Ever wondered what happens when a Western developer takes inspiration from the Japanese and decides to create a 'run and gun' game with flashy graphics, amazing special effects and killer gameplay? Well wonder no more, because Super Turrican is one such game.
Originally released on the C64, the first Turrican game was a masterpiece of skilful programming and brilliant gameplay. 16-bit conversions soon followed, culminating in the impressive Megadrive/Genesis Mega Turrican and the superlative Super Turrican 1 & 2 for Nintendo's SNES, the first of which is obviously the subject of this review. These games were developed by Factor 5, which is the same Factor 5 that coded the 'Rogue Squadron' Star Wars titles for the N64/GameCube.
Playing like the bastard child of Konami's Contra and Nintendo's Metroid, Super Turrican even had elements of Bionic Commando thrown in for good measure. Talk about casting your net wide for inspiration! However, whereas many other imitators of classic titles have failed to get the end product to gel effectively, Factor 5 was unquestionably successful...
Considering that Nintendo has pretty much reduced Virtual Console's release rate to zero, pickings are somewhat slim for great VC games on Wii. However, even if you've already bought every Zelda game, and every good Hudson shooter, there are still quite a few that you may have missed.
These games were either obscure titles from small publishers, or import games that never left Japan. HCW has counted at least 6 games that you really should play for all three Nintendo consoles, and a few honorable mentions.
DoFuss says: "We are late, but contrary to my usual apologetic fashion there will be no 'sorry' (apart from for my musical interlude). It is packed front to back with gaming fun and discussion.
This episode is longer that usually to accommodate Darren's recent interview with the legendary Jon Hare of Sensible Software fame. It kicks off at the fifty three minute mark (just in case you want to jump straight to the Sensible Soccer discussion).
Apart from that we quickly hit up what we have been playing before diving into news and predictions for E3. Unfortunately as this has ended up being posted after all the press conferences so you will instantly know if we were on the money or not, all I will say is that we were kind of close, sort of. We wrap up with the return of Darren's old games, and talk of the amazing Turrican.
Hope you enjoy, and we may even manage two more shows this month to make up for the light May."
All of that's not to say that Super Turrican 2 fails to deliver in the side-scrolling action department -- far from it. What's here is still solid and satisfying. It's just a little unfocused, and so not quite as outstanding as an individual game as its SNES predecessor. If you've played both of the previous Turrican adventures on the Virtual Console, then definitely considering investing an additional 800 Wii Points to see how the series wrapped up here in the 16-bit era. But if you haven't yet spent time with any of them, start at the beginning -- grab the first Super Turrican to begin with, then continue on to the sequels if you like what you find there.
Presentation - 7.0
Graphics - 7.5
Sound - 8.0
Gameplay - 7.5
Lasting Appeal - 7.0
Overall -
... on the C64 and Amiga. Sadly, I never liked the Genesis and SNES versions of the game. Not really sure why, but they did nothing for me.
It would be nice to get a HD remake of the Amiga version of Turrican 1 and/or 2 on XBL or PSN. It's such an amazing game, with absolutely fantastic music. Really one of the best Amiga (and C64) games ever.
