GOTD 5/25/2016: Trog (NES)
Trog on the NES is a Pac-Man-like maze chase in which the player controls a dinosaur trying to collect the eggs of its respective color. You must collect all of the eggs in each screen in order to make the exit appear, allowing you to move on to the next stage. This is, of course, easier said than done, as your cute dino buddy will be relentlessly pursued by the titular Trogs, cyclopic cavemen who want nothing more than to beat you over the head until unconscious, then eat the flesh off of your body as you lay dying. No, really, it's totally animated on screen, not implied. Can you successfully complete all 50 stages without getting a first-person perspective of a Trog's colon?
Fortunately, your little dino is far from helpless, and by default can punch away at Trogs and the wheels they like to roll at you. There are also power-ups, though, like leaves to speed you up, mushrooms to slow you down, ice cubes to freeze enemies, peppers to let you spit fire, a horseshoe to make you briefly invincible, and best, a pineapple. The pineapple turns you into a massive T-rex, giving you the power to eat at an all-Trog buffet for a few seconds for massive points.
The Trogs start out aimlessly wandering at first, but soon start adapting Wile E. Coyote style, inventing traps to stop your baby saving ways. They invent the wheel to try and cush you, clubs with which to batter you, fire to scorch you, and special jumping ability even to mix it up... there are also tar pits that can kill you, and walking off screen will cost you a life as well.
So, all that makes for a pretty complete experience, but the real fun in Trog comes from the multi-player experience. Using an excellent balance of cooperation and competition, each player has his or her own colored eggs to collect. The level ends when one player collects all of theirs and exits, giving a hefty score bonus to said player. This adds a lot of fun and urgency to what would otherwise be a good, but more derivative experience... and I'm told the arcade game supported four players this way!
Trog's production values are pretty middle of the road, but as a maze game on the NES, it stands out by having an end goal and a great two player game. I like it quite a bit, and would love to try the arcade game in a party setting should I ever stumble across a board.
Played it?
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