(Please note: I am posting this old article of mine in June 2026. I wrote this in January 2008, so the posting date was set to that date. Ever since I created this site in 2010 I thought about adding to this article and posting it here, since I love this series, but I never did… so now I decided to post it with only light editing, and maybe add to it later. Yes, I do that sometimes, editing old articles on this site. Sorry if you don’t like that, heh.)
The Turrican series was for a time one of the great action/platformer game serieses, being made up of five unique titles. While different games and ports in the series have been made by a variety of different developers, the original concept, and first two games, were designed by Manfred Trenz, while the later three games were developed by Factor 5, back when they were still in Germany and were developing Amiga games. Taking inspirations from many other tiles, Trenz combined them into a new product that was unique. Factor 5 then took the games and ported them to Amiga, adding in the great soundtracks that are one of the serieses best-known features. They then proceeded to make three Turrican games of their own that were similar to, but different from, the original two games.
The Games (intros)
Turrican 1 – Computer Systems: Commodore 64 (by Manfred Trenz, original creator, as part of Rainbow Arts), Amiga (port, by Factor 5, published by Rainbow Arts), IBM PC (DOS), Amstrad CPC, and Atari ST (published by Rainbow Arts). The Commodore 64 version had a US release, but the other computer releases were all released only in Europe. Console Systems: Genesis, Turbografx-16, and Game Boy (console ports developed by The Code Monkeys (GB and TG16) and Accolade (Genesis) and published by Accolade (or more specifically, Accolade’s Ballistic label); all are based on the Amiga version and were released in the US.) The Game Boy version is horrible. 🙂
—
This is the first game. It is a solid game, but tough. The huge, open-ended level designs are interesting, but there are a lot of pits you fall into because you often can’t see where you are going – blind jumps are a serious problem in this game. As a note, the GB version has the same view distance as the other versions; everything is just REALLY REALLY SMALL. There are also limited lives and continues for a pretty long and difficult game. The Amiga version has great music, but the C64 original has no ingame music. Just managing to make a game of this scope run on the C64 surely pushed the system to the limit, so it’s understandable. It is impressive how much it accomplishes on that limited hardware. Of the console versions the Genesis version is the only one that is complete — the TG16 and Game Boy versions are missing a quarter of the levels. The game plays similarly on TG16 and Genesis, it’s the content amount that separates them.
The console versions got bad reviews, but aren’t as bad as the reviews suggest. The Genesis version is definitely the best of them, but even it didn’t get good reviews, that’s for sure. I can understand why the reviews were low, it’s a frustrating and very hard game. Still, I’d say that it isn’t actually bad, just hard, and annoying in some ways. Some of those ways include: a convoluted control scheme particularly on computers where up is jump, many blind jumps, way too little health that drains fast, no hit stun so if an enemy is hitting you you take damage and die very quickly, limited continues and no saving in a long game). The graphics are mediocre to poor, but it is impressive for a C64 game, with such huge levels to explore. The music is pretty good, though not as good as later titles. Of course, on the GB it’s quite limited. I will say more on each game later in the post, particularly the controls. This game also has no story outside of the manual. Essentially, it’s you versus the Machine. Good luck!
Turrican 2 – Computer Systems: Commodore 64 (original version, by Manfred Trenz/Rainbow Arts; this game is PAL only and will not run on an NTSC C64), Amiga (port, by Factor 5, published by Rainbow Arts), Amstrad CPC (by Rainbow Arts). All Europe only. Console Systems: As Universal Soldier, released on the Genesis and Game Boy, and also planned for SNES. The SNES version was canceled before release, but a beta rom is available. Developed/Published by Accolade (Ballistic label).
—
I haven’t played Turrican 2’s computer versions. I’d like to, but Amiga emulation just is too much of a pain to be worth it. When compared to the Sega Genesis version I have played, the computer versions have an opening and ending cutscene and better quality music. It also has three shmup levels instead of the three new platformer levels that version adds.
