After 30 years since Turrican launched in Amiga, ININ Games has decided to celebrate the legacy of the franchise by putting together some of the best entries for the new platforms. Turrican Flashback is included in the same package: Turrican, Turrican 2, Super Turrican, and Mega Turrican. In addition, new, more modern features are added, such as: B. the option to create backup files and to rewind. The collection may not include all of Turrican’s titles, but we dare say these handful of games represent the best of the series and allow us to go back in time when run-and-gun ruled the industry.
If you’ve never played a title in this series, what better way to describe them than to say that they offer the same explosive action that we can see in games like Contra. In Turrican, however, the feeling of verticality and freedom is greater at each level. These titles, like many others from that era, are extremely difficult as you will encounter many enemies who are constantly firing projectiles at you and interfering with your health. To help you fight these enemy attacks, there are a variety of power ups that have different effects, such as: B. Increasing your rate of fire or ricocheting your bullets off walls. The games in the compilation come from three different platforms but function very similarly, with the visual aspect being the main change between them.
Two of the elements that stood out the most on this series were the soundtrack and drafts of the numerous battles with the bosses. The soundtrack by composer Chris Huelsbeck is very melodic and surprisingly optimistic, but it fits the graphics perfectly. Also, I have to admit that some of these melodies have been repeated in my head more than once. On the other hand, the bosses’ designs are also fantastic, a visual spectacle and a challenge in a duel. Something disappointing about these titles, however, was that many of the tracks and bosses were repeated in both Super Turrican and Mega Turrican. I can understand that this is due to two more or less parallel developments for two different platforms, but when they were played one after the other some aspects were repetitive.
They’re still very entertaining, even for someone who hasn’t grown up in this video game era. However, there are some parts that are a little tricky. In both Turrican and Turrican 2 you will continuously take damage whenever you encounter a trap or enemy, and the game can be ended instantly if you don’t act quickly. This design is difficult to get used to as modern games leave a period of invincibility so you can prepare for what lies ahead. Also, I found that the Mega Turrican hook was very complicated to use, as in order to use it you have to stay completely still, which can be a burden when trying to move fast and there are many enemies.
Inside the collection there is a new option that allows us to create up to six backup files for the same game. It’s definitely a very handy feature, although in my case one of my backup files got corrupted while playing Mega Turrican and burned so badly that I stopped playing. In addition to these backup files, there is another very useful feature which is rewind which allows you to undo your mistakes. It works the same as in the Nintendo Online NES and SNES applications. There are also tricks you can activate, different display modes, and the ability to add multiple backgrounds to fill the edges of the screen when viewed in 4: 3.
What is really missing in this collection, however, is a real motivation for long-time fans to re-enter the adventure of reliving games with more modern hardware. Sure, save files and rewind files are handy features, but there’s nothing in the compilation that makes us feel like we’re celebrating the show’s anniversary. The only thing that appears in the main menu is a paragraph that gives us a description of each title without even considering basic expectations like pictures of the cover. After all, personally I would have liked to see a library of music and images from the game’s concept art.
Turrican Flashback represents the best aspects of the Turrican series, and allows us to bring the run-and-gun action back to the present day with features that are just as useful as the backup files we talked about. All four titles in this new collection are holding up surprisingly well after all this time, and I had no problems with the emulation. However, I think it lacks some extra features like a music player to make it look like a real series anniversary celebration. In short, if you’re a fan of retro games and are looking for something in the same vein as Contra, but with a different twist, Turrican Flashback is sure to have a blast.
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