Trouble Shooter -Sega Genesis- 7

May 16, 2025

     “Trouble Shooter” released for the Sega Genesis in late 1991, and also came out in Japan as “Battle Mania” for the MegaDrive a few months thereafter. I was curious to play this, because it is the predecessor to one of my favorite shmups of all time, “Battlemania Daijinjo”. I beat Trouble Shooter on normal mode yesterday and hard mode this morning. I thought this was a fun, anime-inspired shooter that laid the foundation for the series, even if I was a tad underwhelmed after playing its far superior sequel.

     Trouble shooter is side-scrolling shmup where you control two females that both fire their canons at the same time. The blonde always shoots forward, and you can switch the brunette between shooting forward and backward. This system works well with the enemies coming from either side of the screen. You also choose one of four different special weapons that recharge quickly after each use, the Blizzard being my favorite. Part of the strategy in Trouble Shooter is paying close attention to where the blonde is on screen at all times, because she is the only one with the hit-box that takes damage.

     Trouble Shooter has an upbeat vibe with anime art style, which was refreshing back in the early 1990’s. The cutscenes in between levels are nothing elaborate, but the in-game graphics and character sprites look good. Unfortunately, the sound design in this game is a bit weak. The sound effects are flat, and the music is just okay. The tunes get a little better in stages four and five, but they are nothing to call home about.

     Trouble shooter is also fairly short and easy. As long as your girls are constantly firing and you remember to use your special weapon every so often, there won’t be much trouble knocking this one out. It’s not hard to remember the enemy placements and the bosses’ patterns are ever so simple. Once you got the six levels down pat, a single run of the game only takes a cool half hour. And there is not much difference between the three difficulty options, so I did not have any problems finishing the game on both normal and hard after just a couple days of practice.

     While brief, I did enjoy my time with Trouble Shooter. It can be seen as a more welcoming entry point to a genre that is known for its merciless difficulty. And the forward and back shooting mechanics are really helpful in the many pinches the game puts you in. This is a solid choice of shmup for fans of anime and girl power, despite paling in comparison to its sequel and other top tier shooters of its time. I rate Trouble Shooter a 7 out of ten.