Turrican Anthology Vol. 1 PS4 review. Boasting no less than five entries from the 16-bit side-scrolling, platformer shooter series known as Turrican, Turrican Anthology Vol. 1 packs in a whole heap of retro blasting goodness that both crusty fans of the original franchise (like me) and all-new players with a thing for classic platforming shooters can appreciate.
Turrican Anthology Vol. 1 PS4 Review
An Accomplished Collection Of Retro Platforming Shooters
Turrican Anthology Vol. 1 provides the Amiga versions of Turrican and Turrican 2, the SNES versions of Super Turrican and the Super Turrican Director’s Cut and finally the Genesis/Mega Drive version of Mega Turrican Score Attack, proving into the bargain that the curation of games in the Turrican Anthology Vol. 1 is among the best in the series in the process. For the uninitiated, the Turrican games are essentially classic side-scrolling shooters with a sizable lump of platforming thrown in there to boot, encouraging the player to blast their way through various themed levels stuffed with all manner of aliens, bosses and more besides.
Where the Turrican games have generally managed to stand apart from their genre counterparts however, is in a number of ways. First off, in a fashion that is inspired somewhat by Nintendo’s early Metroid titles, the levels in the Turrican games are generally designed quite broadly in a non-linear fashion, boasting a vast number of secret areas and extra power-ups and so on that can be collected for those who are brave enough to wander off the beaten path. Cleverly, many of these secret areas rely on players analysing a situation first before going in guns blasting, since some of these hard to reach areas might require destructible blocks for you to stand on which you might ordinarily destroy without a second thought.
The Metroid inspirations are felt in other aspects of Turrican’s design too. Our alien-blasting protagonist can turn himself into a rolling pinwheel that permits access to various nooks and crannies in which various extra lives, precious health and gun upgrades can typically be found – though such uses of that ability are finite in the first two games.
The map system is hugely impressive too across all of the games in this collection, allowing you to scroll around the entirety of the map on a given level and filter out enemies, blocks, secret areas and more as you burrow your way into every nook and cranny of each stage. It’s a great little addition to these games that would find itself similarly welcomed in other titles from the side-scrolling platformer shooter genre.
All of the Turrican games in this neat little collection are great to play for the most part too, with Turrican himself providing highly responsive and providing the player with means to dish out an arsenal of attacks pretty effortlessly. That said, it’s fair to say that the boss design isn’t exactly inspired stuff as many bosses will just crowd the screen with their mass (causing you sustained damage if you touch them), rather than presenting much in the way of an innovative challenge.
Instead, the Turrican games succeed best when they’re getting players to leap and blast their way around a series differently themed, non-linear levels in search of aliens to smash, upgrades to gain and secrets to discover. In terms of the technical side of these re-releases, not only are they faithful to the original versions of those games, but there are a variety of different graphical effect filters, CRT filters, remixed soundtracks to choose from and more besides. In short, there are no shortage of tweakables for players to familiar themselves with to tailor each of the games in this collection to their aesthetics preferences.
Additionally, Turrican Anthology Vol. 1 also allows player to rewind and save their game states too in a bid to aid rookie players. While this is welcome, it’s also worth noting that doing this prevents you from earning any trophies whatsoever – so bear that in mind before you start applying that particular pair of belts and braces to the proceedings.
All in all, Turrican Anthology Vol. 1 does a commendable enough job of packing together a handful of retro shooters from yesteryear that are still a lot of fun to play and boast refreshingly non-linear level design for the most part. Throw in a smattering of visual tweaks and a superb map system and it soon becomes apparent that Turrican Anthology Vol. 1 is a no-brainer purchase for anyone who has even a passing fondness for side-scrolling platforming shooters.
Turrican Anthology Vol. 1 is out now on PS4.
Review code kindly provided by PR.