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*World FIVE*
The Nervecentre.
This is the Gigeresque world, filled with
tendrils, mouths,
slime and spiders.
You've almost made it to the Machine himself, but first you've got to navigate his Tech-organic
base,
and face down nightmarish monsters and squidgy things that will make your blood run cold...
This is, in my opinion, the most difficult world,
as the jumps can be monumentally unfair sometimes, and the timed platforms of the final level
can be frustrating if your timing's off.
However, level 5-1's creepy leitmotif adds to the horror ambience,
even if 5-2 completely contradicts it with an uptempo track reminiscent of the Final
Countdown.
*Version Difference*
8-bit versions do away with Timed platforms,
and instead offer you a vertically scrolling shooter level, remeniscent of world 3 on the
original game.
*Featured System: Atari ST*
As before, Factor 5 handled the conversion, Jochen Hippel the sound, and the frame-rate
is lower.
The graphics are converted well from their Amiga originals, losing none of the feel or
character.
As for the sound, The ST's Sound chip, the Yamaha YM2149, gives a raw, bit-poppy feel
to Huelsbeck's tunes,
and the sounds do their job perfectly.
While perfectionists may prefer the sheer grunt of the Amiga original, a curious ST
gamer could do a lot worse
than this version.
And that concludes the Five worlds. But we're not finished yet! There's still one more version
to mention:
*Featured System: IBM PC (MS-DOS)*
Ported to the then-humble IBM PC by developers Sun-Project, This version has had a massive
graphical overhaul,
and you can tell.
While the new Turrican sprite, at least in my own opinion, lacks the charm of the Amiga
or C64 versions,
you cannot argue with the overhauled and upgraded backgrounds and enemy sprites throughout the
game.
And that's the lot!
Sadly, many of these featured systems were discontinued shortly after this game.
However, a few survived long enough for a third game, and well be diving into it next
time!
*CREDITS*
*Turrican 2 @1991 Rainbow Arts/Factor 5 GmbH*
*Amstrad CPC/Spectrum Versions @1991 Rainbow Arts/Enigma Variations Ltd.*
*Hosted and Played by Simon J. "Funky Monkey" Broome*
*A Two Teenagers in Milwaukee Production*
Next time on the History of Turrican: We examine the Curious case of Turrican 3.
Released on Commodore Amiga, and on Sega Megadrive/Genesis as "Mega Turrican",
The third game in the series had some radical changes...