Universal Soldier: The game is almost identical to Turrican 2 apart from graphics; the only gameplay change was the removal of the story (it’s totally gone and not replaced with anything, there is no plot in this game) and three shmup-style stages and the addition of three new normal sidescrolling stages. They are just as good levels as any level in the original game design-wise, but their themes, a jungle, car junkyard, etc, don’t fit at all with Turrican… the graphical changes to the character and enemies look pretty stupid too. Still, it IS a good game, even if graphical design wise it’s totally weird… the music, fortunately, is unchanged and awesome. 🙂
The graphics are decent but not great, though at least they’re better than the first game, even despite the stupid theme. Music is exceptional. Levels are every bit as big as the first games’ are, but they improve the level design and visual distance this time so you don’t usually feel like you’re constantly jumping into the abyss just hoping that there’s a platform there for you to land on. This game really is dramatically improved over the first one for this reason alone. For this reason I found traversing the game much more fun here than in Turrican 1. Oh yes, and the Sega Genesis version of Universal Soldier is the only game in the series with saving — it has password save with a password for each level.
Super Turrican – NES (UK/parts of Europe only) (by Manfred Trenz/Rainbow Arts, published by Imagineer)
—
No, not that Super Turrican, this is a different one. As a note, in the rest of this article, “Super Turrican” refers to Factor 5’s SNES game, not this NES game. This title was made entirely by Manfred Trenz for the NES. It’s quite unknown because it was only released in Europe and, I think, not in large quantities. It is a 1993 Europe-only NES game, and it’s not common. I doubt they made all that many copies. It basically is a remake of the first two games, combining some levels from each of them with some new ones. The result is an even longer, even more difficult game than its predecessors. As it’s not Factor 5 music, though, and Chris Huelsbeck was not involved but instead Manfred Trenz made the music himself since his C64 originals has no ingame music, the soundtrack’s not nearly as good as the other console titles or the Amiga versions of the original two titles. Even so, this is a good game worth a look. It’s brutal though. Play it in PAL/50hz if you can, the added speed of NTSC/60hz makes this game even harder.
Mega Turrican – Amiga (as Turrican 3, released in Europe only), Genesis (by Factor 5, published by Data East in the US and Sony Imagesoft in Europe)
—
This was Factor 5’s first original game in the series. The graphics are like ten times better than either of the first two games. The series already had awesome music, but it’s even better here. In comparison to the much more open first two, here the levels are mostly linear, though a few have a bit of exploration. There is no saving again and limited lives and continues is back (just like both Super Turricans), but with shorter, much more easily navigated stages, it doesn’t matter as much. This is a game that can be beaten with some practice. It has opening and ending cutscenes, though the art quality is … questionable. 😀 The intro is amazingly good anyway, probably thanks to the exceptional music. I did a review of the game a while ago. This is probably my favorite game in the series, it feels a bit more complete than Super Turrican. You actually fight The Machine in this one, for instance, but not the SNES game. Still, the Rope item in this game is somewhat janky to use.
Super Turrican – SNES (by Factor 5, published by Seika in the US, Hudson in Europe, and Tonkin House in Japan)
—
This game is oh so awesome! Super Turrican is one of the best action games ever! This game has even better graphics and sound than the Genesis game, a nice freeze ray instead of the annoying rope in Mega Turrican, awesome levels, some exploration elements, … this is a REALLY good game. It might be my favorite one in the series, in fact. The plot’s no better than Mega Turrican’s, but who cares. Yes, I called both the best game in the series. They both deserve it. Both are top 10 games on their respective consoles.
