Universal Soldier was in development by a company called Carolco and was to be published by Accolade. The game was actually a sequel to the Manfred Trentz game, Turrican, but the character sprite was changed so that it could be rebranded as a movie tie-in. A rom of what appears to be the complete version of this game exists. The enemies and gameplay closely match Turrican, as to be expected. It is unknown why this game was canceled. Genesis and Game Boy versions of this game were released, and Turrican 2 was released on various computer platforms. Nintendo Power commented in the October 1992 issue that it was similar to Contra, but complained about the poor controls. The game was originally developed using the original C64 source code and Amiga graphics as a base. At a late stage in the development, Accolade also acquired rights to produce a game spin-off of the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie Universal Soldier and decided to rebrand the game as Universal Soldier. Turrican's sprite was changed into a marine and several other substitutions were made. Amongst other changes, the eyeballs-walking-on-fingers became mini tanks, and instead of a large mech/steel dragon in the first stage, the player now faces a large representation of Dolph Lundgren's character in the film. The three shoot 'em up stages, cut out from the port, were replaced by the developers with three original stages (a Vietnam jungle, a fortress, and a motel/car junkyard) that in theory should link the game to the film's atmosphere. The rest of the original Turrican II stages are still present and remain mostly intact in overall design, though some of them appear in different order, along with the three new levels differently scattered through them.