Spinoffs & Related Games

Katakis is the direct creative predecessor to Turrican and represents Manfred Trenz's first major showcase title as a programmer and designer. Created as an after-hours project at Rainbow Arts with graphics artist Andreas Escher, Katakis is a horizontally scrolling shoot-'em-up inspired by arcade classics including R-Type, Nemesis (Gradius), and Darius.

Katakis became embroiled in a celebrated dispute with Activision Europe, which held the C64 rights to R-Type. The resulting negotiation required Rainbow Arts to produce the official R-Type conversions - tasks Trenz completed in just six and a half weeks - while Katakis was allowed to continue with minor graphical alterations. An Amiga version was published under the name Denaris.

The Turrican series is rich with Katakis references. At the end of Turrican II's level 2-2, a fighter resembling the Katakis ship lifts off the ground. A bonus container ship from Katakis appears in Turrican II before the level 3-2 boss fight. The planet in Super Turrican is named Katakis. These easter eggs, placed by Trenz himself, confirm the deep personal connection between the two games.

Rendering Ranger: R2 is the final major project Manfred Trenz designed for the Super Famicom, released exclusively in Japan by Virgin Interactive. Published in the same year as Super Turrican 2 on the same hardware, the game never received a Western release, making it one of gaming's most celebrated hidden gems.

The game alternates between on-foot run-and-gun sections - where the Turrican DNA is immediately recognisable - and horizontally scrolling shoot-'em-up stages reminiscent of Katakis. The technical centrepiece is a series of extraordinary Super Famicom graphical effects including hardware scaling, rotation, and transparent overlays that pushed the console to its limits.

Its extreme scarcity on original Super Famicom cartridges made it a holy grail for collectors. The game was eventually re-released digitally, bringing Trenz's final pre-retirement console vision to a far wider audience.

Apidya is a horizontal shoot-'em-up developed by Factor 5 - the same studio behind Super Turrican and Mega Turrican - and published by Kaiko in 1992. The game puts players in control of a wasp transformed by an ancient Japanese potion, fighting through organic environments. Apidya is notable for its extraordinary visual design making full use of the Amiga's colour palette.

Chris Huelsbeck composed the soundtrack, which has been cited by fans and critics as one of the finest scores in Amiga gaming history - rivalling his Turrican work for technical achievement. The music blends Japanese traditional motifs with his signature orchestral chip-music style.

Jim Power in Mutant Planet was designed explicitly in the shadow of Turrican, drawing on the same run-and-gun template that had made Turrican a defining title of the Amiga era. The game's technical centrepiece was a claimed twelve layers of parallax scrolling - an extraordinary number for the Amiga.

The Turrican connection is reinforced by the soundtrack: a producer at Loriciel had been listening to Chris Huelsbeck's Turrican II music and specifically approached him to compose Jim Power's score. Huelsbeck created an ambitious original soundtrack that many consider among the finest work of his Amiga output.

Gunlord is arguably the most technically and artistically ambitious Turrican spiritual successor ever made. Developed by German independent studio NG:DEV.Team for the Neo Geo MVS arcade system - a platform more than two decades old at release - the game represents an extraordinary act of retro devotion.

René Hellwig of NG:DEV.Team cited Turrican, Metroid, and Contra as the game's direct inspirations. Composer Rafael Dyll stated that Chris Huelsbeck's Turrican soundtracks were a direct influence on Gunlord's music. Gameplay involves nine non-linear stages, a morph-ball function mirroring Turrican's wheel transformation, and seven weapon types - structural echoes of Turrican's design language.

10,000 copies of the Dreamcast version were sold by May 2019. Gunlord X, the updated 2019 version, brought the game to a mainstream audience for the first time.