Cody Presents... The Amiga Power Top 100 No. 6 (1996)

[CodyJarrett]

THE ULTIMATE AMIGA POWER ALL-TIME TOP 100

Last month, at a secret location in Bath, England, some of the greatest computer games experts in the world were assembled together to debate the burning issue of our time. So just what was the greatest Amiga game of all time? And what were the 99 others that were also very good but not as good? And how should they be ranked? Chew on your nails no longer. Turn over the page and begin...


100) Base Jumpers (Rasputin)

Pleasing four player platform dash up buildings followed by tremendous freefall battles down them. A party favourite.


99) Tankkk (PD)

Multi-player mazey wandering with tanks (of course) and big guns. Bounce the shots of the wall to disable your friends. In real life too.


98) Kill The Prez (Anco)

Who says the point-and-click adventure has had its day? Assassination and cross-dressing prove that this oldie's still a goldie.


97) Bob's Bad Day (The Dome/Psygnosis)

Headache-inducing arcade puzzler featuring a head (and later, a torso) spinning round coin filled levels. Quite a bit like the bonus levels from Sonic.


96) The New Zealand Story (Hit Squad)

Amiable and twee platformer capable of traumatising small children through its graphic depiction of the central character - a fluffy kiwi - sinking and drowning. And the music - like, wow.


95) Second Samurai (Vivid Image)

"My sword!" cries the tremendously well animated hero of this platform beat-'em-up. And so does his (near) identical partner as they hack, blast, leap and jetpack their way through the adventuresome lair of evil.


94) F-29 Retaliator (Ocean)

Possibly the only truly great jet flight sim on the Amiga, packing the targets and flying enemies into such a small acreage that you're bound to get into some action almost straight away. Woopee!


93) Projectyle (Electronic Arts)

With its incredibly fast action and its undeniably enjoyable multi-player mode this game's back in fashion.


92) Bubble And Squeak A500 (Audiogenic)

The A500 version of this buddysome platform puzzler gets in because of the changes WE INSISTED ON that improved the original A1200 version. Occasionally people listen to AP, and the whole world profits when they do.


91) Elite (Firebird)

Despite numerous attempts to make it bigger, bolder and better, the grandad seminal space trading game is still the best, despite being older than all of us. Put together.


90) R-Type 2 (Activision)

If there's only one space in your cupboard for a ruthless frantic horizontally scrolling shoot-'em-up, then it's got to be this one, power ups included. Tokenism? No way.


89) Premier Manager 3 (Gremlin)

The most comprehensive footie mannie sim of them all, this one has all the options you could want. And a few more besides.


88) Apidya (Team 17)

If there's only one space in your cupboard for a ruthless frantic horizontally scrolling shoot-'em-up with insects, wasps, drone beetles and snails, then it's got to be this one. Tokenism? We told you so.


87) Virus (Firebird)

Zeewolf has a mum and a dad in Desert Strike and Virus. It's the game that launched the Acorn Electron and also has one of the hardest control systems of all time.


86) Desert Strike (Electronic Arts)

Compared to Gulf War Syndrome and the plight of the Kurds, the gung-ho antics of man and helicopter in perfect harmony must surely be the only good thing to come out of the invasion and subsequent re-taking of Kuwait.


85) Switchblade 2 (Gremlin)

Back in the days that computer game success was measured by how much like an arcade game they were, people frequently stopped and gasped "My, isn't Switchblade 2 just like an arcade game.". Often in the street, to complete strangers.


84) Beneath A Steel Sky (Virgin)

Comic book hero Dave Gibbons' input makes this a visual treat, and the story of future outlander returning to the big city provides enough intrigues to push you through the huge stack of disks that this comes on. Also available on CD with a bland talky track.


83) Llamatron (Jeff Minter)

It's Robotron - but with Llamas! The pleasantly deranged hippy mind of Jeff Minter provides more action per minute and more baddies per screen than any game before or since. And it's only shareware too.


82) World Class Rugby (Domark)

A rugby simulation? Why that's the last thing we expected to be any good. And yet it is. Very good, in fact.


