Famicom style Rockman is back.
A direct comparison between two games is inevitable when the game clearly wears its inspiration. This is the case with Trophy, a humble Mega Man clone, but for the most part it’s also a competent one. Luckily, that deviation doesn’t detract from the quality of the Trophy too much. However, it suffers from cheap and frustrating enemy placement and fairly rudimentary level design.
The good Doctor Sword, his robot friend Beeper, and Trophy (the famous combat robot) combine to perform and shoot a total of 8 initial stages and a final level that is unlocked after beating them. increase. You can choose which stages to play and complete in any order, although stages such as Train and Forest are easier than others. A couple are downright brutal, even in enemy placement and checkpoints where you spawn after you die. Yes, and the aforementioned train level is particularly boring. Each stage ends with a massive boss battle. These range from easy to handle to challenging and insane.
What works in its favor is that the controls feel very solid. Jumping and shooting down all sorts of robot opposition is mostly satisfying throughout. I mean landing a jump. Unfortunately there is no button remapping (or any real option at all) so you end up using A to jump and B to shoot.
The music is actually quite soothing and adds to the 8-bit NES-style nostalgia play. The visuals are clear and the sound effects are unbelievable for Capcom and Konami titles at the time. In terms of performance, having multiple enemies and projectiles on screen at the same time definitely slows things down, but it’s definitely acceptable and I can safely say that I’ve gotten used to it.
Secrets hidden in the stages allow you to increase your health meter and power up your blaster to increase the size and strength of your bullets. If you get stuck, I recommend going to another stage and getting some upgrades to make it easier to overcome the previous challenges.
Trophy is a capable and fun action platformer that looks and feels like Mega Man. The game is well worth recommending to fans of the old 8-bit classics, if you can overlook some of the poor level design and cheap deaths. After all, somewhere between participation and the podium is awarding a trophy.
