(Please note: I am posting this old article of mine in June 2026.\u00a0 I wrote this in January 2008, so the posting date was set to that date.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Yes, I do that sometimes, editing old articles on this site.\u00a0 Sorry if you don’t like that, heh.)<\/p>\n
The Turrican series was for a time one of the great action\/platformer game serieses, being made up of five unique titles. \u00a0While 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. \u00a0Taking inspirations from many other tiles, Trenz combined them into a new product that was unique. \u00a0Factor 5 then took the games and ported them to Amiga, adding in the great soundtracks that are one of the serieses best-known features. \u00a0They then proceeded to make three Turrican games of their own that were similar to, but different from, the original two games.<\/p>\n
The Games<\/strong><\/u> (intros)<\/p>\n Turrican 1<\/strong> – 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).\u00a0 The Commodore 64 version had a US release, but the other computer releases were all released only in Europe.\u00a0 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.)\u00a0 The Game Boy version is horrible. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n This is the first game. It is a solid game, but tough.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 As a note, the GB version has the same view distance as the other versions; everything is just REALLY REALLY SMALL.\u00a0 There are also limited lives and continues for a pretty long and difficult game.\u00a0 The Amiga version has great music, but the C64 original has no ingame music.\u00a0 Just managing to make a game of this scope run on the C64 surely pushed the system to the limit, so it’s understandable.\u00a0 It is impressive how much it accomplishes on that limited hardware.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The game plays similarly on TG16 and Genesis, it’s the content amount that separates them.<\/p>\n The console versions got bad reviews, but aren’t as bad as the reviews suggest.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Still, I’d say that it isn’t actually bad, just hard, and annoying in some ways.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 The graphics are mediocre to poor, but it is impressive for a C64 game, with such huge levels to explore.\u00a0 The music is pretty good, though not as good as later titles.\u00a0 Of course, on the GB it’s quite limited.\u00a0 I will say more on each game later in the post, particularly the controls.\u00a0 This game also has no story outside of the manual.\u00a0 Essentially, it’s you versus the Machine.\u00a0 Good luck!<\/p>\n Turrican 2\u00a0<\/strong>– 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).\u00a0 All Europe only. Console Systems: As Universal Soldier<\/strong>, released on the Genesis and Game Boy, and also planned for SNES.\u00a0 The SNES version was canceled before release, but a beta rom is available.\u00a0 Developed\/Published by Accolade (Ballistic label).<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n I haven’t played Turrican 2’s computer versions.\u00a0 I’d like to, but Amiga emulation just is too much of a pain to be worth it.\u00a0 When compared to the Sega Genesis version I have played, the computer versions have an opening and ending cutscene and better quality music.\u00a0 It also has three shmup levels instead of the three new platformer levels that version adds.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Still, it IS a good game, even if graphical design wise it’s totally weird… the music, fortunately, is unchanged and awesome. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n The graphics are decent but not great, though at least they’re better than the first game, even despite the stupid theme.\u00a0 Music is exceptional.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 This game really is dramatically improved over the first one for this reason alone.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n Super Turrican<\/strong> – NES (UK\/parts of Europe only) (by Manfred Trenz\/Rainbow Arts, published by Imagineer)<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n No, not that Super Turrican, this is a different one.\u00a0 As a note, in the rest of this article, “Super Turrican” refers to Factor 5’s SNES game, not this NES game.\u00a0 This title was made entirely by Manfred Trenz for the NES.\u00a0 It’s quite unknown because it was only released in Europe and, I think, not in large quantities.\u00a0 It is a 1993 Europe-only NES game, and it’s not common.\u00a0 I doubt they made all that many copies.\u00a0 It basically is a remake of the first two games, combining some levels from each of them with some new ones.\u00a0 The result is an even longer, even more difficult game than its predecessors.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Even so, this is a good game worth a look.\u00a0 It’s brutal though.\u00a0 Play it in PAL\/50hz if you can, the added speed of NTSC\/60hz makes this game even harder.<\/p>\n Mega Turrican\u00a0<\/strong>– Amiga (as Turrican 3<\/strong>, released in Europe only), Genesis (by Factor 5, published by Data East in the US and Sony Imagesoft in Europe)<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n This was Factor 5’s first original game in the series.\u00a0 The graphics are like ten times better than either of the first two games.\u00a0 The series already had awesome music, but it’s even better here.\u00a0 In comparison to the much more open first two, here the levels are mostly linear, though a few have a bit of exploration.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 This is a game that can be beaten with some practice.