The Amiga – a home computer launched in the mid-eighties – had a huge number of titles that have become forgotten. In many cases that’s a good thing. The Turrican series has been treated mildly well in terms of re-releases …
The Amiga – a home computer launched in the mid-eighties – had a huge number of titles that have become forgotten. In many cases that’s a good thing.
The Turrican series has been treated mildly well in terms of re-releases though, with the Switch already having one compilation available. Sadly it’s physical only, and costs an absolute packet.
So Flashback is welcome from that point of view, even if it’s notably missing a few key titles – namely the much loved Super Turrican 2.
What is included are the first two Amiga titles – Turrican and Turrican 2 – along with the Mega Drive (Mega Turrican) and SNES (Super Turrican) entries.
There’s not much in the way of extras here though – it’s bare bones stuff. No art galleries or significant extras are present, although there is a rewind button and save states.
The latter are very welcome too, as these games are hard. Proper balls to the wall hard. The controls are tight, but there’s no getting around it – if you’re used to checkpoints every few seconds the Turrican games will kick your behind, and keep kicking it until there’s no behind left to kick.
There’s no ability to shoot up either, so these are games that felt a bit old school even at the time of their release.
You’re almost always to blame when you die though (which you will, a lot – have we mentioned that?), and there’s certainly a timeless quality to the level design – which often isn’t linear and sees you exploring some real mazey labyrinths.
The weaponry is also consistently excellent, and is always satisfying to use against the many waves of enemies you’ll face.
You’ll need to be patient to enjoy these elements though, and it’s unlikely many modern gamers will really feel the desire to put in that time considering the superior modern shooter alternatives out there.
Modern gamers ultimately won’t get much from these games due to the difficulty, and hardcore Turrican fans will be disappointed with what is a solid but notably incomplete collection.
