Nintendo hard with the frustrations

I grew up with the old 8-bit Nintendo games. One of the biggest games for me was Mega Man back in the day. Now, these games and many like it were known for being difficult experiences that took both precise actions as well as some memorization of levels. These kinds of games are sparse nowadays, but occasionally, one comes out that really tries to capture that “Nintendo-hard” experience. Enter Trophy.

In the future, humans on Earth have banned robot technology due to an AI outrage. Two scientists are exiled to the planet Gearus 9. They discover the inhabitants of Gearus 9 are completely robotic and see that AI can learn and be peaceful. While on Earth, the other scientist that remained on Gearus 9 experimented on and took over the robots trying to obtain galactic dominance. When returning to Gearus 9, Dr. Sword sees this and decides to fuse together with a robot to become Trophy to stop the evil Dr. Q.

MSRP: $9.99
Price I’d pay: $7
Platforms: Xbox, NES

In almost every sense of the word, Trophy is a Mega Man game with a few changes thrown in. Players choose which stage to take on each with its own unique hazards, enemies, and boss. Trophy doesn’t get a new weapon powerup after each stage but can obtain a power upgrade hidden in the stages. This will make his attacks do more damage as well as a little more health. Players can also pick up randomly dropped extra lives as well as health restores.

The game relies on instant death pitfalls and enemy placement for its difficulty. The bosses also take a ton of hits before going down. I would go as far to say far too many hits at times. While other games in this genre were all about memorizing a pattern the bosses had, Trophy’s bosses have maybe only one pattern at the most. The jumping and platforming feel a bit too stiff for some of the tight jumps that are required here and one of the biggest issues I had with the game is the fact that multiple levels have the background color the same as the 4:3 borders making the stages blend in with the borders, so sometimes I found myself jumping into oblivion and hoping there was something on the other side of the screen.

The game uses a password system for progress. When I first went to the password screen, three random achievements instantly unlocked, some of which were for beating bosses I hadn’t beaten. I feel like I may have glitched the game or something.

While I’m down on this game a lot, I still think it was a decent outing. It’s a difficult game both by design and by the issues I had with it. Still, it tries to capture that old 8-bit feel and does a decent job with it. Even up to the slowdown when multiple things are happening on screen. (Is that a feature or performance issue? I couldn’t tell you) Regardless, I never disliked my time with Trophy, but I can most certainly say it could have been better with some other features and better controls thrown in.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.