Image Via Tatsujin

It has been a very long time since the Truxton game was last seen. Truxton Extreme is the new title in the franchise after more than 30 years, coming now with a big return. Tatsujin, who is the team behind this game (one of them is Masahiro Yuge from Toaplan), announced this one for PS5 in 2023. But later, not many updates came. Many fans thought it was maybe canceled. Now, finally, at Future Games Show, they revealed the demo and said the game will arrive on both PS5 and PC in 2025.

Truxton Extreme Demo Out During Steam Fest

Starting from June 9, you can now try out the demo of Truxton Extreme during Steam Next Fest. It will stay available until June 16 or 17, depending on where you live. This demo gives a good idea of how the full game might feel. Inside the demo, there are:

• Tutorial for showing game controls

• Story Mode with a bit of manga scenes and a new hero Ash

• Arcade Mode which is fast and more intense

• Heart Starter Mode (a little easier with revival after death)

Some people said it feels very old-school and nostalgic, while others praised the bullet speed in Arcade, saying it was just like before but sharper looking.

Gameplay Stuff and Modes Explained

Truxton Extreme still keeps the old school shooter roots, but also does some new stuff.

• Gameplay is vertical shooting, full of bullets and chaos

• Weapons like Truxton Beam, Thunder Laser, Power Shot and Homing Shot are back

• Bombs still exist too. very useful when surrounded

The 3 game modes include:

• Story Mode: It has 18 chapters with manga cutscenes by Junya Inoue

• Arcade Mode: Focuses on reflexes and score, no real story

• Heart Starter Mode: It’s ean asy way for those who are not good at this type of game

Look and Music Both Upgraded

Visually, the game has new 3D models, but don’t lose the classic feelings. Backgrounds, ships, bosses—everything has much more detailed textures than before. Music is composed by Masahiro Yuge, the same guy from original, and now he mixes old themes with new style which is also kind of catchy and exciting.

When is It Coming and Where

Right now, no final date for full game release, but it said it will be in 2025 for PC and PS5. Tatsujin even held a long livestream on June 8 to play the demo and talk about it.

You can wishlist the game on Steam and also join discussions in community forums.

ALSO READ: Wuthering Waves 2.5 Beta Recruitment Begins

So, Truxton Extreme might have been gone, but now it’s back and looks pretty solid in the demo. While some things can be better polished, the core gameplay feels very alive. If you liked the old shoot ’em ups or want to try something challenging, don’t miss this demo during Steam Fest. The full version is not far too much now.

Spribe is stepping into the spotlight as the proud sponsor of the Best Ortak Partner category at this year’s Ortak x B.F.T.H. Arena Awards! With a 10,000 FTN prize pool on the line, this award will spotlight the partner who’s gone above and beyond,driving results, building strong alliances, and making waves in the Ortak ecosystem.

The Harmony Meetup 7 and Ortak x B.F.T.H. Arena Awards 2025, which will take place in Yerevan, Armenia on 8-11 July, gathers industry leaders to celebrate innovation in iGaming. This prestigious event offers a unique opportunity for sponsors to gain exclusive visibility, align with the forefront of digital innovation, and connect with key players shaping the future of the industry. Join us and showcase your brand on a global stage.

A defining moment of the event will be the unveiling of FTN’s 7 dimensions, an ambitious framework that positions Fasttoken as a leader in designing the future of digital innovation. Spanning decentralised solutions, immersive experiences and financial empowerment, these dimensions encapsulate the expansive potential of the FTN ecosystem. Ortak x B.F.T.H. Arena Awards 2025 presents an unparalleled opportunity to align your brand with this transformative journey.

Shoot fireballs for your health!

It’s been said that sports participation in Japanese schools has been on a steady decline in recent years. It would seem that tossing the old ball around and climbing ropes has taken a backseat to tossing grenades and climbing rusty ladders out of the stygian depths of a demon-infested video game underworld.

There’s also the tendency for sports to ostracize those with less physical strength and coordination, making it a traumatic and depressing ordeal for some. So, in an effort to make sports both more inclusive and glitzier, Shizuoka Nishi High School in Shizuoka City has become the latest to adopt the AR sport of Hado into their physical education curriculum this June.

▼ Welcome to Hado

Hado is brought to us by Meleap Inc., whose CEO Hiroshi Fukuda always wanted to shoot fireballs from his arms as seen in video games and TV. In the sport, players wear an AR visor and wrist terminal and get into teams of three before taking the court. When the battle begins, one arm is used to shoot fireballs and can be charged by holding it up. The other arm can be raised to also raise a shield and is charged by keeping it down.

Through their visors, each player can see a ring divided into four segments in front of all the other players. Points are awarded for each segment hit and the team with the most points after 80 seconds wins.

Also, before playing, everyone can use their arm terminal to set their stats. You are allowed to allot up to 10 points across four skill: Bullet Speed, Bullet Size, Charging Speed, and Number of Shields that can be deployed at one time. This allows players to augment their own natural ability during games either by balancing them or enhancing existing strong points.

Playing in this way lets students enjoy a more level playing field so kids of all shapes and sizes can compete together while still getting a lot of exercise and eye-hand coordination practice.

Hado is currently played in 100 schools in Japan and 300 around the world. Adults also play the game and the Hado World Cup was held in Shanghai, China on 24 May. The entire event was streamed online and can still be viewed on YouTube, so I won’t spoil it by saying which of the 18 participating countries won if you want to watch it.

Of course, it’s also possible to go full AR game with Hado and still get some exercise in. Team-based games like Hado Monster Battle let you and your friends work together to take out a giant beast with your fireball-throwing skills.

