Florian Born 2000
Genre: Adventure, Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: Deutsch
Licence: Freeware
System: PC

As Kiarthan, a medieval lad with an almost finished schooling in magic, you creep into a wizard's castle in order to find a mysterious crystal which is supposed to heal your lady's disease.

Psygnosis 1995
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

I thought long about which category to add this game to - either action or sport because it's a blending of these two: action-packed but also with reasonable competitive elements. So what is it all about?

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

Steve Bak had already ported both Commando and Ikari Warriors to the Amiga for Elite, and apparantely building on that experience, he followed that up with his original creation Dogs of War. The use of 'original' in the previous sentence being limited to the meaning of 'not being a conversion', because Dogs follows Commando's footprints very closely, but it has become a minor classic on its own right.

Nintendo 1983
Genre: Action, Puzzle
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: NES

Donkey Kong is the signature game of NES. While