“Retro
gaming” has almost become a redundant title in recent years. The restoration
and archiving of old titles have become common practice; with classic games
being reissued, forgotten titles being treated to widespread release on new
hardware, previously region-locked gems getting lovingly crafted remasters, and
even canned titles finally get to see the light of day. The Turrican series
falls into the much-loved at the time yet forgotten catagory, the series
starting out as a showcase for the then-aging C64 as a technical marvel. Better
versions followed, of course, but it’s odd that the original has been omitted
from both volumes of the Turrican Anthology.
With the
word “anthology” in the title I’d have expected a comprehensive selection of
games, at the very least the original version of the first game should show its
face, but not here. Each anthology includes three titles (four if you include
one director’s cut in each) and what is effectively a demo version of a game
from the other collection. The first volume has the Amiga Versions of Turrican
and Turrican 2, and Super Turrican and its Director’s Cut
from the SNES, and while volume two has Super Turrican 2,
the Amiga’s Turrican 3 and its Mega Drive equivalent, Mega Turrican,
also with a Director’s cut. While the games are the best the series has to
offer, the price of admission (£29.99 each) feels a little steep, but with the
rights to the series being spread over so many parties it’s understandable that
costs need to be recovered.
The series
has its roots in the platforming/shooting genre and may look like a Metroid
homage on first glance. The levels – while large - are linear, so the
similarities only go as deep as Turrican’s morph ball. The first game’s primary
influence was obscure Data East title Psycho-Nics Oscar, and it really
does fall into the run-and-gun genre; blast stuff, power ups aplenty, and big
bosses. The games really throw enemies and hazards at you, but the use of a
health bar rather than a one-hit kill gives the player a bit of breathing room
compared to something like Contra. The pace is slower overall, but
things can get frantic at times.
All the
games stand up as well now as they did back in the 90s. The first two Turricans
offer a decent 16-bit shooting through some cavernous levels. The SNES titles
combine elements of the first two and slap more colours and some Mode 7
trickery over the top to offer a prettier experience. The real star of the show
however is Mega Turrican. While it’s essentially the same game as the
Amiga’s Turrican 3 in terms of graphics and levels, it plays much
better. I often felt the two were inseparable, but having compared them
side-by-side, the Mega Drive’s blast processor really allowed the game to run
at a brisk pace, and the Amiga game seems to stutter in comparison.
The games
themselves have been given a lot of attention, with perfect ports and a plethora
of features to please the time starved and hardcore, through the ability to
enable or disable features such as rewind, save states and the like. There’s
also a lovely CRT filter if you really want to relive the halcyon days of
playing on a 14-inch TV. Each title runs like a dream, and it’s a joy to be
able to play Amiga games without faffing with emulation (Factor 5 host files
for the Amiga game on their site for free legal download) or original hardware.
The price is
the only real downer, as you’re still paying £60 for a handful of 16-bit games,
but you could still justify it as a saving on buying the originals. As it
stands, these anthologies offer the most reasonably priced way to play these
titles (just check out the prices for Super Turrican 2 on eBay), and the
emulation is top-notch as always. It’s nice to see Amiga titles making an
appearance here (more of this, please), and the addition of modern conveniences
is always appreciated, even though it’s pretty much a given these days.
Aside from
the pricing, my other minor complaint is the omission of other versions of the
first two games. While I’m sure even getting this many games together was a
herculean feat of rights-wrangling and publisher schmoozing, it would have been
great to have the option of playing the home computer or console ports of the
first two games. Having the option of playing the reskinned Turrican 2
in the form of Universal Soldier would have been the cherry on the cake,
but this would’ve been a big ask just to satisfy this old obsessive-compulsive
collector.
If you’re
only going to pick up one of these collections, I’d say Volume 2 is the one to
go for, as Mega Turrican is the pinnacle of the series. Of course, you
can also pick up the previously released Turrican Flashback, as this
includes the first two games, Super Turrican and Mega Turrican. Whichever
you choose will provide plenty of solid run-and-gun action, whether you’re a
grizzled 90s gamer or a newcomer to the series. And if this is your first time
playing, “welcome to Turrican. Hahahahahahaha!”.
8/10
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