81) Arcade Pool (Team 17)

Simplicity is the key to Arcade Pool, with a top-down view and zippy control system you can get into straight away. It was also released for a shockingly sensible tenner, but the idea sadly never caught on.


80) Soccer Kid (Core)

Core did a long list of platform games with hardly any platforms, where you just ran from one end to the other and avoided the baddies. This is their finest, and also the only one to feature trick shots with a football. Hence the name. Obviously.


79) SWIV (Sales Curve)

Homage MUST BE PAID to the vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up, and there are few better than this curious tank/helicopter old bloke of a game. Those that are better? Read on, friends.


78) Klax (Domark)

As we say every year, Sue described this as Tetris - only with a conveyor belt and wheelbarrow. We concur.


77) Laser Squad (Buzz)

If Angus Deayton is the thinking woman's crumpet, then Laser Squad is the thinking man's combat game, where points mean movements mean the difference between life or death.


76) Pacmania (Grandslam)

Just when everyone thought that Pacman had died a death (ie. just after someone pointed out that Ms Pacman was just Pacman with a ribbon) along came Pacman in 3D, where you could jump over the ghosts.


75) Lamb Am Chal (Titus)

Or to use the full name, Lamborghini American Challenge, only said like this it doesn't sound like you can order it from a Chinese take away. Oh, yeah, it's a racing game, of the "zoom into the screen" variety.


74) Boston Bomb Club (Silmarils)

Real time, turn of the century gentlemen's club antics involving a converted snooker table full of movable tracks, bombs slowly rolling down them, buckets of water to roll them into and annoying spectators (with babies) who block your view.


73) Hunter (Activision)

The original. The one. The only. There exists in this universe a single polygon viewed, 3D, totally immersive environment bloke sim, where you can enter all the buildings and drive all the vehicles. And this is it. Virtual reality started here.


72) Harlequin (Gremlin)

A platform game that's well thought out, exciting and varied, with loads of pitfalls and pleasures, and great graphics too. You see, they can be done, even if the moron programmers of the world fail most times.


71) Theme Park (Bullfrog/Electronic Arts)

Prolonged playing of Sim City - but in a fairground, shows that it all gets a bit samey, but for the first two months it's awesome, and that's before you unlock the Syndicate tie-in hidden game Sinister Theme Park.


70) Bloodnet (Gametek)

Cyberpunk vampire point-and-click thriller with loads of killing, occasional profanity and a tremendously free-form story structure that lets you wander around and find your own solution. More or less.


69) Total Football (Domark)

Somebody tried to cross FIFA with Sensible Soccer? Ha ha ha. How we laughed in the office. Until we actually saw this very neatly designed game and shut up.


68) Fly Harder Amiga Version (Krisalis)

Revamped version of Thrust, where you move ultra-heavy steel balls around with a spaceship buffeted by THE IMMUTABLE LAWS OF PHYSICS. The CD32 version used UP TO THRUST. Ghnnnfff.


67) Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge (Gremlin)

A racing game.


66) F1 (Domark)

Some might argue THE racing game, with faster than thought acceleration and twisty, turny courses that have to be memorised before you can even entertain thoughts of winning.


65) IK+ (System 3)

One of the original beat-'em-ups that contains the missing element of humour. Novel three way battles and the infamous ability to make your opponent's pants fall down make this a hoot even today.


64) Railroad Tycoon (Microprose)

If, as the advert suggests, no Italian kid ever wanted to be a train driver, then they'd miss out on this Sim City - but with a locomotive infastructure game.


63) Blob (Core)

It's on the cover of this month's mag, Play it, and try to avoid feeling heartbroken as Blob screams a silent scream and crashes to his inevitable death.


62) Legends (Guildhall)

Excellent level design and a genuine sense of fun make this Zelda-esque overhead RPG stand out from a fairly lacklustre crowd. Some people enjoyed making this, and it shows.


61) Liberation CD32 (Mindscape)

As close to a "Killer App" as the CD32 ever got, Liberation has you guiding robots through a massive texture-mapped future city to rescue political prisoners. Didn't sell the CD32 of course - although after Commodore's bungled launch, Quake couldn't have sold the CD32.

