Hurrican

Hurrican is a sci-fi action shooter game loosely based on the famous Turrican 2 Amiga and Atari ST video game. The story takes place in 2138. The Dreadnought spaceship (your ship) is sent on a secret mission. After successfully accomplishing the ship sets course to return to Earth but on the way it receives a distress call saying that the alien forces of planet Takatis are planning to attack the Earth and destroy it (under the commands of their crazed leader, Dr. Geng X). Before returning to Earth, the Dreadnought must travel to Takatis planet to investigate the situation. Takatis is a planet with a similar-to-Earth environment, full of plantation, waters, volcanoes and other elements. While on the planet's boundaries the Dreadnought is attacked by an air defense system and while the damage is high the Commander plans for an emergency landing. During a harsh and crush landing, no one manages to survive, except you. You are a veteran soldier, wearing an armor and carrying various upgradable weapons. Your main weapon is a plasma gun with unlimited ammo and can hold up to 3 different types of ammunition like an upgradable spreadshot that can kill multiple aliens since it spreads in a wider area, a blue colored laser beam that's powerful enough to destroy larger species and a bounce shot which actually looks like a bunch of bouncing balls that can kill various enemies even if they are covered (or hidden) in corners. These types of ammunition can be obtained by various power-ups you collect on the way. Your secondary weapon is a powerline (an unlimited one) with which you can sweep enemies around you and electrify them. Your third weapon is a vertical double energy-blast which can kill anything approaching to your left and right sides. The latter weapon is limited so you must use it wisely and only under critical conditions. Finally, you can also transform into a razor-sharp wheel (just like in Turrican 2) and pass through narrow areas or kill multiple enemies by mutilating them or by leaving a grenade behind. Your time for each of the 9 enormous levels is limited to 700 seconds, but you can gain extra time by collecting diamonds. The game is quite tough because you must also avoid obstacles or gaps that may cause instant death. And the challenge doesn't stop there since you are prompt to confront a big boss to finish each level. The game can be played either with a keyboard or with any PC (or XBOX 360) joypad.

Graphics/Sound:
Hurrican is an absolute stunner. Some 23 years have passed since Turrican 2 and we always wanted a remake that would share Turrican's merits and provide advanced graphics and sound. And Poke53280 made just that. Hurrican is a fantastic video game in all aspects. The graphics are colorful and well presented in full-sreen mode (selectable). The animation works like charm no matter the sprites populating the screen with no slowdowns at all (besides, this is PC!). The sound is among the best in shooters history, consisted of 25 great futuristic music scores and multiple sound FX echoing around your PC speakers (Note: the firing FX reminds me of a modified Atari ST sound FX). Hurrican is absolutely recommended for all Turrican lovers and can also stun all people who still seek to play a more-than-decent old-school 2D action shooter.