Turok: Evolution

Screenshots

Notes

Turok Evolution is an instalment of the GBA entry in the Turok series, most well known as a dinosaur hunting FPS series. There also have been handheld ports of the games on the Gameboy, GBC, and now the GBA.


Turok Evolution is a side scrolling run'n'gun style platformer, a lot like Metal Slug or Contra. This entry got decent reviews but seems to be very obscure, there's not a lot of information out there on the internet.

The story is told through still slideshows with a few lines of text before most levels. It's an adaptation of the original series, with a Native American falling into an alternate reality full of dinosaurs and weird aliens with an evil American general. It's actually kind of unique, but it's only loosely touched on in this instalment.

The gameplay is run and gun shooter. It reminds me a lot of Metal Slug, particularly early on when you're mowing down waves of soldiers. Later on it shifts to dinosaurs and aliens who are a lot more bullet spongy. Unlike Metal Slug, you find multiple weapons and can shift between them at will. The weapons are the usual video game standbys of smg, shotgun, rockets, etc. You also get both alien and human versions of each weapon, which inexplicably use the same ammo despite the alien versions being laser guns. Mostly the alien versions have a different shot pattern but are otherwise similar.


The main annoyance of the game is the respawning enemies. As long as you stay on screen the same enemies will only respawn a finite number of times. As soon as you move and come back however, they'll spawn freshly. This makes some sections frustrating as moving back to dodge or kite enemies will cause them to spawn infinitely. Some sections seem to need strong weapons to pass in order to push through the enemies, but ammo is limited. It seems like you could paint yourself into a corner, but I managed to avoid doing so. Some enemies will get stunlocked with the pistol, but take ages to kill. This slows the game down as you want to conserve ammo, but you just have to hold fire and wait for stuff to die.

Boss stages shift to a kind of 2.5d perspective, with you aiming a cursor into the background and firing. Your aim and movement are locked together, making shooting and dodging simultaneously awkward, but this mode otherwise works fine. Bosses are not too hard once you learn their weak points and patterns, although some will take ages if you don't have strong weapons. The final boss is disappointing as it has 3 stages, 2 of which are lifted from previous bosses wholesale.

The game is pretty short, with 5 areas of 3 levels + a boss each. Levels are fairly short, and as death only leads you to respawning at the start of the stage frustration is mostly avoided. Some levels did take quite a few tries though. The game lacks replay value as there are no collectables or anything else to do in the game other than replay with the other playable character, who only plays slightly differently.


Overall, a solid platformer if perhaps lacking in content.