Anybody moderately enjoy TATSUJIN ( Truxton ) ?

[bonoedgey]

Hello there everyone.

I was just wondering if anyone still plays Tatsujin on their PCE.  I have it for the Sega Genesis/MD and enjoyed the music. I watched some Youtube vids on the PCE version and it seems to have the music on its side compared to the Genesis/MD, but could just be me.

Thoughts about this game?  Its ok if this is the smallest topic.. and only get "It's Ok".  I was just wondering what the general thinks of this game.
I see its very expensive usually.

thanks for your thoughts in advance gang

[Arkhan Asylum]

Depends on my mood.  Sometimes that game really pisses me off.

It's definitely fun though.

[Opethian]

the reason this port is harder than the arcade is that the bullets move faster than you can dodge with no speed ups so as you progress, rank rises and the bullets move even faster. its somewhere on par with the 2nd loop of the arcade.

[ToyMachine78]

I moderately enjoy it when the title appears. Fucking hate gameplay tho. Too damn harx

[bonoedgey]

thanks everyone for your replies.  Speaking of great tunes totally another topic in itself but was listening to the Ys Chronicles Soundtrack.. pretty sweet lol.. I know off topic, my bad   Thanks again everyone for your insight.  It is pretty darn hard when I played it on the MegaDrive. Never have played Truxton (as we say around me) for the PCE. Maybe if I want more grey hair and such I will have to try it out lol

[o.pwuaioc]

Anyone else want to weigh in on Genesis/Mega Drive vs. PC Engine here? I have the Genesis game, never thought about looking into the PC Engine one. Worth it?

[Mathius]

Damn fine game with a better soundtrack than its arcade big brother. Not sure what Toalpan was thinking with its difficulty though.

[NecroPhile]

I'm not man enough to play Tatsujin.  It looks and sounds great, but it's just too damn hard for a shewty wuss like me.

[shubibiman]

I made it to the last stage once but haven't played it for a long while.

[VenomMacbeth]

I was never enthralled with this or any other Toaplan shmup, to be honest, though there is something about V-V's graphics that appeals to me.  Other than that, they all seem to share the same slow-paced, relatively uninspired gameplay & sub-par music...and I think I might be the only one that feels this way. :/

[_Paul]

It's great fun with the cheat in.

[o.pwuaioc]

Anyone else want to weigh in on Genesis/Mega Drive vs. PC Engine here? I have the Genesis game, never thought about looking into the PC Engine one. Worth it?

!?

yes

Well, you know, since Altered Beast is so much better on the Genesis, I figured I'd check to see if Truxton is as well.

[jtucci31]

I love Tatsujin. This will be the first game I play when my everdrive comes in the mail. Playing the tournament at VGS was definitely fun. I really enjoy the tunes. I really want to try the Genesis version. If I can ever find it for a decent enough price.

I also like the arcade version too. While slightly different I still love torturing myself at it ;)

[csgx1]

I really enjoy playing the Genesis version. Definitely a challenging game and it does get a bit repetitive.  I bought my Genesis copy new back in the days. 

It seems the PCE version is so expensive now. 

Wasn't Tatsujin quite popular, especially in Japan?...Any thoughts on why the PCE version is so limited?

[Mathius]

I really enjoy playing the Genesis version. Definitely a challenging game and it does get a bit repetitive.  I bought my Genesis copy new back in the days. 

It seems the PCE version is so expensive now. 

Wasn't Tatsujin quite popular, especially in Japan?...Any thoughts on why the PCE version is so limited?

It was a late HuCard release. '94 I think, which seems crazy since Toaplan were releasing most of their shooties on CD-ROM by then.

[Otaking]

It was a late HuCard release. '94 I think, which seems crazy since Toaplan were releasing most of their shooties on CD-ROM by then.

Tatsujin was released in 1992.
 

[Mathius]

It was a late HuCard release. '94 I think, which seems crazy since Toaplan were releasing most of their shooties on CD-ROM by then.

Tatsujin was released in 1992.
 

Ah yes. You're right! That's still a fairly late release though.

[reson8er]

LOVE it, fantastic game, but yea hards as all hard can be.

I mean hell, its the game equivalent of getting kicked in the nuts, who doesn't like that?

[pixeljunkie]

I love the game - setting the difficulty to easy makes it MUCH closer to the original game's difficulty. Still mega brutal though.

[Mathius]

I feel bad whenever I think about lowering the unfair difficulty down to something more sane. I need to get over thinking developers always perfectly balance their games. At the level Toaplan set Tatsujin PCE's difficulty I would have a better chance of making it through Marine Corps boot camp in 24 hours than ever legitimately beating it within any time frame.

[o.pwuaioc]

I think my joke wasn't funny enough, but I'm still soliciting opinions of people who played both. Anyone else?

