Turrican II: The Final Fight

Turrican II: The Final Fight
Developer(s) Rainbow Arts (C64)
Factor 5 (Amiga, AST)
Enigma Variations (CPC, ZX)
Sun-Project (PC)
Code Monkeys (MD, GB)
Publisher(s) Rainbow Arts
Accolade (Universal Soldier)
Designer(s) Manfred Trenz, Andreas Escher, Holger Schmidt, Julian Eggebrecht
Composer(s) Chris Hülsbeck, Markus Siebold
Series Turrican
Platform(s) Commodore 64, Amiga, CDTV, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, PC
Universal Soldier
Mega Drive/Genesis, Game Boy
Release

Commodore 64, Amiga

Atari ST, CPC, Spectrum

PC

Universal Soldier
MD/Genesis, Game Boy

Genre(s) Sci-fi run and gun
Mode(s) Single-player

Turrican II: The Final Fight is the second game of the Turrican series. The game by Factor 5 was released in 1991 for the Commodore Amiga. This version was finished before the C64 version, but Manfred Trenz cites the C64 version as the original design. Turrican 2 was also released for the CDTV, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum, and later for DOS, and also for the Mega Drive/Genesis and Game Boy rebranded as Universal Soldier.

Story

The timedate is 3025. For decades peace, freedom, and the rule of law in galaxy Cobra 2 have been enforced by the United Planets Freedom Forces. The United Planets Ship, the Avalon 1, is drifting through the outer reaches of the known universe. Colonel Ardon C. Striker and his crew are preparing for the final passage through the barrier of the galaxy.

Suddenly, a huge battlecruiser materializes in close proximity of the Avalon 1. The crew hurry to take up their battle stations amid the sounding of the alert sirens. The automated defence systems of the ship activate, the anti-radiation shields surround the ship and finally the weapon systems are armed. Somehow, with some unknown technology, the enemy battlecruiser, with a flash of blinding light, neutralizes every defence system on the Avalon 1. The sound of an explosion fills the air as an airlock of the ship disintegrates and mutants begin to pour through. The crew fight desperately to save their ship with their phasers and dozens of the invaders fall to death, but they press forward their attack and the crew of the Avalon 1 start to fall down while desperately engaging them in hand-to-hand fighting. One of the Avalon 1 soldiers, Bren McGuire, with tears in his eyes, fires the last of his phaser bolts, downing a mutant and diving to the ground as a chunk of structure falls from above.

After an intense fight that wipes out all tripulants of the ship, there is silence as the evil emperor known as The Machine, half man half robot, enters the airlock and commands his mutants back to the battle cruiser. The Machine surveys the carnage, steps forward and comes to halt with one foot on the prone body of Bren McGuire. "Excellent", he says to himself, "the crew of Avalon 1 are no more". Then, without any further hesitation, he turns and leaves the ship. Bren McGuire lays still until he is certain that he is alone on the ravaged ship. Realizing that he is the only one left to combat the evil of the invaders and restore peace and freedom to the galaxy, he gets up and hurries to the equipment room. There, Bren sights the new Turrican fighting suits, which are built of the most advanced technology known to mankind. Climbing into the suit, one last cry is heard from him: "Revenge!"

Gameplay

Turrican II can be described as a cross between Metroid and Psycho-Nics Oscar.[1] While the huge detailed labyrinth levels and the morph-ball function were inspired by Metroid, the overall graphics design and weapons were inspired by Psycho-Nics Oscar while the spaceship shoot 'em up levels were inspired by Kaneko's Air Buster.

The game is divided into five distinct "worlds" each with its own themed music provided by Chris Huelsbeck, plus a final showdown with the boss known as "The Machine". There is a music menu accessible by pressing the Space-Bar (AMIGA version), where all the ingame music is available to be listened to. The music to Turrican II is widely regarded as one of Huelsbeck's best compositions, and it was performed live by an orchestra at the second Symphonic Game Music Concert in 2004. In 2016 Chris Huelsbeck created a limited Collector’s Edition Box Set featuring new live orchestra recordings of music from Turrican II.

Weapons

There are three primary weapons Bounce, Laser and Multiple. Each weapon has several levels of firepower. In addition, there is a white laser "wall" which sweeps out from either side of the player. The player starts off with only three of these at the start of each life. There is also a very powerful secondary weapon activated by holding down the fire-button. This takes the form of a long segmented steerable laser beam which is essential for defeating Bosses.

Power-ups

Hidden in the worlds are many Power-Up blocks, which can be discovered by hitting them with weapons fire. They contain shields, health & primary and secondary weapon power-ups.

Wheel

The Wheel is an indestructible ball that the player can switch to by pressing the down key and then Space-Bar or a second button on a joystick that supports it. Unlike its predecessor the indestructible wheel mode can be used an unlimited number of times. The Wheel will destroy most small enemies on contact, others can be destroyed using the primary fire mode which fires small bombs on the ground. There is also an ultra-fire mode which can be used once per life by pressing fire and Space-bar at the same time.

Shield

Protection from damage for a limited time.

Universal Soldier

Console conversions of Turrican II for the Mega Drive, SNES and Game Boy were produced by The Code Monkeys for Accolade, which had kept the rights for the console ports of the franchise. The game was originally developed using the original C64 source code and Amiga graphics as a base. At a late stage in the development, Accolade also acquired rights to produce a game spin-off of the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie Universal Soldier and decided to rebrand the game as Universal Soldier.[2][3] Turrican's sprite was changed into a marine and several other substitutions were made. Amongst other changes, the eyeballs-walking-on-fingers became mini tanks, and instead of a large mech/steel dragon in the first stage, the player now faces a large representation of Dolph Lundgren's character in the film.

The three shoot 'em up stages, cut out from the port, were replaced by the developers with three original stages (a Vietnam jungle, a fortress, and a motel/car junkyard) that in theory should link the game to the film's atmosphere. The rest of the original Turrican II stages are still present and remain mostly intact in overall design, though some of them appear in different order, along with the three new levels scattered through them.

Accolade decided not to publish the SNES version due to the high cost of larger capacity SNES cartridges so it only exists in the form of a leaked pre-production alpha ROM.

References

  1. ↑ Interview about games that inspired Turrican (German)
  2. ↑ "Universal Soldier". GameFAQs. Retrieved March 28, 2013.
  3. ↑ "Universal Soldier for Genesis (1992)". Moby Games. Retrieved March 28, 2013.
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