Turrican
System: TG-16
Release Date: November 1991
Developer: The Code Monkeys
Publisher: Accolade
Genre: Action
Save Alterra from the malfunctioning MORGUL in Turrican! This is the game we’ve seen previously on the Sega Genesis. The planet’s AI goes crazy and starts killing everyone and everything. It’s up to you to take out the computer and reset the chaos. Can you succeed once again?
I talked to my brother some about Turrican after the video on the Genesis version. He told me that Turrican was a big deal on its Amiga release. It did a lot of things really well, that other games of the time weren’t pulling off in the PC space. The graphics were crisp and clean. The audio was a particularly high quality compared to other products of the day, especially the drums. There was no slowdown to plague gameplay. If you played old school computer games, jumping was always a problem, but not with Turrican. Even the little novelties like the stage getting darker the lower you went stood out. For the time, it was a well-made platformer.
We were used to a lot of this stuff on the consoles. What is a Mario game without precise jumping? Not getting released in the United States, that’s what! I’m looking at you Lost Levels… I definitely understand the appeal to computer gamers, where it was a real novelty. But for us console gamers, it didn’t do anything particularly special. And on the TurboGrafx-16, it’s a definite downgrade from the Sega Genesis. Both the graphics and the sound are just a little bit worse. The game plays practically identical, though, so I have no complaints there. I didn’t play all the way through this one, I couldn’t make myself do it.
Graphics: 1.5
A slight downgrade from its Genesis brother.
Sound: 1.0
It’s very tinny and doesn’t perform well.
Gameplay: 2.0
I think overall, the controls are a little too complex for the TG-16 controller.
Difficulty: 2.0
The difficulty curve spikes early, buut you’re loaded up with free lives and continues as the game goes on.
Fun Factor: 2.0
This is a fine action game, but it’s not something I was willing to play through again.
Overall Rating: 1.7
Turrican earns a C-. As I’ve said, this is worse than the Genesis version, but if it’s the only way you can experience Turrican, have at it.