Top 10 Most Underrated Games on the Amiga - True Hidden Gems

[lionagony]

Originally Posted by haynor666

Spherical Worlds is one rather not too know games but still really good
Ruffian also (didn't ended this hovewer)
Doofus (small charming game)
Mega Typhoon
Clik Clak (Gearworks in some countries)
Hyperion and Virus (not as popular as Zeewolf but still good)
Odyssey (released late in amiga life - really great logic/platfromer)
Qwak (probably not a really HIDDEN gem)
Sword (polish game)
Tin Toy Adventure (again released late in amiga life)
WatchTower (slow version of Commando )
Jimmy's Fantastic Journey
Tubular Worlds
Blob (Core game so a really hidden)
Shepherd (shareware game but great)
Timekeepers

Great call on Sword, that's a fun game. Also really like Tin Toy Adventure. Need to still play through all of Watchtower and Odyssey and will add Doofus to my list to play as this isn't the first time I've heard it called underrated.

[Megalomaniac]

I take it that Doofus is better than the reviews made it out to be? Timekeepers is something I keep meaning to try. Tin Toy too, I love it that Adrian left Core Design and stayed with the Amiga, when almost everyone else did the exact opposite. I think it sold respectably for the time, with low overheads no doubt as it was a late one-man-from-his-bedroom type operation (as it no doubt is now)

[sokolovic]

I haven't played it but Perihelion seems to be very well considered on Lemon amiga and is rarely quoted among the best Amiga rpg.

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by sokolovic

I haven't played it but Perihelion seems to be very well considered on Lemon amiga and is rarely quoted among the best Amiga rpg.

I loved it back in the day, but must admit that for some reason I don't remember much of it. Could be a sign it wasn't all that great...also reviews are somewhat mixed. Really need to replay it soon. But I'd agree it's underrated even with these caveats.


Another similar case could be Whale's Voyage 1/2.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by sokolovic

I haven't played it but Perihelion seems to be very well considered on Lemon amiga and is rarely quoted among the best Amiga rpg.

That might be because it isn't It has loads of atmosphere, but in my opinion falls flat as a game. Of course your mileage may vary if you are into super dark scenarios and engaging gameplay isn't that important for you.

[Photon]

Nice thread perhaps there should be some rules to define underrated and gem?

You change with time as well - you might have been all over fast arcade action in your youth, but now prefer slightly less frenetic games, or even games that require reading the manual and playing for longer than 15 minutes.

I guess a good definition would be that the game got a low score in Amiga magazines at initial release (not lower-priced re-release), let's say < 70% or equivalent, but now (HOL) users rate it substantially higher, let's say > 90%?

Quite naturally, a lot of games that for some reason got a limited audience are candidates for the "hidden" part. It could be that it wasn't translated to English, required reading the manual, got poor distribution, came out next to a similar game that was perceived as the better one, or was published before or after the Amiga's heyday - let's say 1985-1987 and 1993-1997 on depending on country. Maybe also games requiring special input devices, such as the few light gun games, mouse control required and your ball mouse wasn't up to the task, or games marred by inferior controls, and now we have the ability to use a button for jump so that they are more enjoyable.

All these are reasons for users (and even magazines) to have missed them, and if the data is there, maybe some HOL Database-fu could give an initial list? It would be a bit of work even to check your own 10 gems manually.

Obviously they can't be movie/arcade or 8-bit ports, unless the original movies/games themselves were rather unknown.

I will play safe and list a few that I think are rather unknown, and that I enjoy(ed) playing.

Gravity-Force by Kingsoft
Exile
Datastorm
Simulcra
Eliminator
F/A-18 Interceptor (or did everyone play it?)
Vroom
Virus
Master Blaster (everyone played Dynablaster?)
Trailblazer (PD, apparently there's Jump'n'Roll and Sky Roads as well)
E-Motion
Qix (everyone played Powerstyx?)

As you can see there are some maybes, and I know many more lesser known games (and I intend to try them on my stream), but I simply haven't played them enough to know if they are gems.

Edit: I wanted to find out if I still liked then so yesterday I played all of the above except Master Blaster.
All good but Trailblazer and Qix lacked the excitement of when they were something new and different. For Vroom I need the oomph to learn the tracks, same for Eliminator a little bit.

[copse]

Originally Posted by Photon

Virus

Virus is interesting. I loved Virus, or more the idea and look of it. Playing it was too much work for me. And over the years on different forums I've seen this sentiment repeated much more often than people saying they actually played it. Archimedes forums, Atari ST forums and so on. Perhaps that is selection bias though.

