Ocean 1989
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Yay, it's summer! Dig out your bathing shorts / suit, jump in the car and head for the beach. And hope you are one of these good-looking sport-types to avoid being laughed about. Or alternatively, hope there are even fatter people than you to keep the attention away from the result of your beer sessions. Hiring some people with visible mutations could also help...

Revolution Software / Virgin 1994
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 5/6
Language: English, Deutsch, Francais, Italiano
Licence: Freeware
System: Amiga

If at first you don't succeed.... Lure of the Temptress wasn't a very good game, but it did receive quite positive reviews - let's just say there are and were games which are even more overrated. After that, Revolution Software took their time to develop a successor - and they succeeded in a brilliant way!

Century Interactive / BMG 1996
Genre: Action, Adventure
Rating: 4/6
Language: English, Français, Deutsch
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Vinyl record sleeves and game boxes have something in common, in the sense that a particularly good design can prompt you to buy the record/game without trying it first. That's how I ended up with The Virgin Prunes' If I die, I die, which is absolutely god-awful. And Bermuda Syndrome, which is great fun.

Art Department 1993
Genre: Adventure, Action
Rating: 3/6
Language: Deutsch
Licence: Freeware
System: Amiga

The 'production secret' of 'Bi-Fi Roll' (greasy 'meatbar' imported from BSE-infected countries, hidden in a bread container), a single sheet of paper, has disappeared. Instead of taking the usual route of calling the lawyers to sue everybody in sight, Bifi can depend on volunteers who scout their cities for free, because they're aware that without constant supply of their drug, they won't survive for long.

Konami 1994
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: SNES

Concerning its concept, "Biker Mice From Mars" straightfowardly had the successful classic "Rock'n'Roll Racing" in mind. Unlike the original, you drive motor cycles and other unorthodox vehicles around more or less well-built tracks here. Although the game produced by Konami labels itself as being "powered by Snickers", you permanently suppose that the programmers wanted to make fun of this ridiculous piece of chocolate-peanut-mush.

DOKA 1993
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 3/6
Language: Deutsch
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

If nothing else, this game is at least noticable for its relaxed attitude towards the German language and its grammar and spelling rules. The game is full of goofey and daft phrases which the opponents let out, and which can't really be analyzed by the common rules. The game itself is basically also not very exact with its physics and its application in the field of billiards (which, in fact, is spelt Billard in German, so another clue about the groundbreaking knowledge of the German language of the programmer - see the title).

Apogee 1993
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Shareware
System: PC

You will play as Snake Logan, a top-secret CIA agent sent to the most dangerous mission ever - to deal with the hundreds of monsters attacking Metro City and destroying everythig in their path. No one knows why and you are our last hope. Original, no? Well, to make things even more difficult, your plane is shot while flying over Metro City and after salvaging the destroyed plane, you find one machine gun. Time to secure the perimeter.

Interplay 1994
Genre: Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Blackthorne - the 2-D scrolling shooter that doesn't really scroll. That simple sentence is the most complete and accurate description I can come up with today. Looking back several years I can only ask myself: why did we love this game so much? Because we didn't know any better? Probably so. But then again, nothing can change the beautiful memories and give back the countless hours we spent in front of the small, low-quality 14" monitor playing what we thought was the greatest game ever made. Does this sound unfamiliar to you? Probably, if you have never experienced it.

Image Works 1991
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

When a game takes more than two years after the announcement to be released, it usually means something. Gamers who are waiting for the game to come out get pissed off. And the publisher almost certainly has a good reason to hold the game back. What this reason was in the case of Blade Warrior is unknown.

Image Works 1989
Genre: Action
Rating: 3/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Blasteroids, along with Phobia and Spidertronic, was one of the first three original games I owned. Ironically enough, I owned it before I even got an Amiga. Oh well - looking at a box cover can be fun, too.