[CodyJarrett]

60) Super Obliteration (David Papworth/PD)

One of many games discovered by AP, David Papworth's version of Asteroids - but with a little bloke has graced our coverdisks twice and it's still great fun, especially played with two joysticks - the Control Method of Champions.


59) Kid Gloves (Millennium)

The Stuart Campbell influence shows this year, with the cover disk demo from AP2 - a platform game complete with ladder ladies, angry women and snakes. Just like real life, in fact.


58) Mercenary (Novagen)

Released before AMIGA POWER and almost certainly unavailable anywhere any more, it's another Campbell entry for this 3D vector arcade adventure meets flight sim affair. It's still scarily big though.


57) War In The Gulf (Empire)

The third in Empire's line of virtually identical tank platoon games distinguishes itself by being yellow instead of green (it's the sand, see?) and allowing us to use the "The man responsible for War In The Gulf" joke several times in past issues. Which has pleased us.


56) Carrier Command (Ocean)

Dated curiosity that's part polygon flight sim and part Pacific type war game, and is complete with landing craft, planes and plenty of island invading action. Still one of the few games to let you effortlessly slip from aircraft to ground craft to sea craft.


55) E-Motion (US Gold)

Despite Jonathon Nash hating it, this Asteroids - but with elastic bands and THE IMMUTABLE LAWS OF PHYSICS has been flitting in and out of the top one hundreds. This year we've decided that we like it.


54) Lemmings 2 (DMA/Psygnosis)

The good one.


53) Flashback (US Gold)

Rotoscoped animations of the cool leather jacketed hero, top shooty action and an interesting plot make this platform adventure game heaps better than anything similar, and give it a well deserved spot as a multi-format classic. Vive la France, eh?


52) K240 (Gremlin)

It's Sim City - but on asteroids.


51) The Blues Brothers (Titus)

A platform game. Based on the Blues Brothers. Natch.


50) Yo! Joe! (Hudson Soft)

Exciting to look at and exciting to play, and just how many other two-player platform games can you name that arm the (admittedly unfortunately bandana wearing) heroes with chainsaws and fire bombs? Exactly.


49) Walker (DMA/Psygnosis)

Merciless mechanical death and gratuitous maimage has a name, and that name is Walker - a time-travelling robotic machine spitting death from twin cannons. On an A1200, the carnage is supplemented by some incredible radio chatter too.


48) Super Hang-On (US Gold)

A racing game. On a motorbike.


47) Defender (Acid/PD)

Arcade perfect Defender, from the Southern Hemisphere lads that brought you Super Skidmarks and Roadkill.


46) Gem'X (Global/DMI)

A simple yet challenging puzzle game where you have to match the active side of the screen with the inactive half by changing the colours of gems. A catch? Of course there's a catch, otherwise it'd be easy, wouldn't it? At least the cute manga girls love you though.


45) Super League Manager (Audiogenic)

At last, a footie mannie sim with a plant on your desk that needs watering. More importantly, it leaves lots to your imagination and doesn't try to blind you with tedious stats.


44) Roadkill CD32 (Vision)

"Rowwwed Keeyulll!!" drawls the Aussie voice over, as a beautifully rendered, motion-blurred intro unfolds a tale of powerful cars, rockets, mine fields and decapitated drivers. The top down racing game features brilliantly constructed courses (complete with short cuts) AND bonus points for shooting other cars. Get the JACKPOT! Get the SUPER JACKPOT!!!


43) Asteroids (Kris Schulte/PD)

It's Asteroids.


42) Sabre Team A1200 (Krisalis)

Refining the Laser Squad game to perfection, you're given a squad of SAS type hard men and various hostage rescue missions based in embassies, jungles and cruise liners. Success depends on good tactics and sensible use of the action points and not, for example, pulling the pin out of a grenade only to find you haven't got enough action points to throw it. As happened to Cam once. Fizz. Boom.


41) Gunship 2000 (Microprose)

Huge scale helicopter flight sim featuring loads of advances over anything seen before. The terrain undulates up AND down, allowing you to fly through deep river valleys. And the wingman system lets you send your men on the really tough missions leaving you ton complete the turkey shoots and grab all the glory.


