Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy (Atari Jaguar)
One of the few launch titles for the Jaguar… Where did it go wrong?
Trevor McFur was one of the only games available for the Jaguar at launch (along with Cybermorph) and to a lot of people, 64-bit instantly seemed a lot less impressive. Trevor McFur was originally developed for the Atari Panther, the proposed 32-bit predecessor to the Jaguar which never made it past prototype stage. It has been rumored that Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy was a prototype itself; a test.
This is mainly due to the fact that Trevor McFur was developed by Flare2, a branch/subcompany of Flare Technologies, the company that developed the Atari Jaguar system. Upon release, the game was heavily criticised for being rushed.
The Atari Jaguar platform didn’t help Trevor McFur win any popularity contests either. The Jaguar was a system with such bold claims and in your face advertising that when a mediocre 2D shooter was released, it was instantly panned.
As far as Atari Jaguar games are concerned, Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy is fun, easily accessible and easy to come back and revisit. It might not look as advanced as Cybermorph with its polygons, but overall I’d definitely say its aged better; crisp bright graphics and real quirkiness that made so many other Jaguar games memorable (Attack of Mutant Penguins, Dino Dudes). It’s quirkiness is it’s most redeeming feature but also makes the game feel cheap and tacky.
This game doesn’t take itself seriously, you fight robots in space, fly through rings with powerups and the final boss looks like a cross between a circus prop and a John Romero joke from DOOM (even though Trevor McFur and DOOM were both developed in 1993). Even some of the weapons are silly with giant magnets and bouncing balls, but Trevor McFur does give you plenty of variety in weapons and better yet, make the Jaguar keypad controller useful by mapping particular weapons to numbers.
I can’t think of any other game that lets you zap robot cupids with crossbows but don’t expect this game to blow you away. No two-player mode will be a deal-breaker for some but if you’re a shooter fan who somehow ended up with a Jaguar, I’m sure you’ve already got a copy of Raiden and if not, then I’d recommend picking that up first.