The older I get, the more I come to appreciate the simplicity of 8-bit style games. It’s not the simple controls that rely on just a few of the buttons offered on the modern-day controllers, the pixelated graphics, or even the catchy polyphonic tones that make up the sound effects that do it for me. No, it’s the feeling of nostalgia that rests any stress I may be feeling and sends me back to the good old days of sitting in my parents’ living room before anyone else was awake in front of my NES. This is the feeling that Trophy manages to pull off, almost flawlessly.

At a glance, Trophy looks eerily similar to one of the early Mega Man titles, to the point that it could easily be written off as a rip-off of the blue bomber. Our titular hero looks, moves, jumps, and shoots almost exactly like the most Mega of Men himself, and you get the same option of starting off at any of the eight starting areas in any order you wish. Even the catchy music feels like it was an early version of the tunes you’d hum along to as you fought your way through Dr. Wily’s minions. From start to finish, if I would squint and look through my rosy-colored nostalgia cloud, it almost felt like I was playing an unreleased iteration in the series. That is, one with a weird screen ratio that doesn’t quite look 4:3, but isn’t full screen either.

Much like my personal favorite from the series, Mega Man 2, there are some issues with the difficulty scaling between levels. I managed to complete a couple of the stages on my first attempt, only taking damage from the final boss, where others found me struggling to make it to even the first screen transition before running out of the rather forgiving number of four lives. This is largely due to some questionable level designs in which the background had a way of blurring into the base I was attempting to reach, or how each time you hit a level transition, it forces all of the normal enemies I had already vanquished to respawn, at some points mid-jump. Yes, you read that right, I killed this little robotic fellow, jumped into a transition missing my mark, and then landing on the enemy I had just killed.

The game’s biggest crime is the illusion of upgrades it offers. Tucked within the levels you’ll find two kinds of these buffs, one that upgrades your health and works as advertised, and another that does little other than change Trophy from silver to gold – it actually seems to reduce the damage output, effectively doing nothing. The boss battles follow the typical process of memorizing enemy patterns and responding accordingly. These battles are a little on the long side, thanks to the biggest of baddies being rather spongey, so an actual damage upgrade would’ve been welcome.

Unlike most of the retro games or collections released on modern hardware, Trophy omits the quality of life upgrades, which I can assume would be due to the fact this is a game that is offered as a functional NES cart as well. You can’t save, rewind, or do any of those nifty little tricks that have been added as a standard since the days of blowing into your games to get them to function correctly. If you elect to keep a notepad around when gaming, there is the option to use passwords just like in the year 1989; otherwise, each time you boot the game it’ll be a fresh start.

If you are a fan of 8-bit games, especially early Mega Man, I would highly recommend Trophy, as it’s an enjoyable trip down nostalgia lane that can even be purchased in physical form. While I did experience some minor hiccups with the difficulty and lack of modern conveniences, I look forward to waking up early next Saturday, getting a big bowl of cereal, and hoping my wife and son sleep in a little bit as to not see me in my Spider-Man underoos wishing I was seven again.

8 out of 10

Pros

• Faithful NES Style Retro Game
• Almost Feels Like Mega Man
• Can Be Played on an NES

Cons

• Occasionally Weird Transitions
• Unbalanced Difficulty Between Levels
• Lackluster Upgrades

Trophy was developed by Gradual Games and published by 8-Bit Legit. The game is available for NES and X1. The game was provided to us for review on X1 and played on XSX. If you’d like to see more of Trophy, check out the publisher’s site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

Check out OpenCritic for a better idea of how our review stacks against others.