QCF: Turrican Flashback

he Western and Eastern history video games have always had their place in the main zeitgeist of video game culture, but what about the other, other West? The one that ran their television displays at 50HZ PAL output had a crap-load of gradient color schemes, and an obsession with hurting players with falling water drops—yeah, I’m talking about the European slice of gaming.

While the folks “across the pond” were able to get their own localizations of household brands like Nintendo and SEGA, there was one other name synonymous with the European gaming scene & that was Commodore Amiga.

Even though there isn’t a lot of love for the Amiga legacy outside of those who group on it, there’s been one common denominator that has seamlessly harmonized across all three regions—Turrican.

Factor 5’s Sci-Fi Run ‘n Gun has been hosted across numerous platforms, but none more celebrated than the titles that have graced the Amiga 1200, Super NES, and even the Sega Genesis, and now with the help of Ratalaika Games, Factor 5 has released an upgraded collection of the four best titles in the franchise with Turrican Flashback. Looking beyond the appeal of collecting these overlooked classics into one convenient collection, the labor of love that went into optimizing these games, and fleshing out every little quality of life enhancement and nuance imaginable is what really sets this title apart from nostalgia packages. Turrican Flashback may be one of the finest curations of a retro game set ever to be programmed.

Normally, the games would take center stage in a review (and believe me, we’ll get there) but I think it’s important to pore over the work that was put into scaling these titles up for high definition display, especially with the color palate and resolutions of the Amiga titles. Any time you see fit, players can adjust a variety of essential settings, like the degree of Paula grade Stereo mixing between the left and right sound channels, or the display definitions of 4:3 scaled to pixel perfect size and a list of different scaling filters to tool around the picture being softer or sharper. These configuration choices are standard affair, but the studio doesn’t stop there—Turrican Flashback features a load of technical minutiae to customize the experience that arguably may never have been done before in a legacy release quite like this.

The Shader menu for example has what may be the most sophisticated CRT Filter option I have ever messed with. The filter not only offers different Shadow Mask options to choose from, but players will also be able to adjust the intensity of the masking, truly showcasing why this CRT tech is still superior to the weird lank that is the aperture grille. In addition to arranging different Mask settings, players can also customize the actual curvature of the picture on-screen, and to clarify, that doesn’t mean simply opting in for curved definition to the display—you can optimize the angle to extents that work to emulate even most niche of professional-grade CRT screens. It’s just an incredible touch to the experience and one amazingly deep with its implementation. On top of all this, Ratalaika Games has also included seven different color spectrums for the visuals, which are just wild. Why would you settle for playing in RGB or Black & White when you can output Turrican in RBG, GRB, or even BRG palettes—the results can range from psychedelic to downright jaw-dropping especially on the Amiga 1200 titles where the 256 on-screen colors can be sourced from the staggering native count of 16.8 million different colors.

Luckily, the bells and whistles don’t just stop at the presentation side of things, as there's a load of gameplay enhancements that have been put into the packaged software, especially for the AGA titles.

I know there’s a lot of attention being thrown at the Amiga 1200 entries of the lineup but there’s plenty of good reason for that. The AGA games are among the most notoriously difficult games to emulate and preserve outside of playing them on actual Amiga hardware, and the work that put into including them in this form is nothing short of stellar. The biggest improvement by far is the new controls—because, like most of the other quirky European titles at the time, Factor 5 set the jump function to “Up” on the directional pad instead of giving pivotal action its own face button on the controller. Other actions like launching Turrican into his Morphball” attack required the precise button combination of “Down+Bomb” to trigger, and the lack of any auto rapid-fire option for your shooting input made maneuvering through the game far more troublesome to use than it should have been for the Twitchy action shooter Turrican was groomed into being. The new control setup totally revamps the old arrangement with a layout that’s built around the ergonomic sensibilities of 16-bit console counterparts of the time. Turrican’s Gunfire, Jump, Mines, Bombs, Morphball, and Rotary Laser attack are all mapped to a distinctive button on the controller, making for a far-better playing experience. For the purists who want to experience the hand-cramping button mapping of the past, the studio has included it as an alternate control style that is switched on and off anytime from the Options menu.

Given that these games were previously developed with 50HZ in mind, the coding that went into animating the framerate with HD output in mind is nothing short of jaw-dropping. The gameplay is fluid regardless of how much is on screen, and immaculately responsive with virtually no control lag to speak of with any of the titles. Modern improvements withstanding though, the core value of the games themselves is definitely something to celebrate, even thirty years later.

The original Turrican didn’t make as many waves stateside as it did everywhere else, but I’d wager that this had a lot to do with the fact that the only ports of the game we received were the Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx 16 Ports. As ambitious as they were, these versions, unfortunately, scaled back so much of the charm that made the original as thrilling as it was. Turrican II: The Final Fight is special in that it was never released to North America or Japan in any capacity, with ports being regulated to hardware exclusive to European waters instead. This title is especially vital to the package as all of the improvements it boasts over its predecessor helped lay down the foundation for what would become the series’ watershed moment in the next two entries. Super Turrican was the first console-exclusive iteration of the series that took a lot of the new dynamics from Turrican II, streamlining them into a more linear adventure that put a slightly bigger emphasis on the action than the expansive stage design of the Commodore titles before it. Finally, the one sequel among the three that holds the prestige of being the most polished of the bunch, yet easily the most overlooked is Mega Turrican. The Sega Genesis/Megadrive exclusive entry took the same direction of Super Turrican, only amping it up a notch with better level design, more bosses, and a new grappling hook for harder platforming.

While identical by many aspects, having these four titles bundled together really bring out the fundamental differences between them and the significant growth the next entry had over the last. The rush of navigating the labyrinthine levels of Turican II is nothing like the spectacle of Mega Turrican’s set pieces, and playing them back to back only strengthens that earnest sense of appreciation towards the contrast of design choices in the same vein of admiring the differences between Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World. Visiting these gems back isn’t just easier on the eyes and ears either—it’s a hell of a lot easier on your thumbs as Turrican Flashback also features a robust set of accessibility settings that make taking the fight to Machine one that anyone can get in on.

The same Rewind mechanic made famous by contemporaries like Mega Man Legacy Collection and The Disney Afternoon Collection is present here, but the comparison is by concept only as the Rewind feature had frighteningly deep memory, spanning entire playthroughs. The final cherry on top is each title comes stocked with six Save State slots that you imprint your progress onto at any time, along with a list of cheats that can be accessed and used any time you feel the need for a bigger edge against the mayhem ahead.

The biggest issue I have with the collection is that I honestly wish there was more of it—especially with the absence of two major titles from the line, Turrican III, and Super Turrican 2, or even the special Director’s Cut of Super Turrican that Analogue pre-installed into their Super Nt console. There could have been so much more to the collection with these added titles, especially when you factor the current aftermarket rate these games are going for on original hardware. Ratalaika Games claims that the reason for their omission is that they’re saving these games for another project in the works for the Turrican property, which makes sense to some extent—Mega Man Legacy Collection itself went for this same model and had great success with it.

While I wouldn’t call myself a total diehard of the series, Turrican Flashback may just be one of the best nostalgia collections on the market today just for the sheer production value and love alone that went into preserving 16-bit gaming under the lens of High Definition without any real compromise to its technical heritage. The investment of playing these games in their native format can easily net over a thousand dollars in admission alone--$29.99 on the eShop and PSN Store is a paltry price by comparison, and easily worth it for one of the finest bundles in gaming yet.