SNES vs. Genesis: Turrican Showdown

Mega Turrican

A run-and-gun shooter developed by Factor 5 in 1993 and published for the Genesis in 1994 by Data East. The graphics here are the most dated of the four games, unfortunately, although it does have a nice bit of complexity to the backgrounds that ST1 seemingly doesn’t have, but it does feature the massive levels seen in Super Turrican 1 and the grappling hook from Super Turrican 2. It’s not quite as fast-paced as later installments, but it moves quickly enough and the size of the levels makes things more interesting. MT also features, in addition to the main weapon and a morphball mode where you can access narrow passages and drop mines, but does not feature the freezeray unlike Super Turrican 1 and 2. Overall, it’s a fun game and more interesting to play than many of the action games that have been reviewed thus far.

Super Turrican 1

Developed by Factor 5 and released by Kemco in September 1993 for the SNES. The levels are very large and allow for a bit of roaming as your work your way from one end to the other. There are tons of powerups to acquire and various types of weapons, culminating in shots that will up nearly half the screen. The sprites are larger than in Mega Turrican, but the backgrounds feel kind of plain.

Super Turrican 2

Developed by Factor 5 and released by Ocean Software in 1994. Unlike the other two Turrican games, Super Turrican 2 is a bit more streamlined in that the levels are smaller and it’s more focused on fast-paced action and shooting lots and lots robots and aliens in a short span of time. As with the other games in the series, there’s lot of powerups and other things to be found. The grappling hook makes a return this time around and it means more platforming than ever, with vertical walls to be scaled and horizontal spans to be grappled across, serving to make the game a bit more interesting than it might. It’s also the best looking of the three Turrican games and has some really neat effects like animated backgrounds [the first level shows a ruined city in the distance that shimmers from waves of heat]. ST2 has some pretty big bosses to fight and vehicles to run around in from time to time. The game is a bit on the difficult side, but you can gain new lives by finding gems scattered around the levels. All things considered, I think this one might be my favorite of the three Turrican games.

R2: Rendering Ranger

Developed by Rainbow Arts [designed by Turrican’s Manfred Trenz] and released by Virgin Interactive in Japan in November 1995. Only 10,00o copies were ever produced and it was only ever released in Japan, making it one of the more rare commercially released SNES games. It plays a lot like Super Turrican 2, in that the levels are fairly small and straight-forward and his a bigger emphasis on quick action. The game is notable for its visuals, which are quite impressive, although it’s a bit stiff since most of the enemies don’t actually animated like they do in the other Turrican games. The game does feature some shmup levels to give it a bit more variety, but overall I just don’t find it to be as fun or engaging as the Turrican series.