FinalBaton wrote:
I definitely find Turrican to be an odd game, what I've seen has never impressed me and I've never had the urge to play it (to my eyes, it doesn't quite seem to stack up to what japanese gaming has to offer), although I wouldn't mind trying it in emulation for a bit. But your character having no i-frame is legit bizzare, the tinyest monster being on top of you for 2 full seconds will just drain your lifebar straight up. Wtf? The blocks you shoot and that release absolutely all of the available powerups is also some alien design to me... I just find that an odd design choice and it has me scratching my head. The collect-a-ton aspect also puzzles me in a run 'n gun game... Does Mega Turrican on MD fixes these issues? I might give it a shot down the line when I get around to picking up a flash cart, with what louisg said.
I agree that there are some unusual design choices, but IMO they do woek actually nicely in those games. You just have to unlearn what you have learned before. I actually never considered Turrican I+II as run'n'gun games, as the exploration aspect was always on the forefront for me. They are really easy, too. I used to finish each with 20-30 extra lives in stock.
Mega Turrican (in fact all of the Factor-5-designed console Turricans, as opposed to the Manfred-Trenz-designed parts I and II) almost completely ditches the exploration aspect in favour of very linear levels, and they are much worse games for it. The console Turricans are okay-ish run'n'guns on consoles that house much better examples of the genre. The home computer Turricans (I+II) are more or less their own genre. Whether that's something you appreciate is a matter of taste.
However, as much as I still enjoy them despite their apparent flaws, you don't really play any Turrican game for the game, you play it to listen to the fantastic music, which is why playing it on the C64 is probably not the best choice, as those versions don't have in-game music at all.
Back to the original topic, there really isn't very much on the C64 in regards to worthwhile action games except for the handful already mentioned.
I agree, the Turrican games are a funny mix that, while not excelling in any particular aspect, do come together to form an enjoyable enough whole. I'm fond of the C64 versions simply because they were a huge technical achievement at the time, but in reality there's almost no reason to not play the Amiga versions instead. The music in the second game is one of the greatest game soundtracks of all time IMO - the intro music is particularly stunning.
Funnily enough, back in the day I felt exactly the way you do about the console versions - they diluted the original to the point where they merely felt like average run & gun games. Having revisited Super Turrican lately though, I'm almost entirely of the opposite opinion. The originals feel a bit too sprawling for me now, whereas Super tightens it all up a bit so there aren't as many screens of nothingness to trudge through, and still has more freedom than traditional R&G. Super 2 on the other hand is a total mess, a complete embarrassment next to something like Contra III.
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