I have to say, it makes me a little jealous that kids today can do this in gym class when all we had when I was their age was a parachute… Aw, who am I kidding? The parachute was awesome, but this is really cool too.

Source: PR Times, Hado
Featured image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Tines, Hado
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

LONDON, UK – Brand partnership agency Miai+ has unleashed a dynamic brand activation to celebrate the upcoming launch of Doom: The Dark Ages, Bethesda’s latest addition to its iconic action franchise. In collaboration with Kramer Guitars, the revered name in metal and rock since the 1980s and gaming titan Xbox, the campaign redefines the concept of immersive fan engagement.

Team launches training program in effort to ease burdens of competitive stress, academic pressure

By Vanessa Washington

“Psychological issues include depression, anxiety, apathy, uncooperative attitude, tension, sleep disturbances, mental distress, aggressive affect and behaviors, distress in social life, and emotional disturbances,” the 2021 study declared.

The activity also “was associated with the presence of depression, social phobia, obsession–compulsion, interpersonal sensitivity, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, psychoticism attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and gaming addiction.”

As that last item suggests, the activity being looked at by the Industrial Psychiatry Journal study is excessive gaming.

You see – and as UND’s Frank Swiontek and Ryan Kraus fully understand – there’s a lot more to video gaming than just relaxing with buddies and having fun.

Swiontek is the innovation officer at UND, and Kraus is the head coach of UND’s esports team. Make no mistake, esports athletes can experience significant stress; and during the team’s post-season contests last fall, Kraus and Swiontek say, that stress was starting to take its toll.

“At the time, playoffs were occurring, finals were kicking up, and we were starting to see the wear and tear that some of this competitive stress was having on these players,” Swiontek said. He and Kraus both noticed this, and in response, the two began researching what practices they could implement to help their athletes before the start of the spring season.

The NCAA’s mental-health toolbox

As they discovered, not much has been written about mental health guidelines for esports, one of the newest competitive activities for college athletes. But the NCAA itself, Kraus and Swiontek learned, has a new and useful mental health mandate for all NCAA athletes.

And that’s why this spring, UND’s esports team implemented mental health training, in an effort to ease the burdens of competitive stress and academic pressure. (Editor’s note: Posters such as the ones shown with this story, which hang in UND’s esports spaces, are a part of that effort.)

Here’s how the American Council on Education’s Higher Education Today reported the NCAA’s action last July:

“The NCAA, in consultation with its Mental Health Advisory Group, has released a new edition of Mental Health Best Practices, which provides guidance to support student-athletes’ mental well-being,” Higher Ed Today reported.

“NCAA member institutions are required to offer resources and services consistent with the best practices, which go into effect Aug. 1, 2024.”

All college athletes experience stress and anxiety, of course. But for esports athletes, the sport adds a few key stressors all its own: For one thing, the teams compete in both the fall and spring, which means players don’t have much of an “off season” in which to decompress.

For another, in esports competitions, players are subject to sudden death, meaning they can be “killed” and removed from the game in an instant. So, all esports athletes know that each game is an utterly unpredictable situation, one where they might be left standing almost alone.

As an esports player once put it, “We game to escape stress, only to be stressed out over the game.”

In such an environment, the stress can be heightened. This past semester was no different, except there was a new effort taken by UND

Stress 101: How to cope in healthy ways

The NCAA’s Mental Health Best Practices guide “emphasizes the importance of making high-quality mental health care available to student-athletes,” Higher Education Today noted in its story.

“It also recognizes that the dual roles of student and athlete can entail both unique mental health risk and protective factors. For example, injuries increase student-athletes’ risk of mental health symptoms, while relationships with teammates can fortify mental health.”

Armed with this knowledge, Kraus and Swiontek got in touch with Michael Herbert, a research data analyst in University Analytics and Planning, and Michael Soward, a doctoral intern in Clinical Psychology at UND’s Counseling Center.

From there, the esports leaders learned that they would first need to establish a few things. For example, they needed a plan for how they were going to present this new idea to their athletes, plus a description of just what that idea would involve.

They decided to begin with a quick hands-on course at the beginning of the semester to introduce the athletes to the free resources that are available to them. Next came the CCAPS, or Counseling Center Application of Psychological Symptoms. This is a 10-minute mental health screening in which the athletes answer questions.

The screening can identify individuals who may be struggling with increased anxiety, depression, substance use and even suicidality.

“We’re able to identify those individuals who could benefit from additional support,” said Soward. “We report back to the coaches and let them know, and it then falls onto the coaches to reach out to those students.”

CCAPS offers other ways to identify what an athlete is going through, and one of these was introduced to the team captains at the start. It teaches how to start the conversation, how to engage team members about mental health and where teammates might be struggling, and how to identify those struggles in their teammates.

While Kraus is the head coach, there has been a big increase in athletes participating in esports; there are now close to 90 at UND. That means the team captains, given their closeness to the players, tend to be the most appropriate leaders to initiate these challenging conversations.

The program’s goal “is to nurture and keep all these athletes safe, especially in the mental health aspect,” Soward said.

From trial run to standard feature

While the spring conversations were a trial run for the program, team leaders were surprised by how many players took it seriously; in fact, they say, it was an overwhelming success. They were also surprised by how many athletes started watching out for one another after taking part in the training, the CCAPS element in particular.

“I’ve seen them become a lot more accepting,” said Kraus. “I’ve actually heard some students talk about it, especially when we were doing those tests.”

When asked what changes he hoped would result from this project, Swiontek said change wasn’t the goal. Instead, better awareness among the coaches and athletes was.

And if the team’s initial response to the project is any indication, that awareness seems likely to grow, through the fall esports season and beyond.

About the author:

A rising sophomore at UND, Vanessa Washington is an intern for UND Communications and UND Today.