[A Black Falcon]

I like the Brothers Duomazov review of the TG16 version.  I'm nowhere near that good of course, and can't get anywhere in the TG16 version in my limited playing of it (in emulation), but that review is accurate: The TG16/PCE Tatsujin is HARD.  I have the game for Genesis, and the Genesis game is hard.  I haven't finished one loop of it yet, despite some trying, but I have at least gotten a few levels in to the game.  It's pretty great, once you get into it.  But that TG16 version, it's just insane!  The difficulty level is absolutely stratospheric, it's no comparison to the Genesis.  They made the game exponentially more difficult, and it's just so insanely hard on TG16 that I can't get anywhere in it.  So many bullets, that move so fast!  It's just too much.  The game's brutally hard enough on Genesis, why did they have to make it so many times harder?  But for really good shmup players who are also masochists, it's pretty much the perfect game, isn't it.  But for me... too many fast bullets, and if even one of them hits you you die and go back to the last checkpoint.  It's too much to handle.  Why did they make this version so crazily hard?  Just to differentiate it from the Genesis version, which of course released something like three years earlier?

As for graphics and sound, the two versions each have their different styles.  I'm not sure which is better.  It is disappointing that on TG16 enemies don't show damage, though -- on Genesis, some enemy types have a damage state after you hurt them some (flames break out on the larger ships, and such), but on TG16 they just look the same until destroyed.  That's one plus for the Genesis.  It's also worth noting that as with all vertical Toaplan games, the game is fullscreen on the TG16, but runs with a large black status bar on the right side on Genesis in order to preserve the aspect ratio.  I'm not sure which of those styles is better, but all of Toaplan's games keep that design split in place.  Also the Genesis version has a darker color pallete than the TG16 game, which looks much brighter.  As for the music, they're different remixes of the same stuff.  They're both really good.

Overall I like Truxton/Tatsujin a lot.  It's probably my favorite 1989 Genesis game, actually.  But the Turbo version... argh, I want to like it, but it's too hard!  It's just as great a game objectively, but I don't know how many people can actually handle the challenge.  I know it has some hidden difficulty options, but I don't think there's any way to make it as "easy" (read: really hard) as the Genesis version is.


The second game in this series, Truxton 2/Tatsujin Oh, is probably even better than the first game.  It's really too bad that its only home port is on the FM Towns...

[bonoedgey]

Excellently put Black Falcon. Very nice write up 

[Opethian]

if you cant handle the PCE Tatsujin forget it, part2 its even harder.

[A Black Falcon]

if you cant handle the PCE Tatsujin forget it, part2 its even harder.

Well, the second game is harder than the Genesis version of the first game, but I don't think it's harder than the TG16 version.  One of the worst things about TG16 Tatsujin is how close the enemies are to you when they're shooting their waves of fast bullets! But in a tate arcade game like Truxton 2, you've got more space to dodge.  Sure, it's a ridiculously hard game, and despite playing the game in mame quite a bit (the music in level 1 is amazing!) I don't think I ever got past early in level two in the game.  But I don't think I've gotten even that far in Tatsujin TG16... and even if I did, the levels in the second game are even longer than the levels in the first game, I think.  Still though, even though it's really hard, I like what I've seen of the game a lot anyway.  The TG16 version of the first game, though, is just so frustrating!  The bullets feel faster than the Genesis version, and there are more of them too...

I have not played the FM Towns version, but I've heard that it's extremely hard thanks to the short viewing distance that you have on a 4:3 home version of a tate shmup.

[shubibiman]

I didn't know their was a cheat code that allowed to play in easy mode. So I tried it and...

https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=6688.msg365691#msg365691

[Opethian]

damn shubi you are a beast! is there a PCE game you cant beat that doenst have a language barrier?

[CrackTiger]

damn shubi you are a beast! is there a PCE game you cant beat that doenst have a language barrier?

Night Creatures.

[Tatsujin]

I was never enthralled with this or any other Toaplan shmup, to be honest, though there is something about V-V's graphics that appeals to me.  Other than that, they all seem to share the same slow-paced, relatively uninspired gameplay & sub-par music...and I think I might be the only one that feels this way. :/

rolf. one of the dumbest things I've read in a while. toaplan are absolute 80s arcade shewty gods. uninspired? slow-paced? compared to what? tatsujin f.e. plays super fast enough. bitd, toaplan placed one milestone after the other in that genre.
sub-par musics? rolfmaolol. they put out some of the best, most motivating and ear pleasuring BGMs there just are. kykyoku tiger? tatsujin? same!x3 etc. best stuff just possible.

and now I go sleep. pon nuit

[Tatsujin]

Anyone else want to weigh in on Genesis/Mega Drive vs. PC Engine here? I have the Genesis game, never thought about looking into the PC Engine one. Worth it?

!?

yes

Well, you know, since Altered Beast is so much better on the Genesis, I figured I'd check to see if Truxton is as well.

well, since there are so many pce games that are vastly better than thier counterparts on the genesis, yeah why not ask first in here? ;)

[shubibiman]

damn shubi you are a beast! is there a PCE game you cant beat that doenst have a language barrier?