Super Turrican 2 – SNES (by Factor 5, published by Ocean in the US)
—
This game has the best graphics of the series, but is almost totally linear. This game really shows how Factor 5 were graphical geniuses, though, it uses some of the more impressive visual effects seen on the SNES, and with no slowdown. As a result of that, early computer Turrican fans don’t like this one as much; it is the most console-inspired of the Turrican games. However, the action is so well done that this is a really fantastic game! A bit more openness in some levels would be nice, as you see in Mega Turrican or Super Turrican 1, but this more consistently exciting visual spectacle of a game. Those graphics sure are amazing! The explosions look great, the game displays lots of sprites on screen, it uses scaling and rotating, the works, it’s all there and looking great. The music is utterly fantastic too of course. It’s also got more cutscenes than the other games, and a bit more plot development too. This is an outstanding 4th-gen action game that should be mentioned up there with the greats of the genre. Only released in the US I believe, and in somewhat limited quantities.
Here I should also mention R2: Rendering Ranger, a SNES (Japan release only other than a 2010s homebrew rerelease in the US) title by Manfred Trenz that was his one 16-bit console game. He spent years on it and again made it all by himself pretty much, but sadly only managed to get it published in Japan, and in very small quantities… it’s a sad story. Legitimate copies are extremely expensive on EBay and such services. That’s too bad, because it’s a really, really good game. The graphics are fantastic and are among the SNES’s best. Its graphics are great, with prerendered sprite art combined with great backgrounds. It pushes lots of sprites on screen with virtually no slowdown anywhere in the game, and looks great doing it — for a SNES game, this is an amazing feat! And it does it without any extra chips helping it along, too. It really shows how good a programmer Trenz is/was. The game also has both sidescrolling action levels and shmup levels, just like the C64/Amiga versions of Turrican II. Incredible stuff. Unless you play the (illegal) ROM or it’s released on VC, though, its rarity and over-$100-on-ebay price puts it well out of reach of most. I don’t like R2 quite as much as the Super Turrican games, but it is certainly good.
Anyway, back to the Turrican series.
Controls. The Turrican games have good, tight controls, but the game feel is quite different between the two Manfred Trenz games and the three Factor 5-only ones. The first two games are harder to get used to, with somewhat complex controls and some definite Eurojank. Factor 5’s games feel better.
The worst, control-wise, is Turrican 1. To show you what I mean I’ll just list the controls of the GB version… which are actually better than the original computer version controls in a way, because you actually have a jump button in addition to up jumping.
Left/Right: Move left/right
Up: Jump
Down: Duck
A: Jump (yes, also)
B: fire in the direction you are facing
Hold B: aimable range-limited beam attack (you can’t move while doing this)
Down + A: switch to Ball mode. Once in ball form you don’t need to keep holding a button; just jump when you want to get out of it.
Down + B: Upon button combo tap, fire from ducking position. Hold down while tapping B to fire continuously from a ducking position.
Hold Down + B: drop Mine (blows up after a short time, hurting things on screen)
Select: switch special weapon between Line and Grenade. These are limited in number; you start with three of each. While selected icon flashes (between them or normal fire). Press fire to use special weapon. You then return to normal shots.
Start: Pause
Do you see what I mean? It is probably too many functions for this many buttons.
The original C64/Amiga versions were the same, except those computers only had 1-button joysticks, so Ball mode and Mine were on one keyboard key (hold down+button for bomb) and Grenade and Pause on other keyboard keys while fire was the joystick button and up jumped. It is odd that they kept up for jump in the home console versions of both of the first two Turrican games, but it’s there as an option even though it’s awful. The home versions are all on systems with just four buttons and a dpad, and add a jump button, which makes their controls even more complicated than they already were. The Genesis version is the best of the home ports, and is the only one that actually has all the levels of the original computer versions in it – again, a quarter of the levels are missing from the GB and TG16 versions. The controls are no better, though; they’re the same as the Game Boy version, but with C taking the place of Select. Universal Soldier is the same.
Factor 5 changed things here as well as in every other category once they got total control of the series. Mega Turrican, which adds the new grappling hook on C, has 6-button controller support so that X/Y/Z use a line. It also has autofire for the normal gun, as the rope, which replaced a aimable gun, has its own button. The Super Turrican games, of course, are on 8-button controllers, so even though Super Turrican 2 has fire, jump, megabomb, freeze ray, and grappling hook buttons, it all fits (note that Super Turrican 1 is the same, just without the grappling hook; it only needs four buttons. Both have autofire for the normal gun and the other things each on their own button.). 🙂 The Factor 5 games control quite well.