40) D/Generation (Mindscape)

Yet another old timer, this time perked up by a CD32 release. The isometric graphics look suitably dated, yet this arcade/puzzle/adventure game featuring a motorcycle courier pursued around an office block by mechanised defence droids still hits the spot.


39) Banshee (Core)

Terrifically intense vertically scrolling shooty game with gorgeous graphics and a magnificent attention to the most minute of details. It's hard even as a two-player game, and the enjoyment is only slightly tainted by the fact that you've got to put in a password to witness the worst excesses of violence, from murdered mums to pole-axed polar bears.


38) Tetris Pro (PD)

It's Tetris - but with a point. Instead of grinding away doing endless lines, you play in rounds to try and colour in the backing picture. And as you do more rounds, you have to complete doubles, then triples to colour in each line. It's a gorgeous version, and we gave you it free on an AP coverdisk.


37) No Second Prize (Thalion)

Thalion's storming motor bike racing game uses an incredibly fast polygon engine that looked like it was going to appear in all manner of racing and flying games, but nothing came of it. Instead, this mouse controlled racer was left on its own as living testament to how motor bike games should be done.


36) Empire Soccer (Graftgold/Empire)

It is Speedball 2 but in shorts and as fast and flowing a footy game as you'll ever come across. Try the banana shot.


35) Car-Vup (Core)

As cute a wee platformy-type affair as you could ever hope to find combined with splendid, responsive controls and plenty of bonuses.


34) Super Foul Egg (Michael & David Hay)

Yet another game presented by us, to you, because we care THAT MUCH. In response to our demands that someone do a version of Super Puyo Puyo, the Hays responded and, after weeks of playtesting (by us) and tweaking (by them), it emerged on AP58. Lay your foul eggs in your opponent's mouth, and to the victor the spoils.


33) Sim City (Maxis)

It's Sim City - only nothing. It's Sim City. Just that.


32) Head Over Heels (Ocean)

Looking far too much like a typical isometric ZX Spectrum game to hide the fact that it's a conversion of a Spectrum game, it's a great example of the sort of fun puzzly arcade adventures that people don't make anymore.


31) Wizkid (Ocean)

Too odd to even begin to explain, it's sort of a platform game, but then again it's sort of many other types of game too. Old, bold, and sadly never to be repeated.

[CodyJarrett]

30) Overkill (Acid/Vision)

Little more than Defender - only with better graphics, Overkill excels in providing more viscera per second than the average George Romero zombie movie. Organic alien ships explode in a ripe water melon injected with jelly sort of a way, and when your ship is hit, it ditches and destructs on the deck, but only after the pilot's scrambled to safety.


29) Stunt Car Racer (Kixx)

You're in a fast car. The car's racing against another car. Both cars are on an impressively tall and scary rollercoaster with bumpy bits and huge jumps. Get the speed wrong, you're off. Hit the bumpy bits, you're off. Lose the race into a corner and jostle with the opponent, you're off. As a one player game, it'll always be smart; as a null-modem linked game, it's incredible. All hail Sir Geoff Crammond.


28) Jetstrike CD32 (Rasputin)

Fiddly, amateurish, half-baked, anally retentive, obsessive, poorly produced and silly. These all apply to Jetstrike. So why's it so fun then? Is it the world's largest explosions, the splashes in the water, the inane radio chatter and the bonkers missions? Is it because you can be abducted by aliens? Or because you can fly anything from a jet fighter/bomber to a hang glider? We have no idea.


27) F1GP (Microprose)

Sir Geoff Crammond's final word in Formula One racing games. You can tweak it, modify it and nibble its ear lobes until it's exactly the game you want. And then you can play it forever. And a day.


26) Super Stardust (Bloodhouse/Team 17)

Asteroids - only with bizarre monsters as well as rocks, beautiful rendered graphics and THAT tunnel section.


25) The Settlers (Blue Byte)

It's Sim City meets Populous, with some fiercely cute characters wandering around your settlement, toting bails and lifting barrels and that sort of thing.


