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A foul demonic creature from the abyss of Hell used to get his kicks by terrorising people in their nightmares. However, this used to prove very frustrating owing to the fact that people tend to wake up just as they're about to die in their nightmare. Therefore it made sense for this creature to follow them back into the land of the living and terrorise them there.

The people of the world are obviously more than a bit upset when this creature arrives and starts killing everyone in sight. Since every human is vulnerable to this creature's mental powers, a robot warrior is created in order to kick the demon's ass back to the smelly land from whence it came.

This robot is Turrican, the perfect killing machine. However, before he can do away with the evil creature, he has to travel massive eight-way scrolling levels, scaling the platform scenery and blasting away at the evil beings and end-of-level bosses that the creature has created during his brief stay in our world.

The only problem is, Turrican hasn't got a brain, and it's down to you to control him in a fight to the death with the ultimate menance!

Turrican's weapon can be switched between three different types of fire, simply by picking up the appropriate icon.

1. Spread:
   Blasts in three, and then five directions. Not bad really, especially when it comes to blasting hard to reach areas.
2. Beam:
   A single high-intensity laser that cuts through aliens like a hot knife through butter (after a couple of power-ups).
3. Mines:
   Guaranteed to make things go with a bang, these things annihilate all ground-based targets on-screen.

Blasting invisible blocks and certain aliens provides Turrican with collectible icons. The most popular icons are the ones that boost Turrican's ammo, whilst others endow him with extra energy. 1-UPs are also available - guess what they do!

Turrican's trousers are packed with highly explosive stuff. Here's a quick run-down of the sort of things we're talking about.

1. Cannon:
   A very powerful weapon guaranteed to knock the faeces out of any end-of-level boss.
2. Laser Wall:
   A smart weapon that spreads out from Turrican destroying everything in its path. However, it can't go through walls.
3. Gyroscope:
   Turrican has three opportunities per life to turn into a gyroscope, which doesn't sound very helpful at all. However, this gyroscope is totally invulnerable to all attack!

Turrican was originally an Amiga game published by a company called Rainbow Arts, and coded by Factor 5 - a bunch of German programmers. The game is exactly the same as the version reviewed here, even though different programmers (The Code Monkeys) undertook the Megadrive conversion.

A sequel also surfaced from the same company - the imaginatively titled Turrican II. Both games were warmly received by the press, even though they were incredibly simple to complete to anyone with fairly decent shoot-'em-up skills.

Later on in the game, Turrican leaves the usual platform-based levels for an action-packed section set in a vertically scrolling tunnel. Here, Turrican's equipped with a jetpack and the objective is just to reach the top of the tunnel.

This is made quite difficult however, because there's the ubiquitous load of nasty enemy sprites out to get our robotic hero!

I was expecting this to be a beefed-up version of the Amiga original, but it's not. Instead it's identical to the computer version - and that's where its problems lie. Eighteen months ago, Turrican looked like a pretty swish computer game. But eighteen months ago it wasn't competing against Megadrive platform games like ESWAT, Spider-Man and Sonic The Hedgehog.

The gameplay is quite fun, but it's not evenly balanced; once you've got over the difficult first stage, it becomes very easy and you can go miles - competent platform game players should be able to finish the game within a few sessions.

The graphics and sound aren't particularly hot, either. With some gameplay tweaks and graphical improvements, Turrican could have been great. As it stands, it's just average.

On the Amiga, Turrican went down extremely well, mainly because it was one of the first games that actually scrolled smoothly.

Other than that, it was pretty standard fare. Smooth scrolling isn't such a big thrill on the Megadrive, especially when the graphics being scrolled aren't really that impressive. The gameplay is what counts, though, and even though Turrican is fairly enjoyable, there's plenty of far more exciting platform games on the Megadrive (Spider-Man, Strider or Sonic for starters). The hefty forty-quid price tag makes this Amiga conversion five quid more expensive than Sonic!

The difficulty level is also very strange. The first sub-level is very difficult, and yet on the next level there's around ten bonus lives to be found - thus making the game far easier! Amiga owners might have lapped up Turrican, but it's pretty standard fare on the Megadrive.

Presentation 69%
Boring attract sequence and difficult control method.

Graphics 71%
Very dull backdrops and mediocre sprites. Only Turrican himself is well animated.

Sound 72%
Decent blasting effects, but the music is a bit too jolly for this sort of game.

Playability 77%
The difficult control method makes getting into the game tricky, especially considering the tough nature of the first level.

Lastability 72%
Turrican is a big game, but after the tricky first level, it gets easier, and it's pretty easy to finish the game with twenty spare lives!

Overall 73%
With gameplay tweaks and enhancements, this could have been good. As it stands, it's too easy and not exciting enough.