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Let me begin this review with a bold statement: “Turrican II is the standard for platform-shooters for the Amiga”. This isn’t only just my opinion, because its 4th place on the Lemon Amiga best-game chart (at the moment of writing this review) and the numerous raving magazine-reviews, most of them with scores above the 90%-mark, suggest that we are dealing with a pretty special game here.
Turrican II will make you cross 12 levels in which you have to do a lot of killing. And when I say a lot, I really mean a lot. And unless you are a total maniac gone berserk on a search for blood, there must be a pretty good reason for you to put in all this effort and murder so many living beings. Well, of coarse there is, because in the year 3025 the spaceship Avalon 1 is about to set out on a mission into the unknown parts of the universe. The crew of this ship consists of the very best space cadets under leadership of Colonel Ardon C. Striker, so on forehand the mission is expected to be a great success. But, you’ve guessed it; it isn’t, because only moments after crossing the borders of the charted universe, the Avalon 1 is under attack by a huge enemy battle cruiser with superior firepower. Within minutes the enemy ship drifts along side the Avalon 1 after which evil mutants enter it, blazing away at the hero-crew. The men on the Avalon 1 put up a heroic battle but after the smoke has settled the mutant-army is victorious.
The emperor of the mutants, called “The Machine”, who thinks of himself as the future dominator of the entire universe, enters the Avalon 1 to look down on the still smouldering battlefield and to laugh loudly in merriment over his army’s recent victory. However, he doesn’t notice that one member of the Avalon 1 crew survived and lies silently among his lifeless buddies. It is none other than Bren McGuire, who after the evil emperor and his mutant army have left the Avalon 1 to celebrate their recent victory, gets into a Turrican battle-suit to embark on a personal vendetta to rid the universe once and for all of this evil emperor and his slimy mutants, and to avenge the death of his fellow cadets.
The place of battle is Landorin, the home-planet of The Machine and his evil mutant army. The first level starts on the surface of the planet and the further you come, the farther you reach into the depth of the planet towards the hiding place of the evil Machine. On your way over there you will encounter many, many enemies with which you have to deal with. Every level has its own opponents, and some enemies will return in different forms in different levels, like the famous ED-209-like creature, who later on in the game gets the ability to fly and it even returns as a giant end-of-level-baddy. So, not only does every level contain its own enemies, there are also the huge end-of-level guardians to be found within every level, with each having its own unique battle-tactics. These guardians are, without exception, breathtaking. Some are even larger than the playing area!
How can you stand a change against these massive numbers of suicidal maniacs? Well, fortunately you are blessed with firepower in abundance, and this is really something special in Turrican II. There are so many weapons and power-ups to use, that you sometimes forget what you have up your sleeve. You’ll start of with a single-bullet gun, but there are plenty of opportunities to upgrade your weapon. During play you will encounter floating weapon-pods, which after shooting will give you power-ups and in some hidden places there are also weapon-boulders which, when discovered can be shot at or bumped at from the bottom, in real Mario Brothers style, to reveal tons of new power-ups. These weapon upgrades you can collect are:
Multiple - increases the number of bullets your gun fires from one to three and from three to five when another one is collected.
Bounce - gives your gun the ability to shoot big fire-balls which scatter into many little balls on impact with other objects.
Laser - gives you a laser beam, which increases in width, the more power-ups you collect.
Besides these weapons you also have a limited amount of power-surges. A quick tab on the spacebar will unleash one, which inflicts damage to every mutant in its path and when the joystick-button is pushed at the same time together with the spacebar, you are able to lay down mines. But wait, there’s more. Keeping the fire-button pressed will unleash a surround beam which can be rotated 360 degrees around the main Turrican-character and finally pressing the spacebar while ducking will transform you into a whirling gyroscope, destroying everything in its path. This last feature can also be used to enter minute passageways, which are to little to go through when in full size mode. Besides these weapons and weapon upgrades, there are also other power-ups to collect:
Shield - as expected, this power-up will make you temporarily invulnerable against enemy fire power.
Power-Up - when you are low on energy, this will increase it to maximum.
Power Surge - gives you an extra power-surge.
Surround Beam - increases the length of your surround beam so you can kill enemies at a longer range.
Explosion - this will destroy every enemy, which is visible on the screen.
Furthermore there are also some extra lives scattered around in every level; with some very well hidden, and there are also diamonds to be collected for extra continues and points.
The 12 levels are divided into 5 worlds, each having its own theme. Without exception these worlds are gigantic, giving you the possibility to do a lot of exploring and puzzling. There are so many secret areas and possibilities, that even when you play Turrican II a second time, you can find new places you’ve never been before.
To say Turrican II is purely a platform-shooter is not really accurate, because after level 2, you’ll enter a spaceship, causing level 3 to be a horizontal shooter. And if you think that such a deviation from the main game-theme can’t be that good, you are terribly wrong. Level 3 of Turrican II can compete with the best horizontal shooters around, with fluent scrolling, many weapons and much action and gameplay. Also the last level in turrican II is slightly different from the rest in that you have to go way up by jumping from one elevator to another, with every one exploding after a given number of seconds. So timing and choosing the right elevators is of great importance here, or else you’ll fall down a long way.
Technically Turrican II is brilliant. The graphics are very good and colourful, with nice shaded skylines and backdrops, and the levels are each unique and different from the others. There are so many different enemies in this game and all of them are designed very nicely. The main sprite animation is smooth and a pleasure to the eye. To finish it off are the terrific end-of-level guardians which are truly eye-candy. And then we have the sound. With this, Turrican II is in a league of its own. The soundtrack by Chris Huelsbeck is arguably the best music in any Amiga game. Every level, sub-level and end-of-level guardian is accompanied with its own, without exception, brilliant tune, which will stay in your mind for ages. Add to that the very nice in-game sounds and speech-effects when collecting power-ups and you understand why the sound enhance the pleasure of playing Turrican II so immensely. To top it all up you are left with a shooter, which is hugely playable. The difficulty level can be pretty tough at times, but the many power-ups can alleviate the strain just in the right amount. The huge levels need a lot of exploring and (mental) mapping, but this hugeness only increases the lastability.
Finally I have to mention the nice wind-effects you’ll sometimes encounter, which I thought were very nicely done. In level 1, you’ll get tied up in a storm (ED-209’s flying through the air!) and in later levels you’ll have to use the wind to get to higher levels. There’s also an end-of-level monster which makes use of wind, but that is something for you to find out!
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The levels are designed and drawn very nicely. Everything is very colourful and every level is different from the other. The main Turrican-sprite is really something special.
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Arguably the very best soundtrack ever made for an Amiga game together with intense sound and speech effects really increase the overall atmosphere of this brilliant game.
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Enormous levels, tons of different enemies, different styles of gameplay, including the horizontal shooter levels and many, many different weapons to use, make this platform-shooter a class of its own.
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| If you are looking for a unique gaming experience, then look no further, for Turrican II is the mother of all platform shooters on the Amiga. Graphically fantastic, sonically unique and outstanding and with tons and tons of great gameplay, I can hardly think of a better way to spend a couple of hours of your time. |
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