24) Super Skidmarks (Acid)

The only Amiga game capable of being played in Superpanavision? across two monitors. The only Amiga game to have an eight-player option. The only Amiga game to feature cows on wheels. The only Amiga game remotely like The Italian Job. The statistics speak for themselves.


23) Pinball Illusions (Digital Illusions/21st Century)

Pinball games from 21st Century just keep getting better, explaining why this one's been shunted down the listings by their newer game.


22) Super Tennis Champs (Audiogenic)

And again, it's a game that came about directly because of AMIGA POWER. The full game here is little more than a souped-up version of the game we bought off a young programmer and put on the coverdisk of AP. Great as either a one- or two-player game (although curiously there aren't any female players). It's the game that made at least three issues go to the printer late.


21) Dune 2 (Westwood/Virgin)

Ask a PC owner about Command & Conquer and they'll get ever so exciting, yet C&C is little more than a graphically advanced version of this, the finest realtime wargame ever to appear on the Amiga.


20) Shadow Fighter (Gremlin)

Stealing all the best bits from all other beat-'em-ups (instead of, for example, paying billions for a licence and slavishly attempting to mimic the arcade original), two Italian schoolkids succeeded in producing a brilliant Amiga game where teams of highly paid professionals have constantly failed.


19) Monkey Island 1&2 (Lucasarts)

One (or rather two) of the first ever point and click adventure games, the Monkey Island games are inseparably funny and entertaining, and have still to be bettered.


18) Gloom (Acid)

As the Doom - but on the Amiga wars hotted up, it looked for a long time like this was going to be the winner. Dropping exploration for all-out blood and bits, Gloom's as intense a video games as you're ever going to play.


17) Zeewolf 2 (Binary Asylum)

Or, to use its correct title Zeewolf, But With All The Problems From The First Game Corrected. Helicopters, explosions, bullets splashing into the water and domes prove that most of computer gaming's best ideas come out of the Amiga. And you can switch vehicles.


16) Rodland (Sales Curve)

Hard-to-describe sickly sweet platform combat game where colourful gonk type characters maim and kill weeping sharks and smirking flour sacks by battering them to death with magic rods and "special ladders". Quite


15) Rainbow Islands (Ocean)

Hard-to-describe sickly sweet platform combat game where colourful characters in dungarees maim and kill cute and lovable characters by ensnaring them in pretty rainbows until they explode. Quite.


14) Micro Machines (Codemasters)

Tmie, it would seem, stood still in the top-down racing genre seconds after Micro Machines was released. An then it ran backwards, ensuring that all subsequent releases of similar games have been far, far worse than this truly exciting toy-tussling two-player crash fest.


13) Slamtilt (21st Century)

Mention pinball games for the Amiga, and you're really just talking about 21st Century, who pulled out all the stops last year to produce a small number of pefectly formed tables that shine out of the screen in all the A1200, coat of many colours glory. It's a pinball game. So now you know.


12) Alien Breed 3D

And the undisputed winner of the Doom - but on the Amiga crown is... Stopping the inexplicable slide of the Alien Breed games from the excellent '92 edition to the dreadful Tower Assault, Breed 3D restored our faith that running round gloomy corridors with guns can be fun. From the technical achievement of getting it to run so quickly through to the impressive array of detailed aliens and sheer scale of the explosions, everything (apart from the dire head to head game) is a colossal triumph.


11) The Chaos Engine (Bitmap Brothers/Renegade)

Maybe it's the brass and iron riveted steampunk setting, perhaps it's the fact that in a one-player mode, the computer controlled team mate acts like a human rather than some slavish mindless drone, or possibly it's just that the resonating voice booming "Node activated" is just so pleasing. Whatever the reason, we're confident that we'll still be playing this souped-up Gauntlet game on our death beds.

[CodyJarrett]

10) Knights Of The Sky (Microprose)

Close runner-up in the Doom - but on the Amiga compo was this WW1 flight sim. Not only does it enable single players to slaughter poorly trained enemies, strafe their trucks and drop bombs on their towns, but it allows two players to go head to head on linked Amigas, blasting little bits off each other's planes until they're forced to taxi around the ground propelled by misfiring engines. Despite its age, KOTS marks the pinnacle of aviation combat on the Amiga.


