Turrican 3 - Written Amiga Review With Pics

Turrican 3 - Payment Day

Amiga, 1993, £25.99

Factor 5/Kaiko/Neon Studios

My video review for Turrican 3

Full soundtrack recorded directly from my Amiga

This review inspired by a MsMadLemon video
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*I was only able to run this game in PAL mode

Largely when covering Amiga games, I enjoy focusing on the largely unheard North American perspective of things. It's not often you can say that perspective is unheard, but that is the case when it comes to this wonderful machine in the Amiga. I believe Europe, in its very heartfelt love for the Amiga, has often not given the different but very important American market much consideration. This even taints American's who cover the machine, who due to their age have really only heard the perspective of the similar aged Europeans. But the people who bought the Amiga in America back in the day were not children, they were adult computer hobbyists. Many fantastic games and software were released with American's in mind, and I love showing off these often times incredibly well done and in-depth games which tragically tend to be lost in today's Amiga coverage.

I am however, no stranger to the wonderful European Amiga market. There were many fantastic Amiga games which ran with increased resolution on PAL Amiga's. Turrican 3 is one such game, and I found myself enjoying this look into more of the traditional games that many cover on the Amiga platform. I also welcomed the opportunity to cover this particular game in a way I found quite contrary to how I feel many fans of the series tend to cover it. 

^ Not the most unique introduction, but enjoyable

It has largely been my impression when coming across discussions on the Turrican games, that this third one is viewed as the black sheep of the family. Fans of the first two will critique certain things that differ from what is in their minds masterpieces in the first two games. I have to say I never quite understood others love for the first two Turrican games. It's not because I'm a stranger to them, I had the first Turrican as a kid. I put quite a lot of time into it, and I can't say it was ever a game I could say I enjoyed playing.

There is a funny thing for me when I look at how others cover these games. It could be that the reason I never really liked the first Turrican was simply because of my young age when I played it. Perhaps it was just too hard of a game for me. Then again, I was able to conquer games that I deem much harder than Turrican, for example Ghostbusters 2 on the NES. I tend to believe my perceptions of the original game were in fact due to faults of that game. Looking at others take of the first two games has in no way inspired me to want to go back to the original. What I find quite funny is how I now do wish to go back to those games and give them in an in-depth look; and it is all thanks to how much I like this third game. ^Starting the game, a new mechanic in the grappling hook

I find this game to be most everything I want in a platformer. Stages in each world vary in level design, look, and music. There are three stages to each world, each newer stage is able to add onto, while staying true to the previous stage. After those three stages you start a new world with a vastly different look and gimmick. My favorite is the sky level, followed by the water levels. The game shines in its wealth of bosses and mini-bosses. Each of them have a great look, with quality patterns to figure out. I believe the games bosses is what makes this game stand out in comparison to the humongous library of other platformers. Each world has wonderful and unique music playing throughout it, and each stage of those world offers slightly different renditions of the world's overall musical theme. The music is some of the best I've ever heard on any 16-bit console, and easily surpasses the Mega Drive/Genesis original. ^My personal favorite stages

I'm a person that retains a lot of information over the years. I tend to believe that if a subject is worth talking about, it's worth remembering. While I research a great many things, I never like to have that information to my side while giving my opinions. Usually I look up reviews of the games during the time period they were released when covering games, for a historical perspective. I was honestly taken aback by what I read in the magazines of the time period when comparing it with all I had looked up over the years. The magazines loved this game, and they loved it overwhelmingly. Virtually all of the reviews I found said decidedly that Turrican 3 was the best of the series. Some went as far as saying the other two pale in comparison. This is in utter contrast to my perception of the game and the series from my research over the years. It caused me to not trust something I normally rely on, my memory. So for this written review I went and looked up this game to see if my memories had betrayed me. ^Two reviews from the games release

The answer is that my memories are doing just fine. My research has made it ever more obvious that the vocal majority of people discussing this game give it no respect. They don't like the game itself, and even so called fan's of the Amiga do not like the port when compared to the Mega Drive/Genesis original. I don't understand their so called "points", it honestly feels like hatred to me. Little rational thought is tied to their quite emotional opinions. Everyone is entitled to their thoughts, but empirically speaking their arguments do not hold up. If you like platformers, which the majority of those discussing the game appear to like, this is empirically a solid game. If you like the Amiga, this is empirically a great port to that system. ^Wonderful apocalyptic backgrounds, bosses, Alien ripoff

While recording the game I intentionally steered clear from looking at any modern reviews or even playthroughs, on the Amiga or the Mega Drive. One of the major reasons I'm here making reviews is that I despise many of the people who do modern reviews of these old games. I have no wish to be tainted by their opinions, which I often end up feeling are not deserving to be titled reviews. Beyond that, I want to be sitting at my real hardware and decide how good the game looks or sounds myself, to not be influenced by the looks of these games played on emulators with widescreen HD monitors. I knew this was a port from the Mega Drive, and before I dared take a look at that version I wanted to have my thoughts collected on the games looks and sounds. If comparing a game to another version of the same game, I believe it's a must to look at each individual system and decide "Does this game look good? Does it sound good? Is it impressive?", and give absolutely no thought of other versions. Again, empirically speaking, if this Amiga version was the original and there had been no Mega Drive version, you would look at this game and be impressed. ^Difficult platforming, more Alien, even a Terminator

