leaderboard. That's one of the things I love about Truxton Extreme. It lets players chase a high score or provides a way for those who just want to experience the story.

Review code provided by Overload PR