\u00a0 It has opening and ending cutscenes, though the art quality is … questionable. \ud83d\ude00\u00a0 The intro is amazingly good anyway, probably thanks to the exceptional music. I did a review of the game<\/a> a while ago.\u00a0 This is probably my favorite game in the series, it feels a bit more complete than Super Turrican.\u00a0 You actually fight The Machine in this one, for instance, but not the SNES game.\u00a0 Still, the Rope item in this game is somewhat janky to use.<\/p>\n Super Turrican<\/strong> – SNES (by Factor 5, published by Seika in the US, Hudson in Europe, and Tonkin House in Japan)<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n This game is oh so awesome!\u00a0 Super Turrican is one of the best action games ever!\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It might be my favorite one in the series, in fact. The plot’s no better than Mega Turrican’s, but who cares.\u00a0 Yes, I called both the best game in the series.\u00a0 They both deserve it.\u00a0 Both are top 10 games on their respective consoles.<\/p>\n Super Turrican 2<\/strong> – SNES (by Factor 5, published by Ocean in the US)<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n This game has the best graphics of the series, but is almost totally linear.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 However, the action is so well done that this is a really fantastic game!\u00a0 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.\u00a0 \u00a0Those graphics sure are amazing!\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The music is utterly fantastic too of course.\u00a0 It’s also got more cutscenes than the other games, and a bit more plot development too.\u00a0 This is an outstanding 4th-gen action game that should be mentioned up there with the greats of the genre.\u00a0 Only released in the US I believe, and in somewhat limited quantities.<\/p>\n Here I should also mention R2: Rendering Ranger<\/strong>, 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Legitimate copies are extremely expensive on EBay and such services.\u00a0 That’s too bad, because it’s a really, really good game.\u00a0 The graphics are fantastic and are among the SNES’s best.\u00a0 Its graphics are great, with prerendered sprite art combined with great backgrounds.\u00a0 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!\u00a0 And it does it without any extra chips helping it along, too.\u00a0 It really shows how good a programmer Trenz is\/was.\u00a0 The game also has both sidescrolling action levels and shmup levels, just like the C64\/Amiga versions of Turrican II.\u00a0 Incredible stuff.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I don’t like R2 quite as much as the Super Turrican games, but it is certainly good.<\/p>\n Anyway, back to the Turrican series.<\/p>\n \u00a0Controls<\/strong><\/u>.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The first two games are harder to get used to, with somewhat complex controls and some definite Eurojank.\u00a0 Factor 5’s games feel better.<\/p>\n The worst, control-wise, is Turrican 1.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n Left\/Right: Move left\/right<\/p>\n Up: Jump<\/p>\n Down: Duck<\/p>\n A: Jump (yes, also)<\/p>\n B: fire in the direction you are facing<\/p>\n Hold B: aimable range-limited beam attack (you can’t move while doing this)<\/p>\n Down + A: switch to Ball mode.\u00a0 Once in ball form you don’t need to keep holding a button; just jump when you want to get out of it.<\/p>\n Down + B: Upon button combo tap, fire from ducking position. Hold down while tapping B to fire continuously from a ducking position.<\/p>\n Hold Down + B: drop Mine (blows up after a short time, hurting things on screen)<\/p>\n Select: switch special weapon between Line and Grenade.\u00a0 These are limited in number; you start with three of each.\u00a0 While selected icon flashes (between them or normal fire).\u00a0 Press fire to use special weapon.\u00a0 You then return to normal shots.<\/p>\n Start: Pause<\/p>\n Do you see what I mean?\u00a0 It is probably too many functions for this many buttons.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The controls are no better, though; they’re the same as the Game Boy version, but with C taking the place of Select.\u00a0 Universal Soldier is the same.<\/p>\n Factor 5 changed things here as well as in every other category once they got total control of the series.\u00a0 Mega Turrican, which adds the new grappling hook on C, has 6-button controller support so that X\/Y\/Z use a line.\u00a0 It also has autofire for the normal gun, as the rope, which replaced a aimable gun, has its own button.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Both have autofire for the normal gun and the other things each on their own button.). \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 The Factor 5 games control quite well.<\/p>\n Level designs<\/u><\/strong> in Turrican and Turrican 2\/Universal Soldier are absolutely HUGE, and you often don’t have any idea which way to go.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 In this, along with series mainstay ball mode, they were inspired by mixing Metroid and Contra and then adding new stuff on top.\u00a0 There are lots of hidden items and stuff to collect.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 There’s still a lot of exploration, but it’s more fun with less frustration.\u00a0 That your health bar goes down slower and that you have passwords in the Genesis version helps a lot too.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 This does allow them to tighten up the set-piece action scenes, though, so it’s not all bad.\u00a0 For fans of more Contra-styled action setpiece games, these titles are some of the best!