Truxton (1988)

Truxton is a 1988 vertically scrolling shooter video game developed by Toaplan and published by Taito for Japanese and European arcades; in North America, it was distributed by Midway. It is set in a future where the Gidans alien race, led by Dogurava, have invaded the fictional planet Borogo. Players assume the role of fighter pilot Tatsuo taking control of the Super Fighter ship on a last-ditch effort to overthrow the alien invaders. Plot: The plot summary of Truxton varies between each version, and is explained through supplementary materials. Taking place somewhere in space, an armada of Gidans, led by the evil Dogurava, is invading the fictional planet Borogo aboard five gargantuan asteroids. After surviving an attack on an orbiting Borogo cargo barge, pilot Tatsuo enters a remaining ship called the Super Fighter and challenges the Gidans in a desperate attempt to quell the alien invasion and divert their asteroid fortresses in the process. Gameplay: Truxton is a science fiction-themed vertically scrolling shooter where players assume the role of Tatsuo, taking control of the Super Fighter ship through five increasingly difficult levels, each with a boss at the end that must be fought, in a last-ditch effort to overthrow the invading Gidans, led by Dogurava. The Super Fighter is controlled over a constantly scrolling background, and the scenery never stops moving. The main ship only has two weapons: the main gun, which travels a max distance of the screen's height, and three bombs capable of obliterating any enemy caught within its blast radius. Similar to Twin Cobra, there are three types of weapons that can be acquired by destroying incoming carriers, ranging from the red wide-reaching shot, the blue homing laser and the green straight beam. The ship's firepower is upgraded by picking up multiple "P" icons in a row, and can switch between any of the three weapons by collecting the respective color of each one. Other items can also be picked up along the way, such as 1UPs and speed increasers. The game employs a checkpoint system in which a downed single player will start at the beginning of the checkpoint they managed to reach before dying. There are also hidden bonus secrets to reveal by meeting certain requirements during gameplay. Getting hit by enemy fire will result in losing a life, as well as a penalty of decreasing the ship's firepower and all medals collected to their original state. Once all lives are lost, the game is over unless the player inserts more credits into the arcade machine to continue playing. The game loops back to the first stage after completing the last stage, with the second loop increasing in difficulty.