If I had to talk about the introduction scenes that have marked me the most in the history of video games, a special place is reserved, without a doubt, for the impressive cinematic of Turrican II: The Final Fight in Amiga 500, not only for the quality of the drawings, but above all for that fantastic soundtrack that Chris Huelsbeck , one of my favorite composers of that time, created.
Logically, being a friend , I have good memories of the Turrican trilogy and I really wanted to try this Turrican Flashback, the “definitive” collection of this saga created by Rainbow Arts and Factor 5 in 1990. But, does the guy hold up?
Four Turricans between Amiga and 16-bit consoles
1986 brought us great games, including Metroid. And of course, a video game like this ended up setting a trend, to the point of baptizing (along with modern Castlevania) a whole genre such as the metroidvania . However, Manfred Trenz did not look at this way of progressing through the mapping when creating Turrican , but took brushstrokes of Nintendo’s work, such as the possibility of becoming a ball, but without diminishing the importance of the action or the exploration.
The first Turrican was a success , both in Commodore 64 and Amiga 500 (version included in this Flashback), laying the foundations for what would come later, with a sequel in 1991 that, personally, I still find the most attractive installment of the entire saga. Although the first classic of 1990 today can be improved in certain aspects, such as empty stage backgrounds or not being able to kill “mushroom” enemies by jumping on them, it is still a game that requires perseverance and good visual memory to complete its multiple phases, since the exploration is very free and there are secrets everywhere. And this last one was increased to the beast in its sequel. Because there is no map.
Both are atypical run & gun , far from the arcade spirit of arcade games, partly because of that emphasis on exploration and the fear of falling off a cliff due to a few leaps of faith. They are also very versatile, thanks to the variety of weapons to be obtained, where there is no lack of one with bouncing balls, or the always helpful laser that we can direct (while standing still) in 360 degrees. At present, they can be blamed for a somewhat confusing level design in certain sections, or bosses that could be improved due to the lack of attack patterns, but you cannot fault what they meant at the time and the historical value of their OST .
It is surprising, in a way, that this collection only sticks to the first volume of the very complete anthology announced by Factor 5 and Strictly Limited last year, which means that this Turrican Flashback only includes these four:
- Turrican (Amiga 500, 1990)
- Turrican II: The Final Fight (Amiga 500, 1991)
- Mega Turrican (Mega Drive, 1994)
- Super Turrican (Super Nintendo, 1993)
A collection that rescues an almost forgotten saga
Mega Turrican is the equivalent of the Amiga 500’s Turrican 3 , where the use of the laser was replaced by a hook ( Plasma Rope ) that allowed us to hold onto the ceiling and swing. The problem is that for this you had to use it while standing still, as it did not work by jumping, which today is shocking. Of course, on a technical level, it is still a joy for the large number of details, both in the foreground and in the background. And at this point it is not a problem that it is one of the most linear games of the saga, with less exploration and secrets to discover.
Super Turrican also brought about another change , mainly due to the use of the so-called Freeze Beam , where we froze the rival. On an aesthetic level it is halfway between the main trilogy, as well as in the face of exploration. It is interesting in contrast to the first, more classical and complex development. And here it is worth remembering the greatest spiritual successor, the recent Gunlord of NGDEV.
And what about the extra features of Turrican Flashback? For starters, each game has two modes: Standard and Trophy Challenge. In the latter (to get trophies on PS4) the rewind and save game options that the standard mode does have are disabled, so it retains the difficulty of the originals. And logically, in Trophy Challenge the cheats that the standard mode does have as optional are also deactivated. In addition, the saving slots in the latter amount to six, being able to save and load states comfortably, accompanied by a capture with date to see the exact point.
Regarding the level of customization, apart from being able to program all the buttons for a specific action, there is no lack of the typical filters of these remastered classics, controlling the size of the screen, the smoothing or the sharpness of the colors. If more care is needed in the face of Turrican’s history , as there are no extras such as an art gallery or a jukebox with his songs, just a small introductory description for each game, as a summary.
In short, Turrican Flashback is not the definitive Turrican collection, but almost . It should have brought together the two volumes of Turrican Anthology, where Turrican 3 from Amiga 500 or Super Turrican 2 from Super Nintendo are missing , but in any case it is still an indispensable collection for those who sucked the beginnings of this saga that emerged in Commodore 64 And above all for tasting its soundtrack, especially that of the sequel, which is a delight.
Turrican Flashback
| Platforms | PS4 (analyzed version) and Nintendo Switch |
|---|---|
| Multiplayer | Not |
| Developer | Factor 5 |
| Company | ININ Games |
| Launch | January 29, 2021 |
| Price | 26.99 euros |
The best
- Four Turrican classics in one lot
- The style that each delivery proposed
- Chris Huelsbeck’s soundtrack
Worst
- Extras are missing about the saga …
- And the rest of volume 2 of the anthology
- The labyrinthine design of some levels