Super Turrican 2, Super Nintendo

This sequel to Super Turrican was again created by German developer Factor 5 and was published by Ocean Software for the Super Nintendo in 1995.

The grapple arm – as seen in Mega Turrican – was finally introduced into a SNES Turrican game, in this game, which allows the Turrican to grab onto parts of the scenery and swing around, Bionic Commando-style.

Another major addition to the game are different vehicles – such as a desert dune buggy, a space motorcycle, and an underwater motorised jet – that The Turrican can find and ride, making his journey through the levels marginally more varied and exciting.

The gameplay remains pretty much the same as previously: blast your way through various platform-based levels, destroying enemies and trouncing bosses; picking up power-ups to change and enhance your weapons. The three main weapon types remain (spread shot, laser, and bounce shot); as does the ‘wheel mode’ (The Turrican turns into a ball and can drop mines and become invulnerable); but the freeze ray has been changed into a flamethrower in Turrican 2 and you can also use homing missiles as a secondary weapon too.

Overall, the graphics, music and general presentation (including the addition of cut sequences) are arguably a step up from previous Turrican games. The levels are larger than before, but more linear than previous games, and feature fewer secret areas, which may be disappointing to some players. But overall this is a very good sequel in a well-respected series and shouldn’t be ignored if you’re a fan of scrolling, platform-based shooters.

Turrican 2 is possibly the best Turrican game that was ever developed, and is currently available to play. As far as run-and-gun, Metroidvania-style shooters go, it’s probably up there with the best. Manfred Trenz – the original creator of Turrican – went on to release his own run-and-gun game on the Super Nintendo, through Virgin Interactive – also in 1995, called Rendering Ranger. That’s also worth looking at if you like the Turrican series.