MrPopo wrote:Is there someone knowledgeable enough to give a rundown of the series?
I'm not knowledgeable about the minutia of the games themselves but I know the backstory. The basics are that the series started on the C64 and was programmed by the same guy who did Giana Sisters, Manfred Trenz. It was a bit of a technical marvel and got a port to the Amiga which became its natural home.
Turrican and Turrican 2 (and their ports) are fast paced platformer/shooters with quite mazy levels that some people, I think inaccurately, compare to Metroid. The levels are big but not interconnected, as far as I'm aware anyway. If you've heard of Gunlord, then this is what that game was aiming for. Big Europlatformer type levels with loads of nooks and crannies for secrets.
Then you have the games that are more straight run and guns which is Turrican 3, Mega Turrican and Super Turrican 2. They eschew the mazy levels and are much more linear. I think there is an air of PC snobbishness about these from Amiga fans as Turrican 3 is seen as the weakest of the series there but Mega Turrican (which is sort of a port) and Super Turrican 2 (which is its own thing) seem very well received by console players. Mega Turrican is seen as being in the bracket just below Contra: Hard Corps and Gunstar Heroes as far as that sort of game goes on the MD.
All the games move really fast, have really nice sprite work and pumping soundtracks.