From its origins on the Commodore Amiga to it’s Super/Mega outings on the Megadrive and Super Nintendo, Turrican is the action heartthrob of many early 90s gamer. Rolling Metroid, Mega-Man and Contra into one action-packed romp, the full series sees a current-gen release in ‘Turrican Flashback’.
Turrican Flashback
Turrican Flashback sees Turrican 1, 2 Super and Mega release in one tidy package. I have never played Turrican, so here are my thoughts on presenting the collection and each title therein.
The menu system supports save files, multiple display and border settings. The best resolution will always be native, but players have the option regardless. Colours, shaders, scaling and more provide players with the perfect sandbox to discover or relive the magic of Turrican.
Sounds Good
Turrican now comes in Dolby Surround, for what it’s worth on the Nintendo Switch. The audio quality is crystal clear, with Turrican Flashback providing a great emulation of sound chips used in the Amiga, MegaDrive and SNES.
Turrican Flashback does a great job of making the collections pixel art stand out. Every explosion, bullet and enemy looks excellent on-screen, unlike some washed-out ports.
Summarising Turrican
Turrican 1 and 2 feel like the lesser games in the series due to the lack of style compared to Mega and Super Turrican. A lack of power-ups compared to its sequels feels like going back to wafer-thin Ham sandwiches after a Turkey Dinner.
Mega Turrican features a grappling hook to help players navigate levels alongside a more linear gameplay style for its day. Mega makes for better pacing and a thirst for action/explosions, ideal for the Megadrive crowd in 1994.
Super Turrican served as an amalgamation of all previous Turrican titles alongside some new features such as a freeze gun. Staying faithful to it’s Amiga roots, Super Turrican blasted onto the SNES in 1993.
