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As retro-chic moves from the leftfield to become the norm thanks to the rise of indie, TxK is above all a reminder that, for Llamasoft and Minter, this isn't an aesthetic to be worn lightly before being tossed aside whenever it falls out of fashion again. Rather, TxK is proof that the smoky netherworld of arcade abstraction and quick-shot adrenaline is one in which Llamasoft outlasts and outclasses the many tourists that pass through from year to year. It's turf Minter has made his own.
And boy does he know the territory well. In every luminous line that makes up TxK's world you can feel the 20 years of study and craft that have preceded this; it's in the perfectly weighted inertia of your craft, as good an approximation of the original cabinet's vertical spinner as you'd ever hope to find on analogue sticks, or in the beautifully pitched pace with which the 100 levels of TxK unfold. There's wisdom in what's been edited out as well, and after the fuzzy constructs introduced by Space Giraffe it's interesting to see that TxK is defiant in its simplicity.
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