So rather than letting my idle timewasting be just idle timewasting, I made a quick list of some underrated games of the era.
There are always those legendary Amiga games that everyone remembers, like Speedball 2, The Chaos Engine, Frontier Elite 2, Zool, Lotus 2, Syndicate, Turrican 2 and so on (and on and on and on). With awesome graphics and gameplay, music and effects these old games stand alone, but there were others that didn't have those features yet still remain fun and addictive today.
And here they are, so to quote Speedball 2 "Get Ready":
Trex Warrior
3D games were never the Amiga's forte, and this 3D Vector-based shooter might be an example of why that is. But it's a case of the graphics being only part of the story, the gameplay was great and even though the graphics were bland they were fast and fluid. It was a highly addictive game. Had this game been revived 5 years later on the PC in the heyday of 3D shooters, it would've been truly awesome.
Mega-Lo-Mania
No one will remember Sensible Software for this title. Mainly because SWOS and Cannon Fodder were so brilliant. MLM was a loosely space-based realtime strategy that was surprisingly fast paced, and provided good contrast to the other strategies of it's time. Oh, and the voices of the players were voiced by real voice actors, which was a nice touch. It was just hard enough to keep you playing of course, was hella fun.
North and South
I'm not sure how politically correct this game would seem these days, but I had fun playing it and learned a bit about the American Civil War. So, ignoring the idea of playing on the side of the confederate army the game was fairly simple but offered a variety of gameplay styles which kept it interesting, and was probably at it's best playing multiplayer. It was a good old reliable that we just kept coming back to.
Cybernetix
You couldn't have a list of underrated games without picking out a Public Domain game or two. Cybernetix was released by a Kiwi croup called Vision Software and was nothing new in concept. A side-scrolling shooter in the R-Type mould, but frankly more playable, and free. The graphics were very good compared to most PD games and better than many commercial releases.
(Sid Meier's) Pirates
Not graphically great, with a soundtrack that was somewhat period accurate but basically grating and sporting this annoying wind sound effect that made people nearby wonder why they've been hearing a vacuum cleaner in the distance all morning, Pirates wasn't off to a great start. But with a map large enough to get lost in that was geographically accurate and that historical attention to detail that Sid became known for, I played this over and over again Thanks to Pirates I learned one hell of a lot about the Caribbean, the era of Piracy on the high seas, and ships of the era. Pirates ruled, and Sid was (and is) a legend.
Moonstone (a Hard Day's Knight)
Frankly, one of things I hate about modern gaming is that games take themselves too seriously. In the Amiga days we left this up to games like Another World and Shadow of the Beast, which I found as tedious as modern equivalents. Moonstone didn't take itself seriously because above all it wanted to be fun. The gore was comical and turned up to 10, and even some of the animation sequences made you laugh. Hell, even the disk-loading screens were amusing. The gameplay was simply lots of fun so I think that's why it was so divisive in it's day. Amiga Format gave it 59% and Amiga Action gave 90%, it seems just like today - and just like some games they reviewed - some journalists took themselves too seriously.
Seriously, even watching this collection of gory deaths is hilarious.
Bob's Bad Day
A good appreciation of this game can be gained just by watching the video below. The guy playing it had no idea what to expect, and even while playing it still didn't know what to think. Bob is a head, rolling around in a maze collecting coins. But rather than moving Bob, you rotate the environment around him. It's a puzzle game, and once you start playing you can't stop.
Extreme Violence
Well, that's a bizarre flashback. I'd totally forgotten about this game. So much so that I really struggled at first to place it. Then I remember playing against mates in this graphically poor split-screen multiplayer game and the memories returned. A very simple game, so much so I really cant' explain it well. Load up an emulator and give it a try, it's good fun.
Scorched Tanks
Baring the graphical indicators of anything written in Amos Basic, ST looks like someone threw up on your screen. That said, it was a free game and once you get past the way it looks you can't stop playing. It's just an artillery clone (but then so was Worms, and look how well that did), but it has a huge array of weapons and defense mechanisms that make it great to play by yourself or with friends. I really hope the person behind it went on to make more games. Just not games written in Amos.
Lotus III: The Ultimate Challenge
This game is often noted as the weakest of the Lotus series. Honestly, the gameplay isn't as realistic feeling as Lotus II, but this one goes into the list just for the in-game music alone. For 16-bit 4-channel tracker mods they were great accompanying tracks, so much so that back then I'd rather play this lesser sibling and listen to the music tracks than the other better verisons. There's some great remixes on Amigaremix too, so the best part of this game lives on.
Anyway, that's my list. Let me know yours! ;)
