Turrican 2: One Of The Best Platform Games To Grace The Amiga (Turrican 2)

Name: wampyrii

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Product:	Turrican 2
Date:	07/08/01 (84 review reads)
Rating:

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Turrican and Turrican 2 were two of the finest games to grace the Amiga platform. They came at a time when every other game was either a film licence or a platform game(yes Ocean software) and despite at least fulfilling one of those criteria, still managed to blow everyone away.

Where they stood proud above the competition was in the gameplay and graphics department. Huge care and attention had been paid to the Turrican licence to make it the very best that it could possibly be and that fact shone through in the gameplay. The first thing you notice is the graphics. For the time the visuals in this game were stunning and probably its initial main draw to most of the game buying public. The backgrounds were beautiful and the main turrican character large and well animated. The attention to detail was superb considering the platform which the producers had to work on. Enemy sprites too were well drawn and animated and came in enough variety to keep you interested - and the end of level bosses were huge and looked equally good. As a child at the time, it was the visual images which drew me to this game above all else...well remember how important that was back then? Most of the time you found the game sucked(Shadow of the Beast springs to mind...then Deathbringer) but you never learnt your lesson. Well, this time you got both gameplay and graphic, because the game was equally excellent.

Yes, ok admittedly its another platformer and the Amiga platform is awash with the damn things, but at the same time its a platformer with more than a few original ideas. The levels for a start are huge and well designed. There are plenty of secret areas and power-ups dotted about the place in hard to reach areas. The enemies are numerous and attack in a variety of different ways so that it never becomes stale or boring and the difficulty level is pitched just right so that you don't get slaughtered all the time and its equally difficult to just wander through the
levels blasting away merrily without a fear of being taken out. You get a variety of different power ups which either aid you offensively or defensively - different weapons etc. and bosses which are genuinely tough to beat. It is a cut above most other platform games and with a pumping soundtrack its hard to fault it...

Well ok, there are a few faults. As with most Amiga games, the action does slow down a little when there are too many sprites etc. on screen at once and the scrolling is a little iffy. Another MINOR niggle for anyone who has the original Turrican game is that the sequel is basically the original over again with a graphical spring clean and some different level maps. These are minor gripes though in the grand scheme of things. It would have been nice if they could have hugely expanded on the already excellent Turrican in the sequel, but you have to look at the limitations - and they did make improvements. It is overall an excellent game, and it still looks good and plays good today. If you haven't got an Amiga then there is a PC version available as well so there is no excuse to miss out...well it might be a toughie to track down, but its a great piece of retro fun! Highly recommended.

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