At the time, it felt like years had gone by, when Turrican 2 came out. The boys at Factor 5 and Rainbow Arts were clearly working tirelessly, and it shows in the second game of the series. Everything has been taken up a level – we have more colours, more graphic effects like parallax scrolling and numerous other differences, which also meant the game came on two disks.
We are lead in by a Manga-style animated intro, where we meet Bren McGuire and his huge pointy chin (he who will be Turrican), and his nemesis The Machine, who looks completely different in the intro to the huge mechanical beast you meet at the end of the game.
Turrican 2 is much harder than the original. The levels are bigger, and there’s more to explore. Level-wise, it follows a similar pattern to the original, but most the biggest surprise comes halfway through the game, when we have 3 horizontally-scrolling shoot-em-up levels, when you’re back in the Turri-ship. These levels feel like they could have been an excellent shooter in their own right, although it becomes outrageously hard, particularly when things start to speed up!
Turrican 2 also boasts what I still deem the most terrifying game level ever, where you meet Aliens and Alien eggs that thrust face-huggers at you (straight out of Ridley Scott’s films!).
Once you’ve finally made your way to The Machine’s place of residence, what is impressive is the sheer size of The Machine itself. Not the toughest of bosses, but he puts up a good fight. Then once more, Turrican jets off into the sunset as The Machine’s base explodes. Sound familiar?
While I still enjoy Turrican 2, and all of its improvements on the original, for me, there’s just something about that first Turrican game that I prefer, and that still draws me back today.
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9/10
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10/10
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10/10
Summary
While I still enjoy Turrican 2, and all of its improvements on the original, for me, there’s just something about that first Turrican game that I prefer, and that still draws me back today.