Lucasfilm Games 1990
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 4/6
Language: English, Français, Deutsch, Castellano, Italiano
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - the last of the movies (well, at least they said it then), and the first Indiana Jones movie to become an Adventure game (the second time Lucasfilm used its software branch to make an Adventure game of any movie). Huge expectations, because in an Adventure, storytelling has to be a little better than in a simple action game throwing a few snakes at a whip-wielding hero sprite.

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?

U.S. Gold 1990
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 2/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Just like movie tie-ins, 'official' games of major sport events are crap in most cases. After paying for the expensive licence, little money seems to be left to make a decent game. Or, maybe the companies think it won't be important anyway, because fans will buy the game just because of the name.

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!

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.

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.

Psygnosis 1990
Genre: Puzzle
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Lemmings - widely regarded as one of the most influential, one of the most original and one of the best games ever. What could I possibly say about it what hasn't been said before? Even today, it is the epitome of the 'puzzle' genre - and I added this genre to this site just for this game. I recoded pages, made special images, defined scripts, all just to be able to present this game. So there has to be something special about it.

Electronic Arts 1990
Genre: Simulation, Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

"There are cases when you design something that looks good on paper and there's only one small part of it that's fun. You have to focus on that and throw the rest away." Brent Iverson, the designer, chief programmer behind LHX and the author of these words did just that. He created a flight simulator that's pure joy to play: not too much of an arcade, which would disenchant less action-prone people, and not too much of a simulation, which would leave 95% of the gaming population frowning. LHX is simply the right blend of arcade, simulation and pure fun.

Access Software 1990
Genre: Sport
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Links by Access Software was the turning point for PC golf games. Before Links (BL), golf games were more or less arcade simulations with blocky graphics, overly simplistic interface and so few options that after several days, you played just about everything there was. After Links (AL), golf games became the most realistic sports simulations around. Links introduced not only photoralistic graphics, but also a whole host of new options, very realistic physics, an unsurpassed interface and a franchise method that survives until today.