If that impression were correct, then I'd argue it was overrated _as a game_ for this sentiment. But again, that could be projection

[haynor666]

Originally Posted by Megalomaniac

I take it that Doofus is better than the reviews made it out to be? Timekeepers is something I keep meaning to try. Tin Toy too, I love it that Adrian left Core Design and stayed with the Amiga, when almost everyone else did the exact opposite. I think it sold respectably for the time, with low overheads no doubt as it was a late one-man-from-his-bedroom type operation (as it no doubt is now)

Small, charming game with nothing new or exciting but I liked it.

What is funny PC version was completly redraw. Maybe because amiga received only bad reviews

[lionagony]

Just for posterity I wanted to mention Marvin's Marvellous Adventure as underrated. The Lemon scores are pretty good but I don't think the game gets enough credit. It's a really well designed game with a lot of cool ideas and some great visuals. I think it's the best Mario style game on the Amiga. It's also maybe the longest Amiga action game ever with 60 levels, this longplay is 4.5 hours! [ Show youtube player ]

[TCD]

Originally Posted by lionagony

Just for posterity I wanted to mention Marvin's Marvellous Adventure as underrated.

The problem with the game is that by the time that it came out it just didn't offer anything new. Most reviews of the time mention that it is very well made and offers a lot of levels, but it just does what a lot of games did before... maybe slightly better.

[lionagony]

Originally Posted by TCD

The problem with the game is that by the time that it came out it just didn't offer anything new. Most reviews of the time mention that it is very well made and offers a lot of levels, but it just does what a lot of games did before... maybe slightly better.

I think what was new is it was the first platformer built for AGA from the ground up. In fact I think Tin Toy Adventure was the only other one at all in the 90's. It did have some creative things later in the game, the levels in the dark were a lot of fun, although as you say not groundbreaking. For a direct Mario inspired game I think it's better than Woody's World. For Sonic on the Amiga the closest were Kid Chaos and Dr. Cube's Magic Lands and for Mario the closest was Marvin imo.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by lionagony

I think what was new is it was the first platformer built for AGA from the ground up.

Well, yeah that is true

[haps]

+1 for Simulcra and Vroom.

Both good games.

[haynor666]

Originally Posted by lionagony

Just for posterity I wanted to mention Marvin's Marvellous Adventure as underrated. The Lemon scores are pretty good but I don't think the game gets enough credit. It's a really well designed game with a lot of cool ideas and some great visuals. I think it's the best Mario style game on the Amiga. It's also maybe the longest Amiga action game ever with 60 levels, this longplay is 4.5 hours! [ Show youtube player ]

Forgot about this one. Indeed great game. Managed to finish 2/3 of it but somehow I never finished this game.

[Megalomaniac]

Datastorm is one I really like, my favourite Defenderesque game on the Amiga (though I'd Dropzone rather than Defender really). E-Motion is a bit too 'out there' for me, feels like luck plays a very big part. Those two both came with the Astra Pack from Siicia and some other UK (and maybe beyond) retailers in 1991 / 1992 or so, so some people will have them.

Blob felt pretty cool but I didn't spend that long with it.

If I had more time I'd go through every single game mentioned in this list to form an opinion on them.

[Dunny]

Originally Posted by kremiso

Scorpio

JFC YES! YES YES YES! One of the first games I played on my A1000 after a mate dropped a load of cracked floppies round for me. Vertical R-Type-esque with an absolutely terrific sound sample from Cabaret Voltaire as the BGM.

Such great memories of looping around this level after level - a surprise hit from Kingsoft.

[Iskbob]

Hard to say if these are actual hidden gems, but there's something about each of them I quite like, and most of them fly entirely under the radar for lists and people talking about them.

My list would be in no particular order -

Catch 'Em
Drivin Force
Erik
Galaxy '89
Helicopter Mission
Lost Dutchman Mine
Microbes
Nuclear War
Sink or Swim
Space 1889


The list below are some better known titles, but are generally overlooked a lot of the time also.

BabeAnoid: Hidden Worlds
Centurion: Defender of Rome
P.O.W.
Phobia
Ports of Call
Realms
Typhoon Thompson
Warlords
Wings of Fury
X-It


and this last one is really obscure and I can't get it working, but I've heard it's meant to be decent - sort of a cross between Wing Commander and Elite.

Star Fighter: D'Yammen's Reign

If anyone has WinUAE Config file for the ISO, or a fully patched .LHA file please let me know. It was given away years ago for free, but all the download links for it are now dead - http://www.drewfx.com/Star/star.htm