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Saturday, July 28, 2007

Turok Evolution review

After beating Astro Boy I needed a GBA action fix, and Turok Evolution was precisely what I needed. Unlike the Turok games for the Gambe Boy/GB Color (don't forget that Turok 2 was my first GBC game), which were common action platformers, this Evolution is more like Contra or Metal Slug (how I love Metal Slug...).

This means you'll be rushing through the levels with a gun in your hand, wasting everything that moves, jumping platforms and fighting the occasional boss. There are also pure shooting sequences were you're standing in a moving platform and have to kill all the enemies that appear on the screen.

Despite what type of stage you're in, this game is always hard as hell. Unlike Contra or Metal Slug, where you die with just one hit, here you have a life and even an armor bar, but in those games you always start again where you die while here, if you die (and you will die a lot), you always have to repeat the level from the very beginning! FUCK!

The graphics are really nice, the weapons are varied and powerful (I miss grenades, though) and the gameplay is fast and fluid, but it all ends too quickly (you can beat it in an afternoon, if you're skilled/patient enough), so I can really only recommend this game to the fans of this particular action genre that need something to pass time until the release of Contra 4 on the DS.


By the way, I found out that there is a Metal Slug for the GBA, maybe I'll play it soon.

Here's a video I recorded (yes, I learned how to record GBA videos!). The quality is crap, since I had to convert the original file using divx (402mb original -> 5mb divx) and I'm no expert at it. Maybe next time I can do better (I was in a rush this time, so I didn't had the time to mess around with the configurations).

It was also the first time I played that level, which explains why half of the video shows me trying to understand that fucking puzzle in the end. I then realised I couldn't touch the lasers, but the last two barriers were too close to each other, so I needed a perfect jump, something I wasn't able to do while recording.


Related posts: Astro Boy Omega Factor GBA review, Indy GBA games, Programming the Game Boy Advance e-book

5 comments:

  1. excellent review and stuning video! I too have Turok for the GBA, but I could never get past the second level, so gave up on it!

    This looks like a vast improvement on the GBA original...

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  2. Sorry that's Turok for the Gameboy Colour...

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  3. Which one? There were a total of 4:

    Turok: battle of the bionosaurs (decent)

    Turok 2 (decent)

    Turok 3 (crap)

    Turok: rage wars (crap)

    Anyway, turok evolution sure is a different and better game.

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  4. 'erm'the first one I think...???

    It just never grabbed me... :)

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  5. Excellent review (again) and a video that absoutely proves the Metal Sluggy feel of the game.

    (grabs father)

    See? You wouldn't want a dinosaur doing that...

    ReplyDelete