Super Turrican

"An excellent platform shooter that doesn't receive enough publicity."

Introduction
Back in the SNES years, many great shooters flooded the SNES. There was the unforgettable Super Metroid, the action-intense Contra III, and even the Mega Man X series. And then there was Super Turrican released by an unheard of company, Seika. Unfortunately, only a small amount of people have actually played this unpublicized classic. Super Turrican puts you in the role of the U.S.S. Freedom Forces, which is an intergalactic freedom fighting force. You wear a Turrican suit which allows you to engage in combat against all types of alien forces. Don't worry, the story isn't as sappy as it sounds.

The story is pretty simple. A planet is inhabited by evil alien forces and your peace-fighting force receives a SOS call. So you rush to the scene to come and save the day as a Super Turrican marine. While it does seem a bit Metroidish alienish, save the day Contra likeish, it definitely gets the job done.

Graphics [9/10]
Some of the most beautiful sprite graphics I've ever seen have come from Super Turrican. To start off, the game plays like a 2D platform shooter. It's similar to Contra, but rather than scrolling horizontally through levels, you can also explore up, down, and across. Different levels have different architectures. Your turrican suit is very detailed, the enemies have neat appearances, and the actual items look very unique. The backgrounds were simply amazing for this game. They're so colorful and really set your eyes to the theme of the level. The vibrant colors easily match in well with the level appearance. The powerups each have unique looks. The velocity animations of your weapon being fired are very pleasing to the eyes. One of the powerups makes your ammo split into tiny balls that bounce off of walls and platforms. This was a very neat effect since you could watch hundreds of balls flying around without any loss in the frames per second. Your ice beam has a neat lightning effect to it and the character animations are done very well. It's been a long time since I've seen a game so well done in the graphics department.

Sound [9/10]
The actual sound effects are decent. There are some neat sounds for your weapons being shot, but they're very repetitive. Each weapon has a unique tone that matches the velocity of the weapon being shot. Your ice beam makes the typical sound a beam would make. There wasn't too much groundbreaking in-game. I just don't think there was enough detail in the sounds to warrant anything to perfection. One of the thrilling features of the game was the music. It was composed by this one artist who gave the game its own unique pose. To start off, if it weren't for this music, the sound would've just sucked. The first level song is quite upbeat and happy. Eventually though, as you advance to the enemy's core, the music gets more evil and cynical. When you're in this factory, you can hear the clinks and bangs of machinery. I must say, the music was composed well enough to get the gamer hooked to this game.

Gameplay [8/10]
Quite too often, many people quote Super Turrican as being a Metroid/Contra/Megaman clone. That is an overrated statement. Super Turrican is a unique game itself. Since the game is a 2D platform shooter, you'd expect your typical left-to-right scrolling levels. While this is true at certain points in the game, Turrican also has its own unique exploration feature. There are different shortcuts and paths you can take in levels, including backtracking. Many times, taking one path can save you several seconds rather than taking another path. Many of the bosses have their own unique patterns. There's this one boss that bloats up each time you shoot him until he's the size of an Italian meatball. There's definitely enough variety in the game to keep you hooked. Even though the game is only single player, it has enough details to make it worthwhile. You get points for collecting diamonds, and finding one-ups. Your character is capable of rolling into a ball (aka Super Metroid) and dropping mines. He can also use an ice beam to temporarily freeze enemies. This is a very helpful feature in taking out some of the bigger or pesky nuisances. If anything, the only lacking aspect of the gameplay is the fact that it can get quite repetitive.

Fun [7/10]
For being a platform shooter, Super Turrican offers enough depth to give the user plenty of fun while playing. In my opinion, I found the game to be very entertaining. There are various obstacles that you have to watch for, and some unique enemy positions. The game gives you satisfaction in blowing up aliens that are terrorizing citizens of an innocent planet.

Replayability [4/10]
This is probably the only lacking aspect of the game itself. After you beat Super Turrican (which you probably will), there is very little to do again. While there are three difficulties, these only determine the amount of starting lives you have. There are no extra endings for accomplishing the same task on a harder level. The only tasks you can try to accomplish involves collecting all the diamonds or one-ups of a certain level. While the game is fun to play again thoroughly, it could've used some extra codes to spice up the game itself.

Difficulty [4/10]
This is another lacking part of Turrican. There's only six levels, or twelve stages and this really tarnishes the difficulty. There are many people who can beat this game after only trying it a few times. You can make it well into level four easily on the normal difficulty. The game just isn't challenging enough. The reason is because you, the player, is probably too strong. Your ice beam doesn't have that much of a limited range, and you can constantly freeze enemies. Plus, you have no restricting ammo limits except for your smart bombs. While the game does have challenge in the levels, it just doesn't offer enough to satisfy someone looking for a good challenge.

Final Factor [9/10]
Even with its permeating challenge flaws, Super Turrican should've been a well known platform shooter. This game should've been on top along with Mega Man X, Contra III, and Super Metroid. It had beautiful graphics, excellent music, and lots of detail in the gameplay. If only the gaming world knew about this game, then perhaps we would have another player's choice game. If I had to name an award for this game, it would definitely be the underrated shooting platformer of the SNES. No fan of the SNES should be without this game. You should definitely pick this up if you're looking for an addition to your SNES collection.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/22/02, Updated 08/22/02