Truxton Extreme has its roots in an arcade game from the late ’80s simply titled “Truxton“, so while the average player will have never heard of it, it sits right alongside all similar games that have released in the hundreds since. Shoot ‘em ups (shmups) are games that have a very simple premise and gameplay loop, with players handling a jet fighter and shooting waves of enemies down while dodging fire. They are not complicated, and likely were tremendously popular due to an ease of creating them, as well as the ability to suck kids’ change up in the arcades.
To state it right up front, Truxton Extreme doesn’t do anything new gameplay-wise. Notwithstanding the story, this game is very by the book – in all the positive and negative ways. It leans more towards the shmup side compared to pure bullet-hell games, meaning it is more focused on mowing enemies down and dodging occasional projectiles rather than perfect dodges of a hundred projectiles. Part of the issue, though, is that the hit box feels weird; it is a lot bigger than one would expect for a game like this, and hits or dodges feel unintuitive.
A key decision is in having a very harsh damage/death mechanic, where a single hit will kill the player. Not necessarily anything new there, but it restarts part of the level, meaning hard enemies or bosses have to be beaten without any sort of powering through with a saved-up life bank. Bombs also are fairly weak; they come out slow and only clear part of the screen. It feels vastly under powered compared to genre norms in terms of being an emergency button.
Truxton Extreme follows genre norms of gaining small powerups to the ship throughout the level, and while there are a few different firing modes, they are not well balanced. There is your typical spread shot, a narrow forward beam, a homing, and a homing lightning. In a game where staying alive means killing everything as fast as possible, the narrow forward beam, and even the spread shot, fall pretty quickly due to how much better both of the homing shots are.
The entire game is rendered with 3D models, which, while looking okay on the face of it, give the game a far cheaper feeling than if they had been crisp and clean 2D art. This is most notable on some of the backgrounds, being reminiscent of bad CGI effects seen in cartoons. The music is pretty good, but tough to consciously enjoy given the action. It has an an aggressive, driving metal sound to it, but is much better suited for passively listening to online to truly enjoy it.
A story mode is a welcome surprise, and is the highlight of the game. Each level is told in a slightly animated comic book that details the alien attack and the fighting back against them. There are three pilots to hear the story from, meaning a player must replay each same level three times, and while this is an annoyance, the story is remarkably elevated compared to the rest of the game. It tells a sci-fi tale involving time dilatation, sacrifice of becoming a cyborg, dealing with dreams and delusions, loss of family, and so on. It is legitimately surprising how heavy of a story Truxton Extreme gets into. While the gameplay is so-so, the story is engaging enough to continue playing.
Overall, the package is just very average, and nothing is going to stand out to make a shoot ’em up fan pick this over any other. This excludes the story of course, which is so interesting and standout that it would make an interesting anime or visual novel on its own. It feels completely out of place in a game like this…as welcome as it is.
Cubed3 Rating
Truxton Extreme is a shoot ’em up through and through, and that reason alone is largely going to determine the fan and the reception. Within the genre itself, it is very bland and safe, which is a negative given that there are hundreds to pick from. One redeeming feature is a largely enjoyable short story mode that elevates the experience beyond just average, which gets into surprisingly heavy implications about the cost of interstellar war and personal sacrifice.
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Truxton Extreme
Formats: Nintendo Switch 2, PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
