Turrican Flashback Collection | PS4 Review

Game collections. You've seen them. I've seen them. Anyone who is into gaming has likely seen them. For the most part they all follow a cookie cutter design when it comes to features, and in the "Turrican Flashback Collection" said design adheres closely to that tradition. Offering up four games from the European series that spans years, and a handful of console/PC generations we find a tale about a hero in a suit of space armor that returns time, and time again to fight "The Machine". An AI being gone rogue which is hellbent on destroying planets, and enslaving civilizations. Along with this tyrannical tale comes features fitting of a retro recollection. Included are screen filters, wallpapers, historical gaming facts, two modes of play per game, and even cheats that can be activated before a playthrough. It's a competent archive of gaming history that one can enjoy casually or for the trophies.

The Turrican Flashback Collection is a collection of four games that have come to us on the eve of the series' 30th anniversary. Harkening back to it's yesteryears in the European nations that were privileged to enjoy them first. Three of the games included in the package deal are unique entries while one of them is basically a super remake for the SNES. You'll find in the available library 'Turrican', 'Turrican II', 'Mega Turrican', and finally 'Super Turrican'. The individually accessible games are showcased in the main menu with a brief story introduction, and the console/PC history related to the games which the player highlights by choice. It's not a totally in-depth assessment, but gives enough backstory to let you know what's going on, and where the games originated from. For the most part I do believe the Turrican series is a early to late 90's series. It crosses over from PC to the Sega Genesis, and even to the SNES. The first few entries being originally developed by a studio known as Rainbow Arts, and the last entry by Factor 5. 

Each entry harbors a similar action platformer meets collect-a-thon theme with mild Metroidvania elements. You'll notice almost immediately the similarity to some older 80's releases like Metroid, Contra, and even to an extent Sonic the Hedgehog. As Gren McGuire, or the original mechanical suited hero known as Turrican you'll find yourself wielding an arm cannon/gun that will change with power-ups as well as a screen clearing side to side blast, a rolling form that can drop bombs as well as get into tight places, bombs by themselves, and an alternative shot that can be aimed in a multi-directional fashion. In later entries, namely 'Turrican II', and 'Mega Turrican', you'll also find a couple new mechanics thrown in for experimentation sake including a nuke that turns Turrican into a wildly bouncing ball that explodes bombs allover the screen, and a grappling hook with swinging capabilities for getting to harder to reach areas. In Super Turrican, however, things return mostly to the basics in a more fine tuned and superior version that collects the series' best mechanics.

Utilizing your tools, and weaponry as the hero Turrican it is your goal, and duty to ultimately beat the timer, kill enemies as well as bosses, and collect each game's special gems. That and save the galaxy's citizens. You are given a set amount of lives, but can find 1ups, and health refills as you progress to help negate the damage you incur along your journey. Gameplay is mostly geared towards controlling Turrican the man, and using him to make his way to bosses and exits as he tries to survive the mechanized alien threat. In some areas you will also find Turrican piloting a ship as he encounters shmup inspired areas where the action platforming transitions into a fight and flight scenario. With side scrolling shmup action, and all that jazz. 

When it comes to ways to experience each game the first three entries in the series offers up a standard mode for more casual play. Including a staple rewind feature if you make a mistake. The catch being you will not earn trophies for playing through standard mode. The second mode option comes in the form of trophy challenge, and will have you playing the game as it was originally intended for trophy earning. While I say, "as it was originally intended" you do have to take in account the collection has been improved upon control-wise, and benefits from the modern upgrade. It's no doubt easier than it was originally. I will say on a scale of difficulty though that the original Turrican is brutally unforgiving while Mega, and Super Turrican eases up greatly on that difficulty curve. 

In addition to the modes of play you will find that by pressing the touchpad in-game you can bring up a game specific menu that will allow you to save, and load progress. You can also use this menu to close the game, and return to the main menu. The option menu, both in the main menu and in the touchpad menu, allows the usual tweaks like sound, and such. Outside of those tweaks you'll also find a sound filter unique to this collection as well as a sharpness/smoothing filter, and graphics filter. It's nothing collections like this haven't offered before, but as I said earlier the cheats option does give an advantage for those having trouble finishing the games. The catch to that being it will disable trophy earnings no matter which mode you choose to play on.

The Verdict ...

I think ININ Games, and Ratalaika Games did a good job porting, and translating this European collection for play on modern consoles. The games control well enough, and possibly even better than the originals. The extra features including the two modes of play per three of the games, the cheats, and the filters makes for a properly improved way to experience the series. Even the screen scaling makes what was once merely memorable, pleasant on the eyes. Audibly though the game mostly retains it's chiptune soundtracks, and sound effects. Staying true to the original. For the price asked, and what you get I think this is a worthwhile collection for fans of Turrican and those, like me, who have previously never played them. It gets the Inferno's seal of approval!!!