Trog ended up being a bit of a hidden gem! It’s another entry in the maze chase/dot eat genre, originally an arcade game with claymation visuals. The NES version doesn’t retain those visuals, of course, but the whole game has this great, expressive, cartoonish style with a lot of flair in the animations. The goal is to collect a bunch of eggs before escaping to the exit, all while being chased by the caveman-like, cyclopean Trogs. Your character comes equipped with a surprisingly effective punch attack that renders the early stages trivial, but as time goes on, the Trogs get quicker and start throwing curveballs at you. They light fires, roll fast-moving stone wheels, and use these bizarre spring shoes that let them jump erratically all over the place. The amusing thing about the traps is that the Trogs will frequently fall victim to them as well. They’ll walk into fires, get squashed by the wheels, and you can easily bait them to walk right off the edge of the stage. Despite this, they start moving so quickly that they’ll surround you in a second if you’re not paying attention.
The game gives you just enough freedom in the movement and attacking that you don’t feel powerless, while also throwing enough at you to make the experience challenging. Once I learned how the warps work, it wasn’t too difficult to get to the final stage, 50. I had a good enough time with this that I’ll probably come back for a 1-credit clear someday.

This game is my comfort food. It’s the perfect maelstrom of elements that make it a pleasure to blast through on a bad day. It’s incredibly short, just long enough to not be tiring. It’s also quite challenging on a first playthrough, making subsequent runs just difficult enough to be satisfying. The controls are meaty and deliberate (admittedly they’re on the threshold of being clunky, especially the jump, but the hover mechanic is fun enough to make up for that). Top it off with catchy music and some of the best visuals the NES has to offer and you have a satisfying snack of a game. My only real complaint is a couple of bosses feel more like battles of attrition than tests of skill (the Scyther-like creature and the doppelgänger boss spring to mind). In my opinon, this is the pinnacle of late-era NES platformers, and is a must-play for fans of the subgenre. It’s been a personal favorite for years. Give it a shot!