SSG 1990
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Warlords is a very basic game. Some parts of Empire mixed with a little bit of Risk and finished with a fantasy touch. Up to eight different fractions are struggling over supremacy in Illuria. Illuria is a relatively small country with 80 cities which is completely flat and apparantely has some kind of impenetrable borders - this is where the map just ends.

Strategic Studies Group 1993
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

In this game, you are in charge of a nation (faction or whatever), and will try to take over the world. The other players will surrender when you conquer more than half of the castles. You can refuse this surrender, but after that the opponents unite and will try to wipe you out.

MB 1982
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Vectrex

Definitely the Vectrex game with the best graphics I have played so far. It even has music, as well as sound effects!

You are an intergalactic animal collector. You are trying to collect all 20 species of creatures, all the while avoiding all those nasty alien star-shaped drones and , of course, the dragon that will attempt to shoot you with a fireball if you miss too often. Once you have captured a creature (does this sound like Pokemon? It sure isn't.) you still have to find the way out of the intergalactic webspace you're trapped in and take it to your trophy room (great animation).

Arbeitskreis Spielkultur 1999
Genre: Puzzle, Strategy
Rating: 4/6
Language: Deutsch, English, Nederlands
Licence: Freeware
System: PC

If a game comes along with a producer like "Arbeitskreis Spielkultur" (sounds like some typically German dry official office), you should be careful. If the plot revolves around Norse mythology, the expectation of some completely non-understandable crap made by roleplaying geeks.

Enix 1994
Genre: Adventure, RPG
Rating: 4/6
Language: Japanse, English (unofficial)
Licence: Commercial
System: SNES

Based on Pinocchio and with a simple AI as main character, Wonder Project J consists on raising Pino, a robot that looks like a kid, to make him become human like.

All is done with a controller different to the usual one in a console game, as you use a mouse, on of those add-ons that only one or two more games made use of. It moves around a fairy robot that can carry objects, to put them into your inventory or getting them out of it, order Pino to move or stop, and scold (and doing it again, hit) or praise him.

Acclaim 1995
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

WWF Wrestlemania - The name says it all. The official license has both its advantages and disadvantages for the game designers. Much room for creativity concerning character design and playing modes does not remain, but these are of course advantages, either. Because well-known fighter "personalities" already exist to whom the followers of this "sport" connect different cliché attributes, the typically ridiculous plot of an average fighting game can fortunately not be found. Another point is that potential weaknesses of the playability will be easier looked over by the players because of the disciples' emotional link to their idols. The designers could therefore put all their efforts in a conversion as "realistic" as possible.

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

The X-Men are Marvel's most successful team of superheros. And that is actually surprising if you know a bit about the history of this series. It was started back in the mid-60s, like so many others. But the X-Men never really made it, the sales couldn't compare to the Fantastic Four and all the others. So their story ended in 1970: the series was discontinued. No more stories of Professor Xavier, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Beast and Iceman. Gone the threat of Magneto, the Juggernaut and the Sentinels.

Mosaic 1987
Genre: Strategy, Puzzle
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

Yes Prime Minister is, as the name suggests, a computer game based on BBC2's TV show of the same name which started as Yes Minister in 1980 got renamed when the protagonist got promoted.

Imagine / Konami 1985
Genre: Action, Sport
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

Aspiring youngster Oolong wants to become Grand Master of Kung-Fu. To achieve this, he has to defeat ten opponents (one after another, not all at the same time).

Nothing special so far, the mid-80s had their fair share of beat 'em ups (and many good ones). What sets Yie Ar Kung-Fu (I'll drop the capitalization seen on the title screen here) apart is the opponents. In the seminal hits of the time (Karate Champ and all), the player mostly faced faceless enemies who were identical to each other and also to the player. In Yie Ar (to shorten this even further), each opponent has his or her own sprite, his or her own moves and even his or her own weapon (!).

Lucasfilm Games 1988
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 4/6
Language: English, Deutsch
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

Protagonist Zak McKracken is working for a tabloid in San Francisco. He hates his job, and he'd much rather write a novel instead. But he has to earn his money, and so his fat boss gives him another assignment: to write a story about a two-headed squirrel. Urk!