Mastertronic 1986
Genre: Action
Rating: 3/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Plus/4

The myth of the 'wild west' is full of hero figures, usually referred to as 'lone rangers'. All alone they fight all kind of evil (bankrobbers and of course Indians), always with a hand on their gun. That's the true American dream: riding through the prairies, spreading 'true justice'.

Art Department 1993
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 2/6
Language: Deutsch
Licence: Freeware
System: Amiga

Karamalz is a brand of Malzbier, so what we have here is a promotial game. Promotial games are mostly simple versions of classic arcade games or short Adventures. This one sticks out from the crowd by being a sports game. It's a surprisingly complex ice hockey simulation!

Data East 1985
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 3/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

One of the biggest hits in the arcades of the mid-80s, converted to the C64. Most people will know the gameplay from International Karate these days (if at all), but Karate Champ was the game which started it all!

Virgin Interactive 1992
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 3/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

It's the last days of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev has destroyed part of the old structures. But as always when there's change, there are groups who want to take advantage of it. For some, it doesn't go quickly enough, some want to go back as much as possible. And some of those aren't all that peaceful about it...

Anco Software 1990
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 2/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Fast, furious, involving - GREAT! That's Kick Off 2... on the Amiga. On the PC it's somewhat fast... and well... that's basically it. Everything that made this game the best football game on the Amiga was left out on the PC. On first sight it seems to be there, but then the handling is just not quite the same... The slight border was crossed and now you will just run past the ball if you're one pixel too far away, however you can count on knocking the ball away when you just wanted to run around it. You can pretty much forget about the kind of handling the Kick Off series introduced back in its Amiga days... it was perfected later on in the Sensible Soccer series - however pretty messed up here in its PC version. Also the AI is pretty stupid. On the one hand you have your own teammates madly kicking the ball back into the direction of your own goal as well as spinning around for no obvious reason. Fortunately the players in the computer's team do the same kind of stuff as well, so that makes up for it.

Cinemaware 1986
Genre: Adventure, Action
Rating: 2/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

The early and mid-90s - the wake of the CD-Rom as a games medium. Because the games themselves didn't need this space yet, tons of 'interactive movies' filled the shelves of the stores. Those were rarely more than a collection of movie clips and the players' only activity was to make a few (often pretty futile) decisions between the scenes. Many see 7th Guest as the beginning of this development.

New World Computing 1990
Genre: Strategy, RPG
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Until this day, King's Bounty remains one of my favorite games. Offering rather limited gameplay but enormous replay value, the game has never left my hard drive, ever since I have gotten it in the 1980s. In King's Bounty, you play a hero with the task to find the stolen Scepter of Order. A band of criminals has hidden this item and divided the map pointing to its location among them. Only by defeating all the criminals, you will be able to piece together the map and find the scepter, hopefully before it is too late and the kingdom disintegrates.

Sierra 1990
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 0/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

You are Sir Graham, noble knight in some medieval kingdom at the court of the old King Whatever. The king apparantely has some magical powers, because he can control when he wants to die! And he has decided to walk over the Styx once he has finally gotten his collection of stereotype king-stuff (magical mirrors, unlimited treasure chests and such) complete. Lil' King is too busy sitting on his throne gazing at the walls to find the last three missing pieces himself, so he gives the job to one of the guys who always hang around in the castle grinning and saying 'yes, my lord': Sir Graham. In return, Graham is promised to inherit the crown.

Sierra 1984
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

The once proud kingdom of Daventry is in ruins. The queen is dead, leaving the old king without a heir. The kingdom is missing its three most important items: a magic mirror, which predicts the future, a magic shield, which defends the kingdom from its enemies, and a treasure chest that is always full. Sir Graham, the bravest knight in the kingdom was charged by the king to find these items, in exchange for the for the crown. Over the course of the game, Sir Graham will fight an evil witch, a dwarf, wizard, ogre, and many more fairy-tale beings, in order to recover the three magic items and save the kingdom. If you haven't already guessed it, Sir Graham is your character.

Hal Laboratory / Nintendo 1992
Genre: Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Game Boy

Kirby is a small bubble that can breath in air or small creatures and then blow it out at speeds that kill whatever is in its way. It can jump and fly, and it's got a mortal enemy it needs to dispose of. Welcome to Kirby's Dreamland, one of the easier platformers, which has become hugely popular with the not-so-adept-with-the-controls crowd. The game is fairly straight-forward: you proceed through four lands, each of which has its own architecture and monsters, and each of which has three stages. You fight a boss at the end of each stage, only to fight the main level boss at the end of each level. After finishing all stages, you fight the main bosses again, after which you meet the final boss. While clearing your way through the usual monsters requires nothing more than blowing air at them, most bosses throw things at you you've got to inhale and spit back at them. Yet, because you can fly and because you can always shoot, the game is much easier than, let's say, Mario platformers.