As Black Tiger mentionned, there are too many games in the US library that are flawed gameplay-wise that I'll never be able, or willing, to clear or even play. Night Creatures is one of them. Moreover, I'm not really into western games, I'm a true japanese style game fan.

[geise]

damn shubi you are a beast! is there a PCE game you cant beat that doenst have a language barrier?

As Black Tiger mentionned, there are too many games in the US library that are flawed gameplay-wise that I'll never be able, or willing, to clear or even play. Night Creatures is one of them. Moreover, I'm not really into western games, I'm a true japanese style game fan.

Word.  I feel the same.  I do love me some Beyond Shadowgate though.

[VenomMacbeth]

I was never enthralled with this or any other Toaplan shmup, to be honest, though there is something about V-V's graphics that appeals to me.  Other than that, they all seem to share the same slow-paced, relatively uninspired gameplay & sub-par music...and I think I might be the only one that feels this way. :/

rolf. one of the dumbest things I've read in a while. toaplan are absolute 80s arcade shewty gods. uninspired? slow-paced? compared to what? tatsujin f.e. plays super fast enough. bitd, toaplan placed one milestone after the other in that genre.
sub-par musics? rolfmaolol. they put out some of the best, most motivating and ear pleasuring BGMs there just are. kykyoku tiger? tatsujin? same!x3 etc. best stuff just possible.

and now I go sleep. pon nuit

I wouldn't call dodging a gazillion bullets "fast paced" but I understand the appeal.  It's just not my thing, is all.  Especially in the music department...hell, even Raiden has better music than most Toaplan games IMO, and this is coming from a guy who plays some games just for the music.  Then again, I didn't grow up in the arcade heydays, so I guess I don't know any better, but I'd rather play any Tecnosoft, Konami, Hudson, Irem, or even Data East shooters than anything by Toaplan.

[Tatsujin]

that's a sad thing to hear, but so it shall be ^^

[playing-b3yond]

Whats the cheat code again?

[esteban]

Whats the cheat code again?

https://www.tg-16.com/arcade-mode-high-resolution-shmups.htm#Tatsujin

I like the Brothers Duomazov review of the TG16 version.  I'm nowhere near that good of course, and can't get anywhere in the TG16 version in my limited playing of it (in emulation), but that review is accurate: The TG16/PCE Tatsujin is HARD.  I have the game for Genesis, and the Genesis game is hard.  I haven't finished one loop of it yet, despite some trying, but I have at least gotten a few levels in to the game.  It's pretty great, once you get into it.  But that TG16 version, it's just insane!  The difficulty level is absolutely stratospheric, it's no comparison to the Genesis.  They made the game exponentially more difficult, and it's just so insanely hard on TG16 that I can't get anywhere in it.  So many bullets, that move so fast!  It's just too much.  The game's brutally hard enough on Genesis, why did they have to make it so many times harder?  But for really good shmup players who are also masochists, it's pretty much the perfect game, isn't it.  But for me... too many fast bullets, and if even one of them hits you you die and go back to the last checkpoint.  It's too much to handle.  Why did they make this version so crazily hard?  Just to differentiate it from the Genesis version, which of course released something like three years earlier?

As for graphics and sound, the two versions each have their different styles.  I'm not sure which is better.  It is disappointing that on TG16 enemies don't show damage, though -- on Genesis, some enemy types have a damage state after you hurt them some (flames break out on the larger ships, and such), but on TG16 they just look the same until destroyed.  That's one plus for the Genesis.  It's also worth noting that as with all vertical Toaplan games, the game is fullscreen on the TG16, but runs with a large black status bar on the right side on Genesis in order to preserve the aspect ratio.  I'm not sure which of those styles is better, but all of Toaplan's games keep that design split in place.  Also the Genesis version has a darker color pallete than the TG16 game, which looks much brighter.  As for the music, they're different remixes of the same stuff.  They're both really good.

Overall I like Truxton/Tatsujin a lot.  It's probably my favorite 1989 Genesis game, actually.  But the Turbo version... argh, I want to like it, but it's too hard!  It's just as great a game objectively, but I don't know how many people can actually handle the challenge.  I know it has some hidden difficulty options, but I don't think there's any way to make it as "easy" (read: really hard) as the Genesis version is.


The second game in this series, Truxton 2/Tatsujin Oh, is probably even better than the first game.  It's really too bad that its only home port is on the FM Towns...

I think those of us who went from Truxton (Genesis) -> PCE benefitted from an easier learning curve than folks jumping straight into PCE Tatsujin with basically no prior experience.

I know I would have gone crazy if I had started with PCE Tats prior to beating Truxton on Genesis.

Put simply, TATSUJIN IS NOT FOR CASUAL PLAY. YOU GOTTA DEDICATE YOURSELF TO IT. Once you realize this, and improve incrementally, you begin to appreciate it a lot more and feel less and less frustrated.

At least, I improve incrementally. I still have a LOT of work to do to get through PCE Tatsujin.