9) Speedball 2 (Bitmap Brothers/Renegade)

Euro '96 has just finished, and if ever the world needed a showcase for soccer's failings, this was it. How many games finished in nil-nil draws? Too many. What football really needs is more than one way to score points, by lighting stars on the sides, or maiming opponents, or maybe by boosting your goal points by hitting a multiplier ramp. And getting rid of throw-ins by building a wall around the pitch would be cool too. What football needs... is to be more like Speedball 2.


8) Exile (Audiogenic)

The release last year of a graphically polished A1200 version of Exile made us look back to the original and play it a bit more, and do you know what? We liked it, far more than the new version, (which, with its enlarged graphics, features a much smaller visible playing area) and far more than we did the last time we did a Top 100. It's a graphic adventure with a jetpack, dispelling all that usual "It's a skull" rubbish with visual problems to solve. With real physics, and a single mammoth playing area to contend with, probably less than 17 people have ever finished it, but this tarnishes the pleasure not in the slightest.


7) Syndicate (Bullfrog/Electronic Arts)

This is the Jeffrey Dahmer of games, killing innocent and deserving alike with no more emotional angst-spend than you'd burn up tearing open a packet of peanuts. One half of it's Sim Cyborg - with you raising corporate taxes over your future proles to spend on technological advances and bigger guns. But it's the gloomy, restricted palette isometric view of future cities that are the guts of the game, commanding teams of cyborgs with mini-guns to shoot women, policemen and children in your quest for world domination. Amorality IS Syndicate.


6) Cannon Fodder (Sensible Software/Virgin)

It's Sensible Soccer, only with rockets, guns, grenades, machine guns, spikes to impale the unwary, quicksand to suck down the clumsy and igloos whose tops fly off when you blow them up. So not much like Sensi at all really, even though the view's the same. Complete with the obligatory Sensible intro song (this time promoting the theme that "War's never been so much fun"), the simple point and click mouse control system eases you into some of the most hard-core killage ever seen in computer games. You can even shoot your wounded mates to put them out of their misery - it's that good a game.


5) Dynablaster (Ubi Soft)

Almost completely unavailable anywhere in the Amiga universe, the concept of multiple players dropping bombs around a shared maze lives on successfully in most other video game formats. Five player (two on joysticks, two on joysticks through the copy protection dongle and one on keyboard) blast their way through bricks towards each other, picking up power-ups that increase the blast radius until, inevitably, people start to die. Why this idea has never replaced Going For Gold with Matthew Kelly is a mystery to us all.


4) Colonization (Microprose)

Replacing Civilization in these listings entirely, Colonization sets you up as a founding father of the New World, with all the responsibilities that entails. Kill the natives or barter with them? Pay your taxes to the king, or tell him to stuff his pesky Empire, and risk the wrath of an invading army? Buy wheat or buy cannons? The epic scale of the game guarantees game times in days rather than hours, as well as arcade fans sneering over your shoulder and asking when anything will happen. Their loss.


3) Guardian CD32 (Acid)

Think Pacman in three dimensions and you've got Pacmania. Think seminal you-blink-you-die arcade sensation Defender in 3D, and you're into the difficult yet rewarding universe of Guardian. Due to the universe contracting towards the Big Crunch, friends and enemies are packed together, forcing you to protect your ground forces by killing everything that moves which makes it the perfect background story to a shoot-'em-up, as even when you win, you'll lose. Polygon graphics and user-definable viewpoints let you see the battleground any way you want to, and the remarkable flip manoeuvre to take out baddies on your tail is merely the icing on the cake. Available also on the A1200, it's still worth buying a CD32 to play just this.


2) Gravity Power (Jens Andersson & Jan Kronqvist)

Admittedly, last year's number 2 was Gravity Force 2, and indeed it deserved to be there. This time, however, the best combat game on the Amiga has got better, thanks mainly to us. After a year of slavishly locking horns via a null-modem cable (our set-up of choice) and bombing, swooping and shooting each other in one of many fiendish cave settings, we wanted more, and set Jens and Jan the task of including all the things we wanted to see, from command-detonated bombs to self-destructing homing missiles. That a game written by a couple of Swedish school kids should be rated so highly might be mistaken by our enemies as deliberate eccentricity on our behalf, but no. Genius is a state of mind, not of development and advertising spend. As the producers of Rise Of The Robots undoubtedly found out the hard way.