This does not mean you should utterly ignore other versions of a game, but the overall thoughts for the individual system certainly need to weigh heavily on you. For both this review and my video I ended up checking out the Mega Drive original, so that it may enlighten my already formed opinion. I found that in the graphics department, there are minor things missing from the Amiga port. There are some animations in the beginning cut scene that are not there, but it's not like the Amiga version lacks animation all together. People need to keep in mind this shipped on just one floppy disk. You can criticize that if you wish, but always remember that space has a lot to do with graphics, it's not just the hardware.

 Anything that is missing on the Amiga version could have been there. But just because it's not there does not automatically make it a bad port. For what is on this single disk, it is impressive. Further, I really wouldn't be surprised if some of the missing content was a choice. There are some backgrounds that are missing on the Amiga version, but there are many stages with the original backgrounds intact. A great example is in the water world, where the first level on the Amiga does feature the Mega Drive's background. The other levels do not, yet there was no real change in backgrounds on the Mega Drive version. In other words if they wished to they could have copy and pasted the background from the first level to the others. Instead they gave a very impressive palette swap of the water environment. As you go deeper in the water, the palette impressively changes into darker and darker colors. This is something, by the way, that the Mega Drive had no hope of accomplishing due to it's much smaller color palette (512 compared to 4096). I don't believe anyone playing the Amiga version is missing out in terms of graphics. They are a world more impressive than the graphics of the first two games on the Amiga, which were in fact ports from the Commodore 64. They are simply beautiful on the Amiga, period. Add onto that the fantastic music, and I do believe this is the superior version of this game. ^Winning the game

Not to say I don't have anything bad to say about the game. When it comes to my own negative impressions of this game, they tend to be things I'd level against the entire series. I'm not a fan of the small time limit. For the entire world (three stages) you have 999 seconds in which to complete it all. That's 16 minutes for 3 levels, which might sound okay, but when learning this game it can present a problem. In retrospect one of the main reasons I didn't like the first game as a kid was because of that time limit. These games, especially the first two, encourage exploration. The first two games are nearly impossible to complete without heavily exploring the non-linear levels.

This game is much more linear compared to the first two. That would be a valid criticism from modern reviewers, if indeed that's a thing you're looking for. I actually do like non-linear platforming games. I love to explore and find all the little details I can. The Sonic the Hedgehog series is a great example of a platforming game with so many areas to explore. But you always have the option with those games. If you want you can speed right through the level and ignore most of it, and if you do stick around you've got a generous ten minutes for each stage in which to do that exploration. You learn the in's and out's of a game by loving it enough to explore. I'm afraid I just never had the time in order to explore the first game, and perhaps I might have loved it if I had been given that time.

It was only a real problem with the first world in this particular game, however. If you stick with the game, you'll indeed learn those secrets and you'll have more than enough time to complete the levels once you do know where things are at. I am personally grateful that since this game retained that time limit, in exchange it made the levels more linear. There are still areas to go off to and explore, but they will likely lead to a dead end and a bonus of some sort. You're not just running about in confusion. You hit a dead end? You go back, you'll figure it out.

^More reviews from release, again, they love it

My only other problem with the game is its sometimes quite blatant "borrowing" from other franchises. It's to the point where you can't just call it inspiration, the Alien and Terminator stuff are simply ripoffs, and I don't find myself smiling when I come across those things. It does not feel like a nod to those characters, it feels like they couldn't think up something for themselves. A couple of the enemies are even ripoffs from earlier Turrican titles. The HR Giger levels are the only levels I honestly don't like, and I'd rather skip them. That's only two levels in a much larger game, and the larger game I love playing.

When all is said and done, this game has formed a place in my heart in terms of Amiga games. Especially in terms of Amiga platformers, which I don't tend to be the greatest fan of. When it comes to those games, this one makes my list as one of my favorites. I enjoyed my time with it so much that I am now determined to dive into the earlier titles, to see how much truth there is to the now vocal majority of people discussing this game. Perhaps they are right, and the other games are better. I do know that I played the first game as a kid, and I never really cared for it. I've seen it more than enough times via others looks at it, and my mind has never been changed. But now that I like this third installment, I'm excited to go back to those games. I hope fans of the first two will take that to heart, and perhaps open their minds up to this final Turrican's potential influence on others who may not have been exposed to the other games, or might not like them so much.

I hope everyone will check out my video review for Turrican 3. I happened to be quite inspired to cover this game after watching a fascinating MsMadLemon video. She happened to really love the music that was in a special fan version of Turrican 3 which was for the Commodore 64. She loved it so much but was sad that there was no Amiga version of that music. So in her video she went about porting the Commodore 64's music to her Amiga. After watching her passion for that music, I really wanted to take a dive into the Amiga Turrican 3 as a result. Hope you'll check out her video.

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