Turrican is a 1990 video game programmed and designed by Manfred Trenz. It was first developed for the Commodore 64 by Rainbow Arts, but was ported to other systems later. In addition to concept design and character creation, Trenz personally programmed Turrican on the Commodore 64. A sequel, Turrican II, followed 1991 for the Commodore 64 and other platforms. The lost colony of Alterra is a completely man-made lifeworld abandoned long ago in a nearby galaxy. Alterra is actually five colonies in one. Each self-contained habitat has been separately bio-engineered by a powerful ecosystem generation network known as a Multiple Organism Unit Link. MORGUL, for short. Early colonists used MORGUL to render Alterra inhabitable. But a cataclysmic quake severed all system interface functions, and MORGUL murderously rebelled. The few colonists lucky enough to escape told a grim tale of a higher intelligence gone berserk. For generations, mankind sought a return to Alterra. Finally, genetic science created a saviour: Turrican, a mutant warrior, bio-engineered for the task of planetary reclamation. In the meantime, MORGUL has diligently twisted Alterran life forms to his brutal, destructive purposes. Thus, Turrican's challenges consist of eliminating hostile organisms from Alterra's five multi-level worlds and, finally, destroying the three faces of MORGUL.
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Character
Plot-driven, grave, earnest and classical in form.
- character-ledplot-driven
- gravecomic
- earnestironic
- classical in formformally daring
- resolvedopen-ended
Who loves it, who doesn't
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“Is this Rainbow Arts's best work?”
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“Is Turrican a masterpiece, not merely a very good game?”
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“Has Turrican aged badly?”
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A yes-or-no question, answered from what people wrote here, on TMDB and on Wikipedia. Never made up.
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About the game
- Platforms
- BlackBerry OS, Commodore C64/128/MAX, ZX Spectrum, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Atari ST/STE, TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine, Commodore CDTV, Amiga, Amstrad CPC
- Developer
- Rainbow Arts
- Publisher
- Ballistic, Accolade, Amiga, Rainbow Arts
- Released
- December 31, 1990
- Modes
- Single player
- Perspective
- Side view
- Engine
- Symbian
IGDB rating 8.3/10 from 29 ratings.
Screenshots
Pairings
Companions we picked from the closest works, and how to take them.
Similar in taste
Closest on the same fourteen dimensions, from everything scored on Tastebuds Other media included when they land close.
Super Turrican 199392% alikeBoth plot-driven, grave, earnest.
Thunder Force III 199086% alikeBoth plot-driven, grave, earnest.
Gradius Gaiden 199785% alikeBoth plot-driven, grave, earnest.
Star Wars: TIE Fighter 199484% alikeBoth plot-driven, grave, earnest.
RayForce 199483% alikeBoth plot-driven, grave, classical in form.
Darius Gaiden 199483% alikeBoth plot-driven, grave, earnest.
Metal Warriors 199583% alikeBoth plot-driven, grave, resolved.
R-Type Leo 199282% alikeBoth plot-driven, grave, earnest.
UFO 197070% alikeTelevision · Both grave, plot-driven, earnest.
Perfect World 202169% alikeTelevision · Both earnest, classical in form, grave.
Often played with
Similar games per IGDB. Opening one adds it to Tastebuds
