Tron 2.0 Killer App is the Passion Project Nobody Got and Quickly Forgot

When one considers the greatest films of the 1980s, Tron rarely breaks anyone’s Top 20 list. Despite its technical wizardry, its experimental animation techniques, its prescient look into the mind of computing--despite how the movie melded science and spiritualism into an almost third, hybrid faith--the film underperformed at theaters and later languished in a sort of niche, nebulous purgatory. Despite a devoted cult following, Tron was seen as more kitsch than brilliant, more esoteric than enlightening. And for the next twenty years, the franchise was left in a state of neglected stasis.

Fortunately, there's always a remnant.

As the new millennium dawned, the time had come to give Tron a well-deserved res-urrection. But less than a revival, it would be a revision, and rather than aiming for the movie theater, the property would go small—targeting computer displays and Game Boy screens. If Hollywood and its moviegoers had no use for Tron’s seminal gospel, then perhaps the gaming world would prove more receptive.

And so, "Tron 2.0" was born, a computer game that took the movie’s blue hues and glowing tones and converted in all into a first-person, 3-D experience. More than a reminder of the original’s brilliance (nay, existence), it furthered the lore and redefined Tron for a tech-savvier audience. And considering the property’s popular, if short-lived, stint in the arcade, the push to mouse and gamepad made even more sense. Tron needed pixels, polys, and bytes to be properly evangelized, not human actors prancing on sets and platforms…or so the thinking went.

Ultimately, the PC game performed like its cinematic counterpart; it impressed those who played it, but failed to attract the mainstream player. The common man. Next to games like Unreal and Quake, it felt a little too contrary, remained a little too fringe. And so, a year later…Buena Vista Interactive would try again.

Tron 2.0 Killer App splits the mission between the legendary and the contemporary--Tron and Mercury, respectively. (And ignore the typo--the game comes with "Discs of Tron," not "Disks of Tron."

…

Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance was the de facto portable at the time, a device beloved by millions of kids. If the “mature” PC user remained indifferent to Tron’s neon religion, why not chase the younger set instead? Maybe having a “Tron” in one’s pocket, like a pint-sized Bible, would help convince the innocent and the ignorant alike that this was indeed a “cool” mythology worth embracing.

Hence Tron 2.0: Killer App, a game that barely acknowledges its PC counterpart, sports a completely different story, and not surprisingly, exchanges the first-person proceedings for an isometric perspective. More significantly, it tells two separate but intertwining tales—one of the beloved Tron figure himself, and the other with Mercury, a light-cycle program who becomes his invaluable teammate. Together, they set forth to stop a mysterious agent’s nefarious takeover of the ENCOM network.

By GBA standards, the game is a multi-faceted tour-de-force of both gameplay and graphical style, sending players through gilded corridors and strobing landscapes as they battle hostile security forces, corrupted programs, and bots designed only for their demise. On foot, Tron attacks with his iconic disc, ricocheting it off walls and foes in combos of deep system cleansing. Mercury is similar, ping-ponging her rod between enemy forces as she nimbly keeps her distance. Both characters can also collect data chips to enhance or expand their abilities; for instance, one such MacGuffin provides an invaluable double-jump to assist with the game’s many platforming challenges.

But what makes Tron: 2.0 special is not the on-foot action, it’s the everything else. Terminals must be breached, systems must be hacked, lightcycles raced, and Recognizers hijacked. Tron isn’t just a isometric lightshow, it’s a 3-D shooter. A puzzler. A collection of classic arcade games.

Tron 2.0 is the ultimate GBA game nobody played.

Window's Tron 2.0 introduced newcomer Jet Bradley to the experience, a protagonist also digitized and sent to the world of cyberspace. For those who played, the game was a fine alternative to Quake's more mindless run-and-gunning with art style still attractive even today (note the Triforce on the disc!).

…

Tron 2.0 impresses from the outset with a fully voice-acted opening featuring the game’s shadowy nemesis. This alone is impressive; voice acting was a relatively new phenomenon at the time even for the home consoles. To have such a significant amount of voice acting in a cartridge-based "kiddie" handheld game was nothing less than astounding. But even more impressive was actor Bruce Boxleitner returning to play his iconic character, Tron—while the PC’s take on the property (ironically) ignored the pivotal hero, the Game Boy version brings him back for a glorious, uncompromised story. Mercury, playing Tron’s partner and counterpart, is also selectable from the start with her own unique mission and sequence of events. Coupled with her own voice actor and given stages a bit more ambitious than Tron's narrative path, she's hardly the throwaway character some might assume.

The game also respects the original film, giving Tron the “Bit” sidekick that once belonged to the film's Flynn, while Mercury, being "born" of a more advanced time, is addressed by the more loquacious “Byte.” And though the story lacks the religious underpinnings of its source material, the prophetic pretenses still remain—after awakening from years in stasis, Tron finds himself the stuff of legend and superstition, with half the network’s programs deeming him a useless relic of an ancient age and the other half deeming him a kind of returning savior. It’s an intriguing premise worthy, some might say, of a full-length movie.

But the real surprises come not in the disc-flinging, it’s in the flying, driving, and cycling—Tron and Mercury will often find themselves helming a tank or piloting a Recognizer, blasting enemy vehicles in a fully 3-D, FPS mode of play. No trivial feat for the fledgling GBA hardware. Lightcycle segments change the game again, this time offering players a fast, overhead test of cunning and reflex as they weave through the deathly light trails produced by their would-be pursuers.

