Turok: Battle of the Bionosaurs Review (Game Boy, 1997)

I always loved to see the creative ways developers would downgrade their console games for the handheld market. More often then not the results were disastrous. Sometimes developers got it right retaining the original feel despite the move to 2D graphics. Today our topic is the Turok series. These first person shooters made big waves on the Nintendo 64. How could the Game Boy possibly keep up? Despite the difference in hardware Acclaim still gave it their best shot. The end result was Turok: Battle of the Bionsaurs on the original Game Boy. I’ll say right away that the developers managed to capture the atmosphere and gameplay feel of their first person shooter, but in 2D platformer form. There’s one big question however. Is it any good? Let’s take a look.

This is best considered a companion release to the Nintendo 64 game Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. You play as the like-named warrior. He’s a native American who travels through time to protect the balance between the modern age and prehistoric world. An evil being named the Campaigner seeks a magical artifact called the chronoscepter to combine the two worlds and rule them as one. It’s up to Turok to gather the pieces of said artifact to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands, and then finally put an end to the evil-doer’s plot. This is basically the same story as the original game. As a matter of fact many of the stages are the same, as is the protagonist, and even the weapons he uses. The big change is that everything is now 2D, and a side scrolling action game.

As Turok you can run, duck, use weapons, jump, and even swim. These are all of his same abilities from the Nintendo 64 game. Your goal is different from that of a more traditional side scrolling platform game. Instead of simply making it from the left side of a level to the right you are tasked with finding three keys as well as the pieces of the chronoscepter. The former unlocks the next level, whereas the latter must be gathered to open the way to the final boss. Yeah, it’s one of those pesky collect-a-thons that were so abundant during the 32/64-bit era. Unfortunately it’s just as annoying in this case. I would rather the developers have ventured away from the formula of the original game a bit. A more traditional platformer would have been a better choice in my opinion.

These items are hidden well. Perhaps too well. The stages are very open ended with multiple doors and paths for you to follow and explore. I found myself forced to backtrack constantly because I missed something only to find it was on a platform or area just out of sight. Unfortunately the screen is too small for what the developers were going for. You can hold the select button and press up or down to scroll the action vertically. Sadly you’ll have to do this often to make sure you didn’t miss something. This really slows down the pace. Sometimes I just want to stab or shoot some dinosaurs. Being forced to search the stages with a fine tooth comb isn’t exactly my idea of fun.

What surprised me is just how smooth the gameplay engine runs. Turok animates fluidly and responds to inputs quickly and accurately. It’s clear that the developers really put forth the effort into making sure this one plays well. This helps a lot because Turok: Battle of the Binosaurs demands significant accuracy in regards to its platforming. Some of the blocks you have to jump on are super tiny, and often you have just far enough of a jump to land them. Thankfully the game is a little forgiving. Turok can grab on to ledges if you fall just short of the landing. From here he can either pull himself up or fall below. You’ll need to do both of these in some stages. Unfortunately you’re a sitting duck while climbing up a ledge, and of course, enemies are often waiting for you right at the top.

Just like in the home console version weapons play a huge part in Turok: Battle of the Bionosaurs. You start out armed with just a knife. For having such a short reach it’s surprisingly effective. Thanks to it not depleting ammunition I found myself using it constantly throughout the adventure. From here you’ll also find Turok’s trusty bow and arrow, as well as a myriad of firearms. This includes a pistol, mini-gun, hand cannon, shotgun, and more. These differ in terms of power and firing rate, but it’s hard to tell the difference honestly. They all shoot the same pea shaped shots. They also have limited ammunition but you can find refills in just about every stage. Unfortunately they all use different bullet types. What is cool is that you can fire the guns in all eight directions. In this sense the game kind of reminded me of Contra.

The game also makes use of some Metroid elements. You have a hub level which contains all of the portals leading to the other stages. The unlocked ones have what looks like electricity flowing through them. You can return to any of the levels you’ve completed via this hub, and you’ll have to at specific points. This is because some areas are blocked off with obstacles that can only be destroyed with specific weapons. Once you find these (more often than not they’re in a later stage) you have to return to unblock the area and collect the items. This wouldn’t be a big issue but sometimes it’s pieces of the scepter. What this means is that you must do so or else you can’t fight the final boss. Turok: Battle of the Bionosaurs already had enough backtracking. It’s is the bitter cherry on top of this annoying sundae.

The most annoying aspect of the weapons in Turok: Battle of the Bionosaurs is how you switch between them. You have to hold the select button and press either right or left to cycle to the next one. It’s weird in my opinion, and sometimes my Game Boy wasn’t super responsive to this input. A simple start menu where you choose between them would have been much better. The same problem comes when you try to scroll the screen up or down. I realize that the Game Boy had a very limited number of buttons, but why not just take the select button entirely out of the equation? Simply holding up or down to look in these directions would have been significantly easier and more intuitive.

What’s cool is the fact that the game still retains the boss fights from the N64 original. Problem is these are an absolute cakewalk. If you find the right place to stand during these, and use specific weapons you can down most of the boss foes without taking a single hit. That’s the thing about Turok: Battle of the Bionsaurs. Combat just isn’t very difficult. I rarely found myself running out of health even in the standard stages, and refills were plentiful. The only times I really died were from falling down pits or jumping from too tall a height. The only real challenge it has to offer is in finding the keys and as well as the pieces of the scepter. Searching for these just was not fun due to how awkward the level designs are, and how out of the way they could be.

Turok: Battle of the Bionsaurs is a surprisingly good looking game. The backgrounds are a bit simple in nature but that’s to be expected. If they were too busy it would be difficult to see items and enemies. Turok himself animates very fluidly. The game renders him with a huge number of frames. It really must be seen to be believed. Few games look this good in motion on the Game Boy. The enemies are a bit less impressive. The dinosaurs look okay but barely animate. The human enemies and robots fare a little better, but it’s still nothing special. The soundtrack is okay. It all fits, and the music feels like Turok music. Still there are no standout tracks and this is likely going to be a soundtrack I forget about fast. The same goes for the rudimentary bleeps and blips used for the sound effects.