Decided to try out the original Turrican, the so called "Metroid of Europe". Played it on the amiga emulator of course since the 16-bit console versions are unfortunately shitty.
Holy moly it is a fantastic game! I had a lot of fun blasting through all the levels and finding secrets. It's similar to Mega Turrican which I love on the genesis, but obviously a little more focus on level design than bosses.
Both games have a really annoying (lengthy and maze-like) stage 4 as well. If you die in either stage 3 or stage 4 you may as well reset your system, especially since stage 4 has almost no extra lives available.
The arsenal is good, you have either a multiple shot or a powerful laser. You also have a 360 degree zapper that can destroy enemies and open areas. Secondary options include wave bombs, mines and extremely powerful grenades
There are plenty of extra lives to find, but they all fall out of the air. Once out of sight you cannot get them. It's practically impossible to get any of these in the jetpack level. You also start with a good amount of continues and can get more, but if you use one you start at the beginning of the world.
You can pretty much cheese most of the bosses though. You can turn into an invincible wheel and stay in that form as long as you like, and you can even shoot out of it. The only boss where this doesn't really work is the piranha, which you must shoot in the eye using the zapper. Maybe also the Block guy, which has an alcove that you must stand in and shoot out of.
Definitely a must play, just not on the pc engine.