Archer McLean 1988
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

How can one improve International Karate? Hard question. Most changes and additions would just screw the concept up. Everybody knows examples of great first parts of a series which got spoiled completely in the sequel.

Cinemaware 1990
Genre: Adventure, Strategy
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Lizard Breath, a small desert town in 1951. A meteor has just crashed down here. This is your chance to do some research! So you head over there and start working.

Suddenly, unusual things happen in and around the village. Animals are behaving strangely. On a nearby farm, a cow's head is bitten off and all the guts have disappeared. You examine some rock samples found near the crash site and discover one glowing piece of rock you've never seen before! Are there any links?

Ocean 1990
Genre: Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

You walk from left to right and kill a few enemies. Sounds like Super Mario World? Maybe, but it's not! And it's not even something similar! It's Ivanhoe!

The 'story' is quite simple: King Richard has been captured by the French and you have to rescue him. Alone. You start your quest in England. There you have to get to the port. Unfortunately, a forest full of villains lies in the way. So you have no other choice but to fight your way through. You draw your sword and show them what you're made of! These weak peasants are no match for you! Some hits with your blade and they fall to the ground dead. Also those cowards hiding in the trees won't escape you!

Sir-Tech 1995
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Despot Lucas Santino has taken control over the tropical island of Metavira. Hire a team of mercenaries and get there by helicopter in order to reestablish the rightful circumstances.

At the beginning you have to recruit a powerful squad with limited financial means. For this purpose, there are the services of the „AIM“ agency that offers a quite broad variety of mercenaries with different abilities. The mercs' skills in various fields like marksmanship, agility and explosives are indicated by values between 0 and 100. There are cheap wimps and expensive, highly qualified experts.

Software Projects 1984
Genre: Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: ZX Spectrum

Jet Set Willy was the follow-up to the very successful platform game Manic Miner and, like its predecessor, it was written by Matthew Smith, a very young programmer with a wild imagination, of whom great things were expected. That's not exactly the way it turned out, but more on that later.

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 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.

Richard Jordan 1999
Genre: Action, Adventure
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Freeware
System: PC

Remaking a classic game is always a controversial, but also popular venture. There's always the question of the point, because why do a straight remake when there's the original (running on every imaginable device thanks to emulation). On the other hand, if a supposed remake strays too far from the source, the old fans complain as well. A difficult balancing act.

Mindscape 1991
Genre: RPG, Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

I have to admit that I'm preoccupied. In the good old Amiga times I haven?t played any game more than this one. After discovering it again I was instantly caught by its old magic.
The land of Trazere is swept by the waves of a mighty evil's dreams which flood the country. By hacking through dungeons the 4 heroes gather experience and get ever closer to their goal...