jake4480, 23 days ago

@dinosaurgerms 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Hundstrasse, 23 days ago

@dinosaurgerms I was about to be all like "Dang, that planet is full of fire!"... And then I realised that OUR planet is full of fire.

It's a title screen that works on multiple levels... 😶

dinosaurgerms, 23 days ago

Truxton II has many things going for it, and one is its very, very good OST. Toaplan games have a certain "sound" that I really love, and T2 sees it refined to perfection

dinosaurgerms, 23 days ago

Toaplan games also have a distinct visual style that's immediately-recognizable; for instance, they often feature
screen-filling "tiling" effects to transition between scenes. They might not be as iconic as the "screen melt" effect from "Doom", but I still think they're really cool

Gif from "Truxton II". As the game transitions between two separate screen, the entire screen fills up with "tiles"; on each tile (which looks metallic), an image of an stylized skull is depicted. The screen then "un-fills" with tiles in the opposite direction, completing the screen transition.

dinosaurgerms, 22 days ago

For instance, here's the same effect in "Truxton"...

Gif from "Truxton". As the game transitions between two separate screen, the entire screen fills up with "tiles"; unlike those in "Truxton II", the tiles here look like blank metal plates. The screen then "un-fills" with tiles in the opposite direction, completing the screen transition.

dinosaurgerms, 22 days ago

Likewise, here it is in "Fire Shark", another Toaplan game...

Gif from "Fire Shark". As the game transitions between two separate screen, the entire screen fills up with "tiles", which look like metal plates with camouflage colors. The screen then "un-fills" with tiles in the opposite direction, completing the screen transition.

dinosaurgerms, 22 days ago

Even modern games that were influenced by Toaplan games often pay homage to this effect- for example, "Super XYX"...

Gif from "Super XYX". As the game transitions between two separate screen, the entire screen fills up with "tiles"; on each tile (which looks metallic, with an earth-tone-like color palette), an image of an stylized skull is depicted. The screen then "un-fills" with tiles in the opposite direction, completing the screen transition.

dinosaurgerms, 22 days ago

I love seeing this in ANY video game, Toaplan-inspired or otherwise (here, "MIschief Makers")...

Gif from "Mischief Makers". As the game transitions between two separate screen, the entire screen fills up with "tiles"; on each tile, an illustration of one of the game's characters is depicted in an anime-like style. The screen then "un-fills" with tiles in the opposite direction, completing the screen transition.

dinosaurgerms, 22 days ago

Back on topic, the attract mode for this game is so cool...! Although I have a gif of it above, the full animation really deserves to be admired here

Video clip from "Truxton II" (title screen, 2D pixel art). A giant crater is seen on a planet, amidst the darkness of space. The screen begins to shake, and several laser beams shoot of out of the crater. The crater then explodes outward, and a giant jet of fire is seen spewing out; the "Truxon II" is superimposed dramatically on top of the jet of fire.

dinosaurgerms, 22 days ago

The bosses in this game look really cool... let's do a roll call of them now. Stage 1...

Gif from "Truxton II" (gameplay, 2D pixel art, top-down vertically-oriented perspective). A player-controlled spaceship fights a stage boss. The boss appears as a giant spaceship with multiple cannons firing at the player, with a metallic blue-green appearance. It has two giant orbs-like structures at its prow that appear to be filled with liquid.

dinosaurgerms, 22 days ago

Stage 2...

Gif from "Truxton II" (gameplay, 2D pixel art, top-down vertically-oriented perspective). A player-controlled spaceship fights a stage boss. The boss appears as a giant robot (with a green, metallic finish), that has the appearance of the a humanoid torso, with giant "hands" that extend towards and attempt to hit the player. Of course, the robot also has many cannons that shoot at the player as well.

dinosaurgerms, 22 days ago

Stage 3...

Gif from "Truxton II" (gameplay, 2D pixel art, top-down vertically-oriented perspective). A player-controlled spaceship fights a stage boss. The boss appears as a giant, flying robot (with a red, metallic finish), that has the appearance of a large, two-pronged spaceship (where the two prongs are symmetrical about its center). There are also two other (much smaller) red spaceships that orbit the larger ship and fire upon the player. Lastly, the (large) ship also has many cannons that shoot at the player as well.

dinosaurgerms, 21 days ago

Stage 4...

Gif from "Truxton II" (gameplay, 2D pixel art, top-down vertically-oriented perspective). A player-controlled spaceship fights a stage boss. The boss appears as a giant, flying robot (with a reddish-brown, metallic finish), that has the appearance of a large, long spaceship with two skull-like faces (where the two skull-like are symmetrical about its center). The ship has many cannons that shoot at the player as well.

dinosaurgerms, 21 days ago

Stage 5...

Gif from "Truxton II" (gameplay, 2D pixel art, top-down vertically-oriented perspective). A player-controlled spaceship fights a stage boss. The boss appears as a giant, flying skull (with a blue, metallic finish), with wings on each side of its head. The ship has many cannons that shoot at the player as well.

dinosaurgerms, 21 days ago

... and Stage 6.

Gif from "Truxton II" (gameplay, 2D pixel art, top-down vertically-oriented perspective). A player-controlled spaceship fights a stage boss. The boss appears as a giant monster (with a blue, metallic finish) that someone resembles a crab with a head on a long, extending "neck". The boss attempts to strike the player ship with its head, while shooting at the player with its many cannons as well.

Hundstrasse, 20 days ago

@dinosaurgerms I know so little about top down shootemups it's embarrassing! (Except for once falling in love with a Capcom car cocktail unit of one of the 1940 something games) Like, is there lore to this? Is there a plot? The bosses are so elaborate I kind of feel like someone must've spent a long time thinking about it all.

dinosaurgerms, 19 days ago

Wait a sec, I didn't even talk about the coolest part of the game! You have a limited supply of screen-clearing bombs, which, when activated, send a giant skull shooting across the screen:

Gif from "Truxton II" (gameplay, 2D pixel art, top-down vertically-oriented perspective). A player-controlled spaceship shoots at enemies and activates a screen-clearing bomb, which has the appearance of a giant, golden skull shooting across the screen.

dinosaurgerms, 19 days ago

Here's the skull in all its giant, split-second glory: