Turrican

Turrican (and Turrican 2 )were two of my favourite games ever for the Amiga. They are essentially platform-shooter games , but with massive levels, a huge choice of weapons and epic boss battles.
The graphics in this game are a treat. For its time, the graphics in this game were outstanding and probably what first attracted me to the game. All the graphics look good - backgrounds are colorful and detailed, and the main turrican character looks good and moves well. Enemy sprites too look fierce and are well animated, and come in enough variety to keep you interested.

The end of level bosses are huge and look equally good. Most importantly, gameplay lives up to the graphics – which wasn’t always the case! I had a huge selection of Amiga games which looked stunning, but gameplay just wasn’t good enough to keep you hooked. Turrican is maddeningly addictive, and keeps drawing you back to try and get that little bit further.
The way Turrican can move adds extra interest and is possibly ground-breaking for its time. He can transform into a spiked ball and roll around killing enemies and obstacles in his path – reminiscent of Metroid Prime I think? In some later levels he can also ‘fly’, courtesy of a jet pack, which is a thoroughly enjoyable addition to the characters abilities.
As stated, it is a platform game, but the levels are huge, 2D but non-linear, and well designed with loads of secret areas and a variety of weapons and power-ups. He has a basic gun, which can be upgraded to a number of other weapons, including lasers, spreadshots and power beams. He also has the ability to produce a lightning bolt style power beam which can be rotated 360 degrees around himself, killing everything in his path. There are some very secret and hard to reach areas, and I remember spending hours trying to find ALL the hidden stuff. The enemies are numerous and attack in a variety of different ways so that it never becomes stale or boring. I believe the difficulty level is pitched just right so that you don't get slaughtered all the time, but it is far from easy and always challenging – you can (nearly!) always get that little bit further every time you play. The bosses are never easy to beat, but never impossible. Even the audio in the game was great in its day, thumping soundtrack!
Overall, I would highly recommend this game to anyone. Its a cracking game which I spent many hours playing as a youngster, and have equally enjoyed revisiting today.