Turrican II: The Final Fight

Turrican II: The Final Fight builds on the successful first game and brings a more refined and better-balanced action platformer to the Atari ST. Once again the player sets out as an armored warrior into vast alien levels full of towers, caves, and factories, wiping out hordes of enemies and collecting weapon upgrades ranging from spread fire through a laser to a devastating area attack that can instantly clear the entire screen of enemies and projectiles.

Compared to the first game, the level design is clearer and better paced, so the player gradually discovers new abilities without feeling overwhelmed, while the game's tempo remains high from the first level to the last, and individual areas have distinctly different visual identities. The beloved transformation into a ball for squeezing through narrow spaces and unleashing the screen-clearing beam has been kept, complemented by additional weapons and improved movement and jumping physics, giving the character noticeably more responsive controls than in the first game. Boss fights are more visually striking and require recognizing attack patterns, pushing the game closer to the action arcades of the time. The Atari ST version offers smooth animation and a solid feel even with a large number of sprites on screen, though the graphical detail and music again fall slightly short of the parallel releases on the Commodore 64 and Amiga, where the game reached its technical peak.

Turrican II is considered by many players and contemporary reviewers alike to be the pinnacle of the series and one of the best action platformers of its generation on any platform. Its emphasis on smooth action, generous levels, and a satisfying feel of the weapons influenced later run-and-gun titles on home computers and consoles alike, and it still plays surprisingly well today, though the pace and difficulty remain uncompromising even for patient retro players who relish such challenges.

Why play it: For the best that run-and-gun action on 8-bit and 16-bit platforms had to offer - the smooth action and generous levels make Turrican II the peak of the whole series, though the pace remains uncompromising.