Retro Megabit

Every now and again I discover a cool looking game that I missed when it was new. I remember seeing the first Turrican and never bothered with it because I really didn’t like the cover art. The Turrican Accolade version turned me off a game that I think might actually be pretty good.

Not too long ago I started seeing Mega Turrican on ebay for about $60. Several were posted and they were all asking a pretty high amount. It intrigued me. Almost out of the blue, this game that I have never bothered with had a lot of presence on ebay and sellers seemed to think it was worth a lot money. Of course I wanted it but I couldn’t justify the price despite the fact that the cover art for this version is really good.

Then a few weeks later I found another ebay listing for Mega Turrican by DataEast and the starting price was $10. So I jumped in… and of course I ended up paying more than I planned ($36 with shipping). But this copy is in excellent shape and when I tried the game out I was surprised. At first I didn’t think much of it. It Seemed simple in design and hard to play. But as I played a bit more I discovered there is a lot more to this game. It has some real game mechanics that are really well implemented. At first I was having a hard time when there was a need to jump while shooting at enemies, then I discovered that you could jump by pressing up and to the right or left to jump which made things much easier. Then I realized that you actually have a health meter, a grappling hook, an energy wheel mode and about 5 weapon power ups.

The case artwork is great, the graphics are great and the game play has some real appeal. I haven’t played enough to make a verdict but as it is this game is now on the ‘to do list’.

Mega Turrican for the Sega Genesis