Trax

Trax

Game Boy - USA - 1st edition.

Developer HAL Laboratory Publisher HAL Laboratory, Electro Brain Published 1991-01-08 Platforms Game Boy Genres Action, Scrolling shooter, Shooter Themes War Multiplayer Simultaneous versus Distribution Commercial

Trax is a scrolling tank shooter developed and published by HAL Laboratory for the Game Boy on 1991-01-08 in Japan, and published by Electro Brain in the USA and UK later that year. It has a single-player story mode and a multiplayer competitive mode.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	Yes.
Finished	2017-11-26.

I never played this game when it was popular. Instead, I saw it on a list of the best Game Boy games and played it in an emulator. I found the game to be quite enjoyable, and feel it had real potential, but it ends far too soon. I've never played it in multi-player mode, so perhaps I'm missing out in that regard.

Review

4	5	5	5	3

Best Version: Game Boy

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• Scrolling shooters are usually so frustratingly difficult, I don't bother with them, but this one was enjoyable the whole way through.
• The game has decent graphics and sound for a Game Boy game. Nothing amazing, but above average for the low-quality hardware. Hirohiko Takayama's music is quite fitting for the genre.
• The animation, especially for the bosses, is cute and fun.
• Movement is nicely responsive.
• The weapon power-ups vary in style, and none of them are bad.

Bad

• Games that require turret rotation, but lack a rotating joystick, are always difficult to maneuver, but this one is made even worse because you can only turn your turret clockwise. I know this is a limitation of the Game Boy's two-button controls, and they try to justify it in the manual, but it makes the game less-playable. This would probably be better made on the GBA.
• The game is far too easy. I beat it the very first time I played it.
• It would have been nice to allow the weapons to be upgraded to multiple levels.

Ugly

• The game is far too short. There are only 4 levels, so you can beat it an about 15 minutes. Had I paid money for this I would have felt ripped off.

Media

Box Art

• 

  The original Japanese box has the game's ball-shaped tank bounding through a battlefield. The art accurately captures the game, and the cartoon logo and lettering are great.

• 

  The art used in Western countries is essentially the same, only less interesting, and with cheesy comic sound effect bubbles that don't exist in the game.

• 

  Vector logo I created.

Documentation

• 

  Manual - USA.

• 

  Advertisement - USA.

Videos

Longplay.

Play Online

Game Boy (Japan), Game Boy (USA)

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	There don't appear to be any people.
Bechdel test?	Fail	There don't appear to be any people.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	There don't appear to be any people.
Queer character?	Fail	There don't appear to be any people.

Credits

The game doesn't contain credits.

Roles	Staff
Music (Uncredited)	Hirohiko Takayama

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	Trax
Japanese	突撃！ポンコツタンク	Totsugeki! Poncotsu Tank	Charge! Junk Tank

Links