You’ve got the Tron: Legacy soundtrack on shuffle, the 1080p trailer on a loop, and, just maybe, hazy memories of Jeff Bridges battling Master Control Program in the original 1982 movie. You’ve got a bad case of Tron fever, friend; unfortunately the only cure is waiting until December 17, when Tron: Legacy hits theaters. But don’t worry, we’ve scored Group 7 access to the top Tron-related games for iOS and Mac to make the wait just a little easier. Step up to the digitizer and get ready to enter the Grid, User. Your light cycle awaits.
Your first stop should be the official Tron app. Like the world of Tron, it’s more than a game––it’s bursting with links to Tron merchandise, graphic novel pages, movie trailers, and more. Also like the world of Tron, it boasts plenty of ways to derezz your opponents in neon-drenched tank and light cycle combat. In the light cycle game, you flick or tap to guide your cycle, forcing enemies to crash into the light wall you leave behind while collecting health and speed powerups.
Unlike other Tron games, the walls disappear beyond a certain distance (blasphemy!) and you can perform a quick maneuver to create trapped zones deadly to other riders (cool!). The tank game is a dual-stick shooter that similarly tweaks Tron traditions. You blast drones and enemy tanks in maze-like levels while gathering upgrades to your two weapons, a cannon and grenade launcher. Yes, ENCOM employees, your shots can ricochet off walls, just like the original Tron arcade game. Best of all, both games offer Internet multiplayer for 2 to 6 players.
When real life calls you back from the Grid for your next appointment, LiveCycle lets you bring light cycle battles with you. Using the accelerometer, compass, and GPS in your iPhone 4 or 3GS (sorry, iPod touch users; your devices aren’t supported), LiveCycle creates a virtual light wall behind you as you walk. Sign in with your Facebook account information, and you can challenge computer-controlled rivals to real-world matches, earning points as your wall grows and enemies crash into it (naturally, you can post your achievements to your Facebook profile and a leaderboard of other LiveCycle users).
Unfortunately, you can’t challenge your friends to races around the neighborhood just yet, but an update allowing multiplayer matches against live opponents is in the works. Just don’t get any ideas about hopping on a motorcycle for high-speed light cycle tournaments. Your LiveCycle racer loses power as your speed increases, so stay on foot if you want to impress the cute barista at Starbucks with your cycling prowess. Just keep an eye out for brick walls while you’re evading light walls, okay?
For a somewhat more conventional, if unofficial, light cycle experience on the go, fire up LightBike 2. This 3D game offers the Tron racing features you expect as well as refinements like a speed boost and jump button to help you avoid fellow bikers and their pesky light walls. Games are available in standard or quick-playing deathmatch modes, and the built-in Pankia social network lets you challenge live opponents online or on a local network (a screen-sharing head-to-head mode is also available for your iPad as an in-app purchase). Wield your lightbike well and you’ll unlock customizations to tweak your bike’s appearance, or you can just buy ‘em outright.
LightBike 2’s instructions, settings, and eye candy are minimal, but what really makes the game glow is its choice of arenas. Okay, there are only two choices: one is a standard grid, but the second features multiple grids at different heights, allowing for jumps to lower platforms and desperate escapes up ramps. It’s completely baffling for human and AI opponents alike, and dizzying fun for Tron fans.
Quick, what color was Sark’s light cycle? Who drinks liquid power at the Game Grid? Which words can Bit say? If you already know the answers to these and other questions about the original Tron, you just may be a Tron Trivia whiz. This app lets you play in either a timed mode tasking you to answer as many trivia questions as you can compute in two minutes, or a points mode that challenges you to answer 20 questions as quickly as possible for the highest score. Either way you play, you can submit your results to a leaderboard and then, well, bask in the glow of your Tron knowledge…there’s not much else here besides a scan of the original movie poster.
Since this app is an unofficial labor of love, we were hoping for a little more Tron goodness––sound effects from the movie, more scanned photos, anything. Alas, no. Tron Trivia puts your knowledge of the Grid circa 1982 to the test, but as a fun diversion it’s a few bits shy of a full program.
There’s currently no official Tron game for the Mac (here’s hoping Steve Jobs can pull a few strings at Disney to fix that), but you can still get your Tron on on our favorite platform with Armagetron Advanced, a 3D light cycle racer that boasts smart AI opponents, 16-player local and online matches, and enough graphics, control, and networking options to choke an ENCOM mainframe. But don’t worry about frying your circuits; Armagetron Advance’s extensive documentation can help walk you through all the settings, and it even includes tips on the strategy you’ll need to use to unleash armagetron on your friends. Sure, controlling your cycle is simple––just turn right or left; this is Tron, after all––but winning matches will take practice. Acceleration can only occur when opponents are riding close to each other’s light walls, and rapid turns slow you down, so knowing when to break off from the pack and when to close in is key. Fortunately, we were able to find plenty of servers hosting arenas where we could hone our cycling skills.
We’ll be honest: even though it was last updated in 2009, GLtron is almost as big a time warp as the original Tron movie. You’ll need Rosetta installed to run it on your Mac, and there’s no internet or networked multiplayer to be had, but the game is still worth a download for die-hard Tron fans. After all, it’s a fine light cycle game that captures the look of the 1982 movie better than most games we’ve seen, right down to the cycle design and Recognizers that hover menacingly over arenas as you race. Like Armagetron Advanced, GLtron also offers a thorough FAQ to help you tweak graphics, controls, and other options. And it’s just plain fun. If you’ve got a large enough display, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with friends at a keyboard to play GLtron’s split-screen 4-player multiplayer isn’t hopelessly out of date, it’s retro. Still, we wouldn’t mind it if Tron: Legacy inspires an update that brings GLtron’s technology and gameplay up to date. As Tron fans, we know there can be plenty of life left in a blast from the past.
Tron 2.0 screenshot courtesy of Inside Mac Games
We said there’s currently no official Tron game for the Mac, but that wasn’t always the case. Tron 2.0 was released for the Mac in 2004, and it was one of the few signs of Tron-related life in any medium until this year’s movie. More than a mere licensing cash-grab, Tron 2.0 had strong ties to the original film. Bruce Boxleitner (a.k.a. Alan Bradley, Tron himself) lent his voice to the game, and the game’s light cycles were designed by Syd Mead, who also worked on the original film. You played Bradley’s son Jet, and gameplay was a mix of first-person disc throwing with RPG leveling elements and, of course, light cycle battles. Tron 2.0’s neon glow may not have set the world on fire, but who knows––Jet just might get a shout-out in Tron: Legacy.
One thing’s for sure, a copy of Tron 2.0 would make the Mac-loving Tron fan in your life very happy. If you manage to find one, be sure to apply the latest patch…from 2007. We can’t promise it will run perfectly (or at all) on Snow Leopard, but we also can’t promise that trying won’t get you digitized and sucked into crazy adventures on the Grid. Hey, anything can happen––there’s a new Tron movie coming!