\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It’s all done very well.\u00a0 There are also some enemies you can damage by jumping on, and bouncing off of, vital for getting to some secrets in Super Turrican.\u00a0 Even the water stages are awesome, particularly in Mega Turrican, which allows you to swim underwater in one level.\u00a0 It doesn’t get much better than this.\u00a0 Weapon variety and effects are also awesome, as I will soon detail.<\/p>\n Health System:<\/strong><\/u> 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.\u00a0 Turrican 2 is the same, though your health lasts slightly longer in the second game than the first one.\u00a0 From Mega Turrican on through both Super Turrican games, Factor 5 improved things immensely.\u00a0 They switch to more normal health systems with hitpoints and with flash when you’re hit, momentary invincibility, etc.<\/p>\n Weapons<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n Ball mode<\/strong> is what it sounds: a Metroid-style ball mode.\u00a0 You roll around in a ball.\u00a0 While in ball form you’re invincible and damage enemies just by running into them.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Turrican 2 has unlimited ball mode use.\u00a0 Mega\/Super Turrican\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 However they do it though, ball mode is always awesomely fun.<\/p>\n Normal Weapons<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 The details of how the shot looks vary between games, but the basics are the same.\u00a0 Remember, you cannot shoot diagonally, just right, left, and right or left while ducking.\u00a0 Weapons like the rebound or mini homing missiles (extra powerup) help alleviate this, however.<\/p>\n – Multi\/Spread Shot\u00a0<\/strong>– as it sounds.\u00a0\u00a0 This is in all five games in the series.<\/p>\n –\u00a0Laser\u00a0<\/strong>– straight laser attacks. This is also in all five games.<\/p>\n – Rebound<\/strong>\/Bounce<\/strong> – These are some kind of attack that bounces along the ground.\u00a0 This one varies more between games than the other two.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 For instance you can use it to shoot down a hole before you have to jump down, if the walls are configured right.<\/p>\n – Flamethrower\u00a0<\/strong>– This is as it sounds.\u00a0 It is in Super Turrican 2 only.\u00a0 This is a very fun weapon, but there’s no autofire.\u00a0 It burns for a while, but you then have to press it again to start the flames again.<\/p>\n Special Weapons and Abilities<\/u><\/strong> (Line and Megabomb are two variations on the same theme, so no game has both):<\/p>\n Extra Weapons<\/u><\/p>\n – \u00a0Mini-Missiles<\/strong> — These are small homing missiles that supplement your main gun.\u00a0 Present in Mega Turrican and both Super Turricans.<\/p>\n Special Gun<\/u><\/p>\n – Beam Attack\u00a0<\/strong>— Hold down fire for a separate beam laser with a short range which you can aim in any direction.\u00a0 This powerful weapon is incredibly useful, though you can’t move while using it.\u00a0 This is in: Turrican 1, Turrican 2\/Universal Soldier.<\/p>\n – Freeze Ray<\/strong> — This is similar to the beam attack, but instead of hurting enemies you freeze them; you can then shoot them with your normal gun.\u00a0 This is in: Super Turrican, Super Turrican 2.<\/p>\n Rope or Grappling Hook<\/u><\/p>\n – Rope<\/strong>: This item, which you have instead of an aimable beam attack or freeze ray in Mega Turrican, allows you to attach to surfaces.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The Rope, though, is kind of hard to get used to, but allows you to attach to a surface, swing around, etc.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n –Grappling Hook<\/strong>: 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 This also allows you to swing across gaps on the celing, attach to bosses, etc.\u00a0 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).<\/p>\n Superbomb Types<\/u><\/p>\n – Line<\/strong> — 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.\u00a0 They damage or kill everything they run into on screen. This is found in Turrican 1, Turrican 2\/Universal Soldier, and Super Turrican.<\/p>\n – Megabomb<\/strong> — Hit everyone on screen in a big, flashy explosion.\u00a0 Found in Mega Turrican and Super Turrican 2.<\/p>\n Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n In conclusion, despite their differences, all five Turrican games are very good games.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I’m quite happy with it, overall.\u00a0 I actually really liked Universal Soldier, it’s great.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n However, Factor 5’s three games should be great to any action, action-platformer, or run ‘n gun gamer audience.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It is very difficult to just say which one of the three is the best… I’m not sure if I can.\u00a0 All three are just so, so good.\u00a0 Super and Mega Turricans are both clearly the best Turrican game.\u00a0 Go play them, now!<\/p>\n Some videos:<\/p>\n Turrican II (Amiga)<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JYamOeQWLNg<\/a><\/p>\n Mega Turrican (Genesis) intro<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2CJFpvkYYk8<\/a><\/p>\n Super Turrican 2 (SNES) gameplay<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qxPESQyOeEo<\/a><\/p>\n 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\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (Please note: I am posting this old article of mine in June 2026.\u00a0 I wrote this in January 2008, so the posting date was set to that date.\u00a0 Ever since I created this site in 2010 I thought about adding … Continue reading