1) SWOS (Sensible Software)

It took the Romans 400 years, it took the British 100 years and it's taken Sensible Soccer just four - to conquer the world. In the July 1992 issue of Amiga Power, after months of gossip and rumour, Sensible Soccer made its world debut. Stalwart Stuart Campbell wrote the review (mentioning the 1992 European Championships which spookily were on at the time) and awarded it 93%, commenting astutely: "This is one of the Amiga's top three games of all time." Smart lad. Sensible Soccer has never left the coveted number one spot in AMIGA POWER'S top 100 since.

It's impossible to tell you why Sensible Soccer's so brilliant without repeating some of the thousands of accolades that have been poured on it from every source since, So you'll already know about its superb passing mode that lets you recreate free-flowing exciting football. About the clever way you can apply all kinds of aftertouch to your shots in order to defeat the keeper. About the cunning way that keepers, JUST LIKE IN REAL LIFE, are never perfect. About the cleverness of the overhead view that lets you see enough of the pitch to actually control the way your team is playing. About the way it all combines into a glorious whole and transcends the feel you get from any other computer game ever. About the way that even those imperfect human beings who don't like football can become absorbed and engrossed by it. There is no other game with its longevity on the Amiga or any other machine. Even if the Amiga is dead, long live Sensible Soccer.

[Codetapper]

Too many mistakes for my liking:

82) World Class Rugby (Domark) = Audiogenic
80) Soccer Kid (Core) = Krisalis
48) Super Hang-On (US Gold) = Software Studios/Electric Dreams/Activision
46) Gem'X (Global/DMI) = Kaiko (A.U.D.I.O.S.) Demonware

Also these lists are quite pointless as everyone has their own favourites - the big joke for me is the fact that none of the Turrican games are in the top 100 nor almost perfect arcade conversions like Pang

[CodyJarrett]

Mistakes are inevitable...

Top 100s aren't meant to tell everyone what to think - they are simply the opinions of one or more people. They should be treated as such. Yes, they are pointless from that point of view, but they are also interesting journeys through the world of Amiga games.

The Turrican games and Pang were included in previous Amiga Power Top 100s.

[Enverex]

Couldn't really agree very much with that list. Gravity Power was fun, but got very repetative very fast (read an hour or so) I think they were just blowing their own trumpet with that one.

How the hell did Alien Breed 3D get so high up? Its crap compared to the other AB series games, mainly due to the graphics being so bad you can't tell what the hell is going on.

Have to agree with Codetapper too.

[CodyJarrett]

Originally posted by Enverex
Couldn't really agree very much with that list. Gravity Power was fun, but got very repetative very fast (read an hour or so) I think they were just blowing their own trumpet with that one.

It was there because the compilers of the Top 100 liked it.

How the hell did Alien Breed 3D get so high up? Its crap compared to the other AB series games, mainly due to the graphics being so bad you can't tell what the hell is going on.

Have to agree with Codetapper too.

It was there because the compilers of the Top 100 liked it.

[CodyJarrett]

Does anyone have any opinions which aren't along the lines of the following?

- Why is Game X in the Top 100?
- Why is Game Y not in the Top 100?

[Enverex]

I doubt it as those are really the only "Opinion"ated comments that people could make. No point posting a chart of games if you don't expect people to disagree with it.

[CodyJarrett]

The reason I posted it was for this thread: The Amiga Tribute CD ( Pics Inside )

I think that there are plenty of things to talk about apart from the standard responses about a magazine not agreeing with the individual views of everyone in the world.

[stainy]

Where the hell is Kick Off 2 ?

[Djay]

a big thumbs up to Cody for actually typing this *lot* up!!!

This is Amiga Power's opinions, which why it IS an important "Top List".... Amiga Power = Publication, Publication = Sell Games... possibly more important than my own top list (which does have Turrican 2 in the top ten btw)

The main reason, i like this top list is Amiga Power's writing style, the typical, "Its a bloody game, just chill" attitude..

i quote..

