Turrican to return on PS3?

By Tom Bramwell Published 12 February, 2007

Factor 5 boss hints at 3D sequel.

Turrican fans, wake up - Factor 5 boss Julian Eggebrecht says that PlayStation 3 might finally see the return of the '90s shooter.

Although he admits that the never-quite-dismissed "Thornado" GameCube project is "completely dead", Eggebrecht says: "What we are thinking about is basically with the PS3 is going back to our old Turrican games, and basically, finally doing something like that but in 3D. That's finally going through."

Speaking to Game Informer, the developer also said that it might consider re-releasing some of the old Turrican games through the PS3 Store's e-Distribution Initiative (EDI) service.

"I don't think that the current thinking from Phil Harrison is that under the worldwide studios umbrella he wants to see too many straight ported older titles," Eggebrecht notes. "Having said that though, you've seen Midway's announcement ... We have been in some talks about re-releasing some of our old Turrican titles for the platform, but nothing's been finished yet. I'd love to do it."

If not that, it sounds like we might see some original EDI content, if only because the team would rather try something a bit shorter-term than embark on another multi-year project like Lair.

Speaking of which, Eggebrecht says the dragon-riding action game coming along nicely, may offer a toggle between Sixaxis tilt and analogue controls, and will do for dragon games what Rogue Squadron did for space combat. You can catch up on trailers and previews on the Lair gamepage.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Daikon #1 5 years ago

    Yay! Now if they can get Chris Huelsbeck to do the music again it would be so great!

  • itamae #2 5 years ago

    And of course they'd have to get Manfred Trenz back on the team. Turrican was his brainchild after all.

  • IAmBatman #3 5 years ago

    So they're going to make a 3rd person shooter with a man in robot space-armour?

  • GrandpaUlrira #4 5 years ago

    What did Rogue Squadron do for space combat?

  • Dizzy #5 5 years ago

    *cough*Metroid*cough*

  • SpacemanX #6 5 years ago

    Great!

  • Blerk #7 5 years ago

    I'd buy that for a dollar!

  • crazyhorse174 #8 5 years ago

    No, no, no, no, NO!!

    Stop these 3D remakes! If you do Turrican in 3D, it'll just become a generic 3D shooter, with the Turrican badge strapped on.

    Leave it be. Go and think up some new IP's...stop raping the past.

  • IP #9 5 years ago

    Best bet for Turrican: whack the original two games on the DS, using the second screen for a handy build-as-you-go map. Leave it in 2D.

  • mkreku #10 5 years ago

    Turrican was really the height of programming on the Commodore 64. It was so incredibly impressive, what they managed to squeeze out of the old processor. Best game ever!

    Except for Wasteland. And Pool of Radiance. And Ultima IV & V. :D

  • Blerk #11 5 years ago

    Pah - everyone said Metroid in 3D was a bad idea until they actually did it.

    Doing it in 3D doesn't automatically make it bad. Doing it badly in 3D automatically makes it bad.

  • SBfistfun #12 5 years ago

    "Leave it be. Go and think up some new IP's...stop raping the past."

    Blasphemer, bbuUURRRRRNNNNN HIMMM!!

    Don't you realise that's what the "next gen" is?

    Remember all the BS PR talk before the consoles were released? The amazing new worlds and experiences we would interact with?

    Take Turrican, add shine = Turrican "next gen"

    /takes socks off and cries

  • Eighthours #13 5 years ago

    No. Put it on Live Arcade instead, you dolts.

  • Steroyd #14 5 years ago

    Devs need to bring back their old ideas from PS1 backwards and modernise them into what they should have been back then, not a remake per se more of a modernisation ala Warhawk.

  • nickthegun #15 5 years ago

    KATAKIS LIVES!!!

  • lambtron #16 5 years ago

    Yeah but warhawk looks arse ;)

  • Rob #17 5 years ago

    may offer a toggle between Sixaxis tilt and analogue controls

    Or, in other words, 'we can't really get the tilt stuff to work and it's not totally tied into the game design, so we may just back out totally and go the standard route'.

  • spongebob #18 5 years ago

    Daikon: Yay! Now if they can get Chris Huelsbeck to do the music again it would be so great!

    Exactly! Turrican was a great game. Who could forget the theme music? Anyway, a Turrican gone 3D in a similar way that Metroid went would be really sweet.

  • sanctusmortis #19 5 years ago

    I'd rather have a new Probotector. Mmmm...

  • ilmaestro #20 5 years ago

    Talk about a way to put pressure on yourself!

    Like Blerk says, a great game is a great game is a great game, but if they made a 3D Turrican and it was anything less than outstanding there'd be trouble.

  • CheapSheep #21 5 years ago

    Would there be trouble? No-one seemed to mind when they made three desperately average 2D ones.

  • Tyronne #22 5 years ago

    Thought this was being made years ago.....

  • Royal Fool #23 5 years ago

    Tyronne, it was, but under the name of Thornado. Factor 5 had a small teaser page on their website with artwork and a music clip for many years, and I recall the game being shown to certain members of the press when it was in development for the GC.

    I suppose this is still that same idea and concept, only now they're discussing it as Turrican 3D. IGN game page

  • Pulsar_t #24 5 years ago

    @sanctusmortis: They already made 3 Contra games on the PSOne/PS2.. not a patch on the original 2D series IMHO.

  • Mr_Bogus #25 5 years ago

    > Yay! Now if they can get Chris Huelsbeck to do the music again it would be so great!

    AFAIK Huelsbeck is resident music / sound person at Factor 5, i know he definitely did the music arranging etc for Rogue Leader.

    Suddenly i feel like another Super Turrican playthrough...

  • Shrub #26 5 years ago

    I loved the first two Turrican games on the Amiga. I'm not so sure about the idea of a 3D update, but 2.5D could be great ;)

  • Turrican #27 5 years ago

    Hello everyone. I hope to be back soon on Playstation 3. I shall endeavour to nick another song from the Transformers for my soundtrack, hopefully the new Transformers film will provide plenty of scope for that.

    ;)

  • IP #28 5 years ago

    :: if they can get Chris Huelsbeck to do the music again

    Nuts to Chris Huelsbeck. I always preferred the lovely C64 score by Markus Siebold and Stefan Hartwig.

  • NegativeZero #29 5 years ago

    Actually, the 'space' missions in the Rogue Squadron games were absolutely horrible, control-wise. The whole system is built around the idea of having definite 'up' and 'down'. They play exactly the same as atmosphere stuff, even though that makes no sense since you shouldn't be affected by gravity if you're in space.

  • DocTep #30 5 years ago

    Mr_Bogus
    12-Feb-07 12:21:43

    Suddenly i feel like another Super Turrican playthrough...


    Yay! Now that brings back a few good memories from the distant past. Good work memories at that. And enjoyable work memories are oh so rare... *Sob*

  • Sl1pstream #31 5 years ago

    "Eggebrecht says the dragon-riding action game coming along nicely, ... and will do for dragon games what Rogue Squadron did for space combat."

    The dragon-riding will be fun but they'll force you to go through horrible on-foot levels where your character looks like it has a stick or two up its ass when it walks?
    Edited by 1 at 14/02/07 @ 05:56

  • zeta3 #32 3 years ago

    turrican should never be transformed to 3d.when programmers understand that you can not exceed what is perfect.
    turrican should remain 2d or 2.5 d like castlevania or bionic commando.same view diferent levels .
    we want fun not graphics. one example is megaman stayed 2d and sells great .