Epic arcade style side-scroller set in a dark sci-fi world with huge levels packed with explosive action.

Story

In ancient times dark legends tell of the dreaded Morgul – the evil force that is the cause of all nightmares and fears. It is said that a people’s hero called Devolon banished Morgul to an unknown dimension, so that people could once again live their lives without fear and haunting nightmares.
Now, years later the people is once again plagued by the great fear. A young hero who still believes in hope is thus sent off on a dangerous mission to once again defeat the wicked and now riled Morgul. Armed with the latest technology and weapons and with the people’s hopes, dreams and faith fresh in memory the hero goes into the dark unknown.

The Game

Turrican on the Commodore 64 is the game that started the now classic Turrican franchise. The game has had numerous conversions and sequels to many different platforms, but this one is the original game. It starts off the story with a bang.
In Turrican you play as an anonymous hero fitted with a powerful robotic battle suit. This is a 2D run n’ gun action game that features tons of various mutants and robots to battle. The stages are enormous and span multiple layers, have many secret areas and enjoy seamless scrolling in all directions.
Turrican is seemingly heavily inspired by previous games such as Metroid, but manages to create something entirely unique with its fantastic dark sci-fi setting and fast paced arcade action.

Content

The game has 13 stages across five different worlds. Each world is set in a new setting and has its own environmental dangers, secrets, enemies and traps.
There are no options to fiddle with here – instead you are thrown right into the action. The hero you play is a very versatile fighter. You can jump high, duck, move unhindered under water, transform into a gyroscope ball that allows access through narrow spaces and in two of the stages you are even equipped with a jet pack! You are also armed with some very powerful weapons like mines, grenades and energy lines that blast everything in their path. On top of that you can pick up two different types of weapon power-ups for your standard rifle – multiple shot and laser. Both weapons can be upgraded to a stronger version by picking up additional weapon power-ups of the corresponding type.
By holding down the fire button you will activate a flash of lightning from your weapon that can be directed in any direction by pulling the joystick to either side. The lightning beam can also be upgraded with weapon upgrades, and is a very formidable weapon with massive destructive power.

With all these powerful weapons at your disposal you will be facing an entire army of robotic drones, monster insects, monster piranhas, remote-controlled missiles, mecha robots, cannon turrets, killer machines and deadly traps. Yes, this game is a total blast from start to the very end and the action is ongoing through almost every stage of the game. There are two stages that have none or almost no enemies at all and instead focus on a labyrinthine design where time is your biggest foe. The game has a time limit on all the stages, but you are given plenty of time to explore and progress through the game at your own pace – if, indeed time would run out you only lose one life, so it’s no big deal since extra lives are plenty through most parts of the game.
In Turrican you can die fast – simply touching an enemy is enough to drain your energy bar, and it runs out quickly! Luckily there are plenty of energy replenishing power-ups to be found.

Other than extra weapons, extra lives and extra energy you will also find diamonds scattered all around the game – if you manage to collect 300 such diamonds you will be given an extra continue. The game starts you off with two continues, meaning that after you’ve lost all your lives, you are given the option to continue playing the game from the stage you died on rather than restarting the game from the very beginning. This is both a great motivation to keep on playing and collecting those diamonds.
Turrican is one of those game you really need to give a few tries before you can stand a fair chance – only then will you have the knowledge about the traps and enemies, but even more importantly what bonuses and secrets are worth getting.

The level design in Turrican is very creative and was obviously done with a whole lot of good imagination. There are some places that require you to do very acrobatic mid-air-turn-jumps that can be quite tricky to pull off if you aren’t familiar with your current controller. But other than that, the levels are very nicely designed and really encourage exploring – as mentioned above, there are lots of hidden bonuses, extra lives and weapons caches everywhere.
The boss battles are mostly pushovers because of their basic and easy to learn attack patterns. Even though this is somewhat of an anti climax, it’s also nice to see that the bosses aren’t utterly impossible to beat – even on the first try.
The game does feature a high score table that supports saving records but other than that, there are no other features.

If you are a skilled gamer you may be able to beat the whole game in your first try. The game isn’t overly difficult, but it certainly helps to have some of the trickier parts memorized from previous attempts. It still puts up a challenge though and it’s pretty lengthy for a game like this.

Controls

The controls are a two edged sword – while they’re pretty solid in their basics, the fact that you need to use the keyboard for most special weapons like the grenades, energy lines and gyroscope ball can be bothersome. In a fast paced action game, you aren’t likely to have seconds to spare to locate the right key on a keyboard – instead you would need to solve the situation with what you have. This approach actually works in Turrican – you are never required to use the special weapons (save for perhaps the gyroscope ball which you normally wouldn’t use in a combat situation anyway). Instead they are nice-to-have bonus weapons that certainly helps having around.
Because of the nature of the lightning beam weapon you will need to stand still and stop firing for a second before you can unleash the beam – this requires some timing and thus needs you to balance the power of the weapon with the ever persistent risk of taking hits that otherwise could have been avoided.

Graphics

Graphically Turrican really pushes the limits of what the Commodore 64 can do. The game features huge sprites, and keeps its frame rate intact for the most part. Sure enough, there is some flickering occurring here and there, but it’s very minor and does not hinder the game down at all. All in all, the visuals are very detailed and the game is obviously among the better looking games on the platform. The environments are very distinct and all have their unique style.

Sound

The music in Turrican is a blast. The title song perfectly sets the mood for what’s to come in the game and really leaves a lasting impression – I dare say that it’s one of the best pieces of game music on the Commodore 64.
Other than that, there’s only music on two of the stages. On the other stages you will be listening to sound effects, which are nice in their own right. You’ll learn to identify enemies not only by how they look, but also by their sound. The lack of music during play quickly leaves you with a vacant and extremely isolated feeling in between the battles, and this almost becomes a balance to the otherwise hectic and chaotic game.

Summary

Turrican isn’t the most innovative game – instead it mixes well-known game mechanics into one hell of a game that pretty much has everything you could possibly ask for. It’s epic, it’s steaming hot, but most importantly it’s fun from the moment you start the game until the very end! As far as action platformers go, Turrican really is one of the best. Once you have beaten the game, you may not play it through again in a while (unless you’re after some pure nostalgia!), but on the other hand you have gotten yourself one solid gaming experience that truly proves that you have what it takes to save the people – and that you do have thumbs of steel.

Developed By: Rainbow Arts
Published By: Rainbow Arts
Version Reviewed: Commodore 64
Genre: Run ‘n Gun / Platform
Players: 1
Also Available On: Atari ST, Amiga 500, ZX Spectrum, Sega Mega Drive, Game Boy
Released: 1990