Turrican II: The Final Fight
1991
- shooter
- platform
- action
- science fiction
- single player
The story
Turrican II: The Final Fight is a platformer/shooter as typically seen on consoles, but designed for home computers from the ground up. Its plot is - naturally - very simple: an evil mega-robot called The Machine attacks the United Planets Ship Avalon 1, slaughtering all who resist. All - except Bren McGuire, who manages to escape and slips into the experimental Turrican bionic armor. As Turrican, he strives to show The Machine who's the boss. Unlike other games of its type, this game contains three levels of horizontal shooter action in the spirit of R-Type or the developers' own Katakis. Six large worlds are to be explored, where you are basically free to go everywhere you want, since there is no automatic scrolling and the levels are packed with hidden extra lives and weapons. All those levels are very different: the first one in the rock desert is pretty colorful with parallaxing rainbow background and happy music, while the following worlds get darker and darker.
What it’s like
Bright, chunky sprites against a dusk-to-dark palette: the early worlds bloom with parallaxing rainbow skies and sun-baked rock, then the later stages sink into dim metallic corridors and cold industrial blue. Sound drives the mood, with upbeat chiptune tracks on the desert stages giving way to heavier, more ominous synth cues as the levels darken. The game moves in punchy bursts, with you sprinting and gunning across wide open levels, pausing for multi-hit bosses and short horizontal shooter sections that flip the perspective. Hidden power-ups and extra lives reward slow, curious wandering, so the rhythm alternates between adrenaline and patient exploration. Its vibe is energetic and retro-futuristic, a pulpy sci-fi revenge story played at full volume, with a gentle sense of discovery threaded through the bombast. Violence is constant but cartoonish: laser fire, explosions and robot enemies, with no gore and no sexual content. It suits an evening of arcade-style play, a nostalgic weekend session, or a Commodore 64 or Atari ST enthusiast who loves run-and-gun platforming with a hunt for secrets.
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