Level designs in Turrican and Turrican 2/Universal Soldier are absolutely HUGE, and you often don’t have any idea which way to go. You may know that the goal is to reach the right end of the screen, but you never know exactly what route will bring you there. In this, along with series mainstay ball mode, they were inspired by mixing Metroid and Contra and then adding new stuff on top. There are lots of hidden items and stuff to collect. Turrican 1 is kind of annoying design-wise, though, because you often seem to have to make blind jumps, as you frequently are near the edge of the screen (having to jump down or forward into who knows what…) and the screen view isn’t very far… and there are bottomless pits to fall in and spikes which, of course, drain your health really fast. As I said earlier Turrican 2/Universal Soldier has similar level designs, but with much less frustration thanks to better controls and almost always being able to see where it is exactly you are jumping to. There’s still a lot of exploration, but it’s more fun with less frustration. That your health bar goes down slower and that you have passwords in the Genesis version helps a lot too.
Mega Turrican and both Super Turricans are much more linear, with each game having fewer giant exploration stages than the one before it until Super Turrican 2 is almost entirely linear. This does allow them to tighten up the set-piece action scenes, though, so it’s not all bad. For fans of more Contra-styled action setpiece games, these titles are some of the best! Mega Turrican and the Super Turrican games have some really, really awesome action scenes, with tough jumping puzzles, a wide variety of enemies, plenty of secret areas to find, gems and lives to collect, awesome bosses and minibosses like giant flying fist machines, towers, laser turrets, falling rocks, and so much more. It’s all done very well. There are also some enemies you can damage by jumping on, and bouncing off of, vital for getting to some secrets in Super Turrican. Even the water stages are awesome, particularly in Mega Turrican, which allows you to swim underwater in one level. It doesn’t get much better than this. Weapon variety and effects are also awesome, as I will soon detail.
Health System: As previously mentioned, in Turrican 1 and 2, while you have a healthbar there is no sound played, knockback, or hit-flash/invincibility when you are hit; your healthbar simply starts draining, and when it runs out you die, so you need to be looking at it often… your health drains very quickly. Turrican 2 is the same, though your health lasts slightly longer in the second game than the first one. From Mega Turrican on through both Super Turrican games, Factor 5 improved things immensely. They switch to more normal health systems with hitpoints and with flash when you’re hit, momentary invincibility, etc.
Weapons
Ball mode is what it sounds: a Metroid-style ball mode. You roll around in a ball. While in ball form you’re invincible and damage enemies just by running into them. In Turrican 1 you can use it three times per stage, but can stay in it as long as you want each time; you are just limited to where you can roll to, because jumping knocks you out of ball form and you don’t bounce up when you attack like bomb-jumping in Metroid. Turrican 2 has unlimited ball mode use. Mega/Super Turrican have a meter on the screen (you can see Mega Turrican’s below the health bar) which limits how long you can use it in each level. From Turrican 2 on you have bombs instead of normal shots when in ball mode, but they still never bounce you up bomb-jumping style. However they do it though, ball mode is always awesomely fun.
Normal Weapons
Turrican 1 and 2/US have two types of normal shot, while Mega Turrican and Super Turrican 2 each add one more while keeping the old ones. The details of how the shot looks vary between games, but the basics are the same. Remember, you cannot shoot diagonally, just right, left, and right or left while ducking. Weapons like the rebound or mini homing missiles (extra powerup) help alleviate this, however.
– Multi/Spread Shot – as it sounds. This is in all five games in the series.
– Laser – straight laser attacks. This is also in all five games.
