Intro

Trog was one of the many Pac-man Clones popular back in the days of the Nintendo Entertainment System. The goal is simply to run around, gathering the appropriate colored eggs, hit home and escape the scene. The game is apparently 50 levels long. It’s a simple game, with a simple premise.

Story

You play as either Spike or Bloop who are attempting to outsmart the dull-witted Trogs. They will smash you, roast you, smoosh you with a Pogo Stick, roll you over with a wheel to enjoy some Dino-mite. Dinos love Trog eggs and Trogs love Dino-meat.
 

Gameplay

The Trogs change a bit over time, gaining different abilities: lighting fires, rolling wheels, leaping onto your head. The Dinos get to be faster with the Red Flower, breathe Fire with the Tamale, munch Trogs with the help with the Pineapple, Freeze with the Ice Cube. Watch out for the mushrooms as they’ll slow you down and possibly make you good eating as will as the boundaries could well see you falling off the island into the ocean because they aren’t there. It’s a good change over Pac-Man, more accessible if more obscure.

Multiplayer

The game gets very enjoyable with a friend. The two of you race to collect all your Trog eggs and hit home first. You can grab the power-ups, speeding along, singe your friend lightly with the tamale, daze them with punches or stomps. This makes for very enjoyable late game value. This game is a good example of drop-in game play.
 

Controls

The uses the D-pad for continuous movement: you choose a direction, you keep going until you change it. The A and B buttons do the exact same thing, Punch (or breath fire after having eaten a Tamale).
 

Graphics

The Dinos are clear and easy to tell apart. There’s no confusing who you’re punching or barbequing. The Trogs vary a bit in ability, even if only a bit in appearance. The game is very lively in coloring and for its time was fairly dynamic. The level colors changed and you didn’t see much reuse of the same lay-out.

Sound Effects & Music

It’s good and clear. There’s no static or garbling of the music or the sound effects. They play together very well in fact. The level music does get a bit annoying after a while, even with the intermissions of the T-Rex music. It doesn’t grate at least and it’s something that someone could deal with for a while at least. Still, homemade soundtracks to overlap are recommended after X amount of play time.

Obscurity

Trog isn’t very well known, but some people have heard of it. It’s not enough to be very obscure, but it definitely is out there. It would take a good bit of prowling the various retail places to find this odd title.

Summary/Author’s Take

This is an obscure game, not well known, but in ways, kind of good. It was still enjoyable to play every now and again. If it’s possible to finagle a friend into playing it with, it’s a lot better. The game becomes mildly competitive, but remains all in all cooperative in terms of play. It’s a game that it’s fun to own, but not too much to brag about. Believe me, while enjoyable, 30 minutes to an hour is going to be enjoy game play. Still, for the efforts exerted to get the game, I still feel an obligation to get friends to play it. I enjoyed it as a child and continue to do so, if in smaller doses, today.