48) Super Hang-On (US Gold)

A racing game. On a motorbike.

see.. fantasic use of words... we all know what "Super Hang-On" is, why bang on about it, we like it, so there.

i always enjoyed Amiga Power, i always bought 2 magazines, Amiga Power and Amiga Format, the latter for actual Amiga related articles, the former for a cool, fresh, fun read.

lastly...

Gravity Power... many of us hate it, i can see why... but i personally *like* it and know why Amiga Power love it!

WHY?

because its a multi-player game and it' simple, AP are in an office, consisting of Amiga game players, so... "we can all play this game, and we have a null modem cable, and we can play it for 2 minutes or 2 days"... its that kinda game.

hmmm, but placed at number 2.... hmm

[Dastardly]

Whoa Cody you really are the list master!

Interesting read

[khephren]

Virus was "the game that launched the Acorn Electron"? Surely this is meant to be the Archimedes, under the name Zarch?

[Codetapper]

Originally posted by khephren
Virus was "the game that launched the Acorn Electron"? Surely this is meant to be the Archimedes, under the name Zarch?

Yet another mistake - well spotted!

If you ask any former Amiga user to name some of their favourite games, the same old classics get mentioned. F/A 18 Interceptor, Turrican, Speedball 2, SWIV, Stunt Car Racer etc. These were the truely classic games that deserve to be in the top 100.

Classics are not some crappy free game or a PD game released years after the decline of the Amiga as an exlusive for one particular magazine.

One of my biggest criticisms about Amiga Power is the fact they constantly blew their own trumpet about naff games and shot down many classics just because one guy compiling the list didn't really like it. Examples of shite games being made out to be fantastic were stuff like Kid Gloves (shockingly bad game free on AP2) and Top Secret (PD game on their coverdisk).

Their roundup in the back few pages always gave Turrican 2 three stars saying it was just like Turrican with long boring levels. That really annoyed me as a game like Turrican 2 really pushed the boundaries of what could be done on the Amiga in terms of smooth scrolling, massive enemies, fantastic music and great playability!

Games like Interceptor (which I love!) and Dungeon Master (which I have never played) were some of the great games that needed 1Mb of RAM and convinced many people to upgrade. And yet neither of these are in the AP top 100. What a joke.

I can understand Super Stardust being in the top 100, it was the version of Asteroids that everyone remembers - or "that game with the wicked tunnel sequence!". Yet they also waste their time putting in Asteroids which was 10 years old, looked dull and could have been on any computer.

Jetstrike had a huge chunk of itself written in AMOS and it shows. A shocking game. Not deserving of a spot in the top 100.

Switchblade 2 was OK but completely ruined by the invisible spikes in the ground that randomly popped up and killed you. The collision detection in places was also poor. Rick Dangerous had the same invisible spikes and they absolutely slammed it, yet they put Switchblade 2 into the top 100 and not Rick Dangerous. I would say Rick Dangerous is the more classic game and I find more enjoyable than Switchblade 2. I think the invisible danger is more suitable to Rick Dangerous anyway because you are in the Indiana Jones style setting.

The original Lemmings should be in the list aswell - I didn't enjoy the second one as much as the original and the original is the classic famous game not the sequel.

Gravity Power at number 2 and Guardian CD32 at 3 are also ridiculously placed. Is there any sane person alive that finds either of those 2 more of a classic game than say Speedball 2?

[Muzkat]

Sensible Soccer #1?

[DrBong]

Originally posted by CodyJarrett

98) Kill The Prez (Anco)

Who says the point-and-click adventure has had its day? Assassination and cross-dressing prove that this oldie's still a goldie.[/B]

Is this a real game or were they referring to The President is Missing (Cosmi)?

If the title is correct, I've never heard of the game and HOL has nothing on it.

[manicx]

Originally posted by stainy
Where the hell is Kick Off 2 ?

Don't you just see the facts Stainy? Even Empire Soccer is better than KO2!



@Codetapper

Nice comments there man...

[Enverex]

Originally posted by Muzkat
Sensible Soccer #1?

No, Sensible World of Soccer.