Turrican Anthology Volume II review

Turrican’s latest collection offers five different titles. Three of them are a variation on the same game, another is the series’ low-point, and the last inclusion is a single-level‘ score attack’. Instead of facing this travesty head-on, our cybernetic warrior might want to avoid this battle altogether.

At the time of Turrican’s release, the Commodore 64 had been in the hands of developers for eight years. The result was an incredibly diverse software library. But few titles authentically captured the frantic feel of arcade games. Sure, there were some decent ports. But largely, the aging hardware struggled to render swarms of on-screen sprites. This is especially true for games that scrolled in multiple directions.

In 1990, Manfred Trenz bucked the trend. Turrican borrowed the multiple weapon loadouts from Data East’s Psycho-Nics Oscar while adding the kind of expansive, vertical biomes found in Nintendo’s Metroid. The result was a technical showcase, with the game’s gun-toting, bio-engineered protagonist sending out showers of projectiles to exterminate marauding foes. Turrican’s five worlds felt wonderfully precarious, with enemies who would swarm you, spikes that could impale you, and plenty of pits that threatened to swallow our hero. As such, it’s hardly surprising that the property received a succession of sequels and remakes.

Turrican Anthology Volume II bundles three of the series’ outings along with a single-stage score-attack culled from Super Turrican (the full game is part of Turrican Anthology Volume 1). While it’s a solid port with a few agreeable extras, the publisher’s curation and pricing are poised to displease players. Let’s take a closer look at what’s included in the compilation.

Turrican 3/Mega Turrican 

One of the notable omissions from Turrican re-releases are the stories behind the games. In short, the property has a contentious history. In our review of Volume 1, we noted how the compilation omitted Manfred Trenz’s first two Commodore 64-based entries. Instead, the collection opted for Rainbow Art’s technical superior Amiga ports, which don’t provide much context for an appreciation of the original efforts. Trenz’s European-exclusive Super Turrican also didn’t make the cut. Volume 1 bundled a SNES cartridge that shared the name but was a totally different take on Turrican.

Mega Turrican was originally developed for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. An Amiga version was quickly ordered with Frankfurt-based KAIKO (Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, Red Faction Guerrilla Re-MARS-tered) and Neon Studios handling porting duties. While the console version was being shopped around for a publisher, Turrican 3 was released in 1993, beating Mega Turrican out the gate. For thirty years, retro aficionados have debated which is better. Differences are minor, with the Amiga version generally earning praise for its better music, while the Genesis/Mega Drive iteration exhibits enhanced visuals.

No matter which iteration you think is superior, Turrican 3 and Mega Turrican are two of the series’ better outings, demonstrating the franchise borrowing ideas from other properties. Most notable is the new function of your Plasma Rope. No longer a spinning weapon, the tool is now a Bionic Commando-style grappling hook, capable of hoisting you up to elevated platforms. You’ll definitely need it, as Turrican’s jumping ability is notably reduced.

The other deviation is a shift from the more labyrinthine levels to stages that are more linear. Yes, there are some forks in the road that tend to lead to power-up caches, but largely the game’s trek is more straightforward, with the route toward the level exit almost always evident. That’s not a bad thing, but you’ll have to take a bit more care as you advance through each zone. Turrican 3/Mega Turrican has more chasms to cross.

But the problem here is that beyond some minor distinctions, the two titles are essentially the same game. Turrican Anthology Volume 1 already felt meager, but the second volume feels even more miserly with two versions of the same headliner. Then there’s the inclusion of the Mega Turrican Director’s Cut, which is really just the same game with an unlockable stage made accessible from the start.

Super Turrican 2

Super Turrican 2 doesn’t play like previous games in the franchise, feeling far more like a Contra III-style run-and-gun than Manfred Trenz’s original effort. And you’d probably be fine with that if the game was gratifying, but it’s often a curious slog.

The problem isn’t rooted in the diversity of your arsenal. Turrican has access to the standard issue gun, which provides four different modes of fire, and well as supplementary homing missiles. Additionally, each firing type can be leveled up threefold. Each has its own usage, with the spread gun and rebound laser effective for areas with high enemy density. Meanwhile, the laser can quickly char foes.

But save for the laser, your gun doesn’t feel very powerful. Enemies, even at the start of the game, absorb far too many bullets. Even subordinate foes on the inaugural stage can withstand up to eight direct hits. The original concept was to have players seize control of a walking tank, swatting away swarms of faster, more plentiful antagonists. But Super Turrican 2 largely eschews power fantasy. Again, you’re Plasma Rope only temporarily freezes some enemies, instead of being the lasso of lethality that Trenz intended.

Like the jetpack and shooter stages in the first two outings, Super Turrican 2 attempts to provide different types of action. So, beyond the central run-and-gun stages, there are also vehicular levels. In the first stage, you’ll hop into a buggy for some fixed-scrolling play. In other zones, you’ll use your grappling hook to suspend from a spaceship as enemies converge from all around.

Super Turrican 2 isn’t afraid to exploit the SNES’ Mode-7 abilities. One level has you dangling from a massive monster’s mouth while its pointed tongue attempts to push you into its belly. Another has you rocket-biking through a three-dimensional corridor, dodging deadly vertical lasers. Although Super Turrican 2 gameplay might not hold up to the rest of the series, the visuals are undoubtedly a high point.

Conclusion

Sure, these are solid ports with a multitude of visual options, and the ability to rewind play. There’s even the inclusion of manual scans. But there’s no practical explanation of why the two 1.3GB collections had to be broken up. The presumption is that a pair of $35 packages seem cheaper that a single $70 compilation, which is the kind of marketing that insults intelligence. Only if this compendium provided a comprehensive history of the franchise, could this kind of pricing be justifiable.

Turrican Anthology Vol. II was played on
Switch with review code provided by the publisher