Trojan (video game)

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North American arcade cabinet.

Trojan is a hack-and-slash developed and published by Capcom in April 1986, initially for the arcade, then ported later that same year to the NES and MS-DOS. Unlike most of the early Capcom games, Trojan was not ported to a multitude of platforms, although a ZX Spectrum port was made but never officially released.

My bother borrowed this game from a friend in the late 1980s, and I remember thinking it looked cool, until I tried playing it and realized how hard it was. I even tried playing it again later as an adult, and was still never able to reach the third stage. This is one of those games that I always thought could have been a great game, but just had too many problems to be memorable.

Review

Good

  • The post-apocalyptic setting was a good choice.
  • The graphics are great for the time, and the scenery looks really good with broken buildings and old signs, and I like the title logo.
  • The sword and shield mechanic looks good, the ability to lose them is also cool.
  • Falling into the sewers in the NES port was really cool.
  • The NES port added a decent amount of additional content including new power-ups, hidden rooms, and a versus mode.

Bad

  • Typical of Capcom games of the era, the bosses move too quickly and erratically. The best strategy for most of them is to rush up and mash the attack button before they can get off an attack. It would be better if their design encouraged learning an attack pattern and finding an optimal defense.
  • The engrish is pretty bad.
  • The timbre of Ayako Mori's music is fitting, but it's a bit uninspired and forgettable. I didn't find any of the tracks memorable.
  • The flashing "Jump" markers and "Open" signs don't fit the theme and hurt immersion.However, the NES port replaces these with a shoe power-up and a key which are more fitting.
  • The dynamite thrown by enemies should also hurt other enemies.
  • Having to replay the entire game in hard mode just to see a slightly different ending message is obnoxious.
  • The NES manual is pretty bad.

Ugly

  • Too much of the game is the same. The same enemies are used throughout the game, the same bosses are reused several times, areas 3 and 5 are nearly identical, etc.
  • The game is far too hard, mostly due to poor player controls which do not feel comfortable or responsive to your input.
  • The MS-DOS and ZX Spectrum ports are especially bad. They eliminates scrolling, have even worse controls, and use vastly inferior graphics and sound.

Media

Box Art

Documentation

Documentation

Graphics

Videos

Titles

Language Native Transliteration Translation
English Trojan
Japanese 闘いの挽歌 Tatakai no Banka Requiem For Battle

Links

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