– Rebound/Bounce – These are some kind of attack that bounces along the ground. This one varies more between games than the other two. Mega Turrican, Super Turrican, and Super Turrican 2 each have a variation of the rebound gun. The ST2 one in particular is really useful as it bounces along walls or platforms, so you can hit enemies above or below you and stuff sometimes. For instance you can use it to shoot down a hole before you have to jump down, if the walls are configured right.
– Flamethrower – This is as it sounds. It is in Super Turrican 2 only. This is a very fun weapon, but there’s no autofire. It burns for a while, but you then have to press it again to start the flames again.
Special Weapons and Abilities (Line and Megabomb are two variations on the same theme, so no game has both):
Extra Weapons
– Mini-Missiles — These are small homing missiles that supplement your main gun. Present in Mega Turrican and both Super Turricans.
Special Gun
– Beam Attack — Hold down fire for a separate beam laser with a short range which you can aim in any direction. This powerful weapon is incredibly useful, though you can’t move while using it. This is in: Turrican 1, Turrican 2/Universal Soldier.
– Freeze Ray — This is similar to the beam attack, but instead of hurting enemies you freeze them; you can then shoot them with your normal gun. This is in: Super Turrican, Super Turrican 2.
Rope or Grappling Hook
– Rope: This item, which you have instead of an aimable beam attack or freeze ray in Mega Turrican, allows you to attach to surfaces. It’s like a grappling hook, but when you press the button you then have to aim where you want to fire it; it will then attach you to a rope connected to that point which you can swing around on. The Rope, though, is kind of hard to get used to, but allows you to attach to a surface, swing around, etc. It takes time to aim and fire the weapon, so you cannot swing on this like you can swing on Bionic Commando’s grappling hook; it’s for single attachments and jumps only. In Mega Turrican only.
–Grappling Hook: This item, only in Super Turrican 2, is much more Bionic Commando-like: tapping R will send it out diagonally upwards (you cannot aim it this time; it just goes out diagonally up and forward) and attach you to a wall or celing if it runs into it. You can slowly go up one just by tapping the button as each time it’ll unhook you, jump up a tiny bit, and rehook you. This also allows you to swing across gaps on the celing, attach to bosses, etc. It looks awesome, too, as Turrican’s sprite rotates as you swing on stuff… in Super Turrican 2 only (which is the only game with both a aimable ray item and a grappling hook item).
Superbomb Types
– Line — this is like a megabomb, but instead of just hitting everyone it creates these two giant lines that shoot out from you, one left and one right. They damage or kill everything they run into on screen. This is found in Turrican 1, Turrican 2/Universal Soldier, and Super Turrican.
– Megabomb — Hit everyone on screen in a big, flashy explosion. Found in Mega Turrican and Super Turrican 2.
Conclusion
In conclusion, despite their differences, all five Turrican games are very good games. In my opinion the three original Factor 5 games are better than the first two, but the first two are really good too thanks to their different style. Universal Soldier IS a good game; it’s only bad in comparison to the Amiga version, and that one isn’t exactly accessible to most. I’m quite happy with it, overall. I actually really liked Universal Soldier, it’s great. The password save system helps it tremendously compared to the first game, the graphics are better, the level designs better, and the music better too. If you have access to an Amiga don’t even think about it, as that version is far superior, but if you do not, it is a decent alternative. As for the first game… play it enough to get used to it and you might like it, but there’s a sizable learning curve here.
However, Factor 5’s three games should be great to any action, action-platformer, or run ‘n gun gamer audience. The awesome graphics and sound first catch your interest and make you keep wanting to move forward and see the next area, but the fantastic level designs and action holds it. It is very difficult to just say which one of the three is the best… I’m not sure if I can. All three are just so, so good. Super and Mega Turricans are both clearly the best Turrican game. Go play them, now!
Some videos:
Turrican II (Amiga)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYamOeQWLNg
Mega Turrican (Genesis) intro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CJFpvkYYk8
Super Turrican 2 (SNES) gameplay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxPESQyOeEo
The original Neogaf thread version of this article can be found here: https://www.neogaf.com/threads/turrican-remembering-one-of-the-great-action-series.228909/
