The Turrican series originated on the Commodore 64 and its existence was taken as proof that at a time when action games were usually made a) by the Japanese and b) for consoles only, the West could create a balls-out PC action game that can hang with the best of the genre.

Usually defined as a fusion of Metroid and Contra, both Turrican games had huge labyrinthine levels, immense firepower, and fast-paced action. The real thrill of the game is exploring every nook and cranny and discover the secrets hidden everywhere. You are packed with weaponry, and you can roll up into a ball and drop mines as you go (hmmm...).

Sadly, the C64 games are not available on the Virtual Console.

But the game we get to play is usually considered the most faithful console adaptation of this franchise! The Megadrive had a complete port that suffered from problematic sound (a crime considering the quality of the soundtrack) and controls, followed by a linear original game that seemed to miss the point.

But Super Turrican got the right idea. Almost completely original, and developed by the now legendary Factor 5 development studio, Super Turrican had gameplay reminiscent of the original games, a soundtrack optimized for the SNES's powerful sound chip (look at that Dolby Surround logo on the box!), and it controls very smoothly. Purists complain about the snow level which seems out of place for the franchise, as well as the fact that the game as a whole seems like a "patchwork" of the previous games. But who cares? It's as close to the Turrican experience as we can get without getting a C64 or Amiga.


Above: the Amiga version of Turrican, which we won't be playing
Why not add Super Turrican to your collection, and indicate you are currently playing it? And don't forget to rate it when you're done!


List of Awesome
A list paying tribute to all the brave warriors who play the game to completion
Nate38
X-pert74
Guillaume
VofEscaflowne
helaciouscrumb

List of Awesomer
To get on this list, attempt a time or score attack
nate38 - 1 hour, 20 minutes
X-pert74 - 182,400 points
VofEscaflowne - 228,000 points
Guillaume - 234,100 points

List of Awesomest
A list for one (or two). Reserved for time or score attack record holder(s)
nate38 - 1 hour, 20 minutes
Guillaume - 234,100 points

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Compared to ther rest of the game, the end boss was a definate let down, but a great game none the less. I'm glad i participated! Time to go for the awesomest!

I'm confused. How do you go for time attack? My score was around 228,000 when I beat it but no idea on the time it took to beat it.

I don't remember there being an in-game timer. I just used the playtime stats from the Wii Message Board.

I have the cartridge, so I can't refer to such a thing D:

Well I know I said I'd play along with you guys, but I finally got a chance to try it out today after finishing finals up and I'm not feeling this game. Shooters really aren't my thing and since we're so deep into this cycle already, I'll just wait for the next one. Are N64 games up next or something?

Crap! I keep forgetting to play!

@Jargon

No, we're gonna go back to NES/SMS games. The cycle is roughly 2 NES/SMS games, then one Genesis/SNES game. Or something. Whatever. I guess I could have included N64 games in the last suggestion thread, but forgot.

Looks like we're doing Majora's Mask next anyway, so yay for ShadowLink picking up the slack! I was gonna be too busy in the next few weeks to do one anyway.

By the way, new list added to the OP.

edit - Alright, removed it, since the lame-o's didn't even acknowledge the joke.

Gui said:

List of super lame-o's
Mr_Mustache
Jargon

@Guillaume

Yea, that makes more sense to me.

Majora's Mask? Looks like I'm skipping two straight Clubs.

I just went through the game on Hard difficulty. I think I can safely say that nothing changes save the number of continues. The enemies aren't harder, there isn't an additional level.

So it doesn't make the game harder at all. At this point, I know a LOT of 1up locations, I ended the game with 8 lives remaining. So that's a little disappointing.

But I think the fun in this game is in exploring the levels anyway, and perhaps not so much the Contra-like action (though that's fun too).


So... is it me or is there way less participation in this retro club than the previous ones? What's the cause? I thought that the way we did the voting would mean more participation, not less.

Is this proof that democracy doesn't work? Maybe I should be the benevolent ruler with an iron fist..

Or is it the 800 pts price tag? The way someone managed to beat the game in an hour? The fact that TriforceBun has gone AWOL?

Is there less people playing or just less conversation? I feel like "short" 2D sidescrollers are fun to play through, but have less to talk about than something like StarTropics did. Especially when it seems most everyone but me burns through them in a single night.

I've found a number of hidden areas in most every level (excluding the third world, since that's mostly linear), but I still haven't found everything yet.

@Guillaume I'm not sure why almost no one is participating in this round. Maybe a lot of people got disappointed that Rondo of Blood didn't win, so they decided to take it out on poor old Super Turrican?

@Guillaume

It's kind of disappointing that so many people who voted Yes haven't shown up in this thread. One idea would be if you vote yes and then don't participate in the thread, you lose your vote next time. I realize that I would lose my vote, but it would provide for some accountability (and at least I played through the first level). As it is, it might as well be a poll since anyone can vote for a game to swing the votes and then not end up participating.

That's probably too harsh for this round, but you could announce it for next round and be clear that if you're not actually going to play a game, don't vote yes for it.

I figured that was the point of open voting, that there would be some accountability.

Anyway, going through the thread it looks like 9? people are playing the game (9 1/2 if you count Jargon trying it out) which really isn't bad for a site that only has X amount of active members. Maybe I'm more used to a slow burn for things, the podcast and RGC are already bigger successes than half the stuff I've (admittedly more half-heartedly) tried over the years.

I've done every RGC so far but to be honest they kind of move too fast for me. I know not everyone is in the situation where I am, but between work, school, girlfriend, family, etc. I have a limited amount of game time nowadays and lately it has sort of come down to IF I play the RGC game, I don't get time to play any of my other games. Almost like to truly keep up with this, I'd have to only play RGC games and nothing else. But I want to play my other games, so I do, and then I slack a bit on the RGCs. If Majora's Mask is truly next, I'll actually be looking forward to a bit of a break (cause I already beat it in the past and don't need to go back to it.)

I think Castlevania: Rondo of Blood would have brought about more discussion

I voted 'no' to this game during the voting period so that's why I didn't show up. I love Super Turrican and have the Wii VC version, but I knew my gaming priorities would be elsewhere.

As for the lack of discussion: it's not necessarily the 2-D sidescrolling genre. I had fun discussing my progress with Wonder Boy and Adventure Island, and it was fun playing along with everyone, even though they were also 2-D platformers.

I'm playing this tonight. How much time is left?

I'll beat it in one sitting.

@Zero

If theres one thing Zero and I do, its agree about everything. I gotta say, man, I imagine, as Zero said, a lot of it comes down to priorities. I just bought a brand new Wii game that I'd been waiting for for months..or, if you look at it in a certain light, yeeears. The week before, I was pretty busy, going out a lot, and I had a bunch of other stuff to do.

As cool as Majora's Mask would be to play with you dudes, I totally can't swing that now. At all. I'm so F'n backed up on my backlog. Hey..

--Woops!, Poll time!

There is as much time left to play the game as you want. We don't lock this thread, you can always come back and post your thoughts. It's just more fun when we play "together". It's kind of the point.

Really, it's perfectly understandable that people would skip the odd RGC now and then. What I don't understand is why they voted "yes" if they weren't really planning to play it or discuss it... It sucks a bit.

@Guillaume

I just want to know how long until you guys move onto the next game.

Playing a game a week removed is no fun. No fun at all!

@Mr_Mustache

I think he's planning to wait 'til Majora's Mask is done.

I have to get cracking on some sort of schedule for that. Go date is like a week away.