I first discovered “Hurrican” about three years ago and I recently re-discovered it a couple of weeks ago. I’m also genuinely surprised that I haven’t actually reveiwed this game yet. So, without wasting any more time, let’s begin….
“Hurrican” is a freeware 1990s-style action sci-fi 2D platform game which was made by someone called “Poke53280” in 2007/2008. You play as a man in futuristic armour who has to blast his way through hordes of robots and mutants and stop an evil scientist from conquering the universe.
Apparently, “Hurrican” was heavily inspired by a really old platform game called “Turrican”, which I’ve never actually played. However, it also seems to be at least slightly influenced by “Duke Nukem II” too in terms of weapons, the level styles and gameplay design. Needless to say, I love this game.
If you’re interested in playing “Hurrican”, it can be downloaded here .
When you start the game, you are greeted by this joyously hyperactive credits screen which bounces all over the place and is worth a mention in it’s own right, just because you virtually never see this kind of fun thing in modern games:
Woo hoo!!
Anyway, once you start the game, you can get started straight away or you can choose to play through a tutorial level if you want to. Yes, the tutorial level is totally optional (like it should be in all good games) but it is worth playing once, since it introduces you to all of the various gameplay mechanics and weapons in this game.
Although you only have one gun, there are four firing modes for it which you can switch between (once you’ve found the appropriate power-ups, which can also upgrade your existing weapons too) and there are also three types of additional weapons you can pick up too.
One of these additional weapons is a fairly standard grenade, another one is a “smart bomb” which destroys everything withing a circular space around your character but the best one is the “powerline”. This is the most awesome weapon I’ve ever seen in a platform game. It causes two beams of energy to sweep across the screen and damage everything in their path.
The Powerline – the BFG 9000 of old-school platform games.
Since you can carry multiple powerlines and there’s no delay between using them, you can fire about three of them in the space of a second if you want to – and, trust me, there is nothing more satisfying than doing this when you are surrounded by robots.
Another cool feature is that you can curl up into a spiked ball (or a wheel) and roll around the screen. Whilst you do this, you are completely invincible and you can also drop grenades too.
In order to keep the game at least slightly fair, there’s a time-limit on how long you can remain in this state and you have to wait for it to recharge before you can curl up into a ball again.
The ball/wheel mode – you’ll be using this a lot.
In addition to this, there are a few secret areas which can only be reached when you are in this mode too. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, this game has lots of amazing and inventive secret areas hidden in each level which you can find if you’re willing to explore. Yes, like all good games, this one rewards you for exploration. Here are two of my favourite secret areas:
Yes, that’s actually a secret level boss which you can fight in addition to the main one.
The hidden level select area.
This brings me on to the level design. Although the nine levels (and the tutorial level) in “Hurrican” are slightly more linear than the levels in “Duke Nukem II” and you don’t have to find keycards or anything like that, they mostly require a bit of thought and exploration. The only exception is the third level, which is surprisingly difficult because it almost entirely takes place on a small descending platform with very little cover or places to hide. Apart from this, don’t worry, you won’t just be going in a straight line from one side of the level to the other.
In addition to this, you will have to face a level boss at the end of each level and all of these bosses are fairly inventive. Some of them are just simple level bosses which you just have to shoot repeatedly (but their general design is quite inventive), but a few of them can only be damaged in very specific ways and, unless you consult a walkthrough on Youtube, you’ll spend quite a while working out how to do this. For example, the boss on the ice level can only be damaged if you shoot at it’s missiles/bombs when they are in a particular position, which will cuase them to bounce backwards and hit the boss instead of you.
As for the settings and the graphics – the levels are all fairly standard platform games levels (there’s an ice level, a lava level, a forest/jungle level, several “futuristic” enemy base levels etc…) which are sometimes vaguely reminiscent of the level design in “Duke Nukem II”. The backgrounds look absolutely amazing for an old-school 2D platform game too:
This level looks amazing!
“Hurrican” is also extremely challenging in a refreshingly old-school way. Even on “Normal” difficulty, expect to be constantly besieged by hordes of enemies and expect to keep your finger firmly pressed on the “fire” button the whole time too. Yes, this is an old-school action platformer in every way. But, although this game is difficult, it is never unfair and, with enough persistence, you will eventually beat this game.
One of the other amazing things about “Hurrican” is the music. Yes, this game has amazingly good music. It’s kind of hard to describe, but it’s a brilliantly atmospheric blend of several musical styles. Trust me, this game is worth playing just for the music alone. You can even listen to some of it on Youtube too.
However, one minor technical issue I found when I was re -playing it was that occasionally, your character will fall into the floor slightly.
Yes, I’m standing IN the floor!
Whilst I don’t remember this happening when I played the game in 2010 and it might be an issue with my computer rather than anything else, it can be fairly annoying when it happens. Normally, it can just be remedied by jumping but very occasionally – if you’re curled up into a ball – you will occasionally literally fall off the bottom of the level and die due to this bug. On the plus side, using this bug makes reaching the secret level select area surprisingly easy.
Another cool thing to mention is that, like all the great 2D platform games from the 1990s, “Hurrican” only uses keyboard controls too. This was an absolutely excellent decision on the part of the developer and I’ve never understood why some modern platform games insist on using mouse controls too – seriously, it’s just a distraction!
All in all, “Hurrican” is an extremely fun (and refreshingly nostalgic) modern 2D action platform game. The gameplay is as close to perfection as possible and everything about this game just looks amazing. It’s hard to believe that just one person made this as a hobby project because it is actually much better than some “professional” games which were made by large development teams. Even better, it’s absolutely free, so there’s no excuse not to download and play it if you’re an old-school gamer like myself..
In many ways “Hurrican” is also the kind of game which “Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project” should have been, instead of the absolute abomination that 3D Realms actually ended up making. But I’ve already written a long rant about that game.
If I had to give “Hurrican” a rating out of five, then it would get a solid five.
PekoeBlaze - the official blog 