It’s not all action, though. Plenty of cerebral “hacking” challenges also obstruct the heroes’ path, the most common being a recurring, ungainly exercise in routing energy across a circuit board. This is done by connecting pieces of a conduit into one continuous path, like snapping blocks to together to form an unbroken line (read: Pipe Dream). The Firewall challenge plays a bit like an old-school shooter in which a “gun” most slowly chip away at the system’s barrier of defense, while the “Defragmentation” mini-game involves matching and gathering like-colored blocks. Although nothing brilliant on their own, these games offer yet more reprieves from the usual proceedings.

Indeed, taken as a whole, Tron 2.0 is less a game than an amalgam of them, perhaps inspired by the original arcade game that also comprised four distinct styles of play. Incidentally, both arcade games—1982'sTron and 1983's Discs of Tron—are included in the package as a kind of homage and history lesson. Similarly, a set of LAN-style, multiplayer arena battles are available for those who prefer the title's vehicular gameplay (and who just so happen to have a party of friends willing to participate). And then there’s the chip gallery which serves as an archive for the franchise; bios and 3-D renders of Tron’s world and cast are ready to be read by any superfan. Problem was...where were they?

Tron and Mercury share a dual role; if Tron can sever the sinister User's network control, Mercury can then defeat the Corruptor, a heinous computer virus, and save the system.

Tron 2.0 features much more than on-foot disc flinging; fully 3-D flight and tank segments regularly break up the normal proceedings along with the occasional overhead lightcycle segment.

The art design of Tron 2.0 deserves its own "Art of" book--it's excellent, in some ways surpassing even that of its big brother PC counterpart.

Firewall (above) and Defragmentation (below) are fun diversions to the admittedly limited gameplay of the main game.

Discs of Tron (1983)

Tron arcade game (1982)

…

Tron 2.0 is about as lavish and elaborate as any niche property could be on such a teeny, low-spec system. And yet, sales were soft. Interest was thin. And the gaming press’ tepid reviews didn’t win the game, or the franchise, any additional friends. And, admittedly, not without cause.

Although beautiful and big-budget and ballooning with value, the game never excels at anything it tries to do. The base gameplay feels too squished, too limited, by its own splashy graphics and hulking sprites, affording little room for tactical movement within the Game Boy’s tiny frame. The FPS segments are a nice touch, but suffer from clipping issues and janky movement. The lightcycles stages are more incidental than consequential, feeling neither exhilarating nor even necessary. And though the Firewall and Defragmentation games are clever, the hacking mini-game is repeated to the point of rage-inducing nausea—what begins as a simple brain teaser becomes, after the twentieth exercise, a slog of action-stopping monotony. Overused and abused, “hacking” in Tron becomes the opposite of fun.

But sometimes a game exceeds the sum of its parts, its middling or merely serviceable qualities somehow evoking a greater experience overall. Tron’s on-foot, vehicular, and puzzle elements may feel clunky or underdeveloped, but taken together, they offer a dynamic, kaleidoscopic experience matching the vibrant visuals. In a sense, Tron transcends its shortcomings by overindulging, almost overwhelming, the gamer. If not a classic, it's still a remarkably ambitious feat of programming for a film-based property…and for the GBA platform.

Tron 2.0 is clearly made for the fans. But a game this slavishly devoted to the property, its history, and its mythos couldn’t have been made by just any ordinary group of developers. The team itself, the wizards over at Digital Eclipse, had to be fans—followers and devotees themselves—to put so much love and attention into a little Game Boy cartridge that went largely unloved. Years later, the game feels even more irrelevant, its prophesy of Tron’s return and Mercury’s emerging faith nixed for a new slew of films, 2010’s Tron: Legacy and 2025’s Tron: Ares.

Maybe this is for the best. Maybe Disney’s renewed interest in the property will finally attract the throngs of fans and believers Tron, in all its heritage and glory, has always deserved. But there will always be a tiny remnant who remember a story—a different bible—in which Tron, more than a forgotten warrior, was a returning savior. One heralded. One beloved. One who remained eponymous with his namesake.

For them, for him, Tron 2.0 is the only gospel, the only truth.--D

Mercury, being far removed from Tron's point of purpose and origin, plays the skeptic until, by the end, she's fully converted. Might have Tron and Mercury found a future together? Sadly, like many a Star Wars mythos, Disney killed this version of the Tron timeline in favor of its own alternate (inferior?) version.

Tron 2.0, for all its ambition, isn't perfect. The hacking mini-game gets repetitive and, frankly, unfair. Here, the round has just started and the player is already forced into an impossible dead end/solution. (Both ways are blocked by dark red and yellow impediments.)

Tron 2.0's main action sequences, in another showcase of the game's unfortunate imperfection, relies on a zoomed-in isometric perspective. It makes for a good looking game hampered by some awkward platforming and limited movement.

Fans of the franchise will appreciate the chips, which can be found and then viewed in an archive of Tron lore, Easter eggs, and cheats (the latter of which is shown on the bottom shot). And, going above and beyond even that, these chips can be traded with other owners of the game.

(A 4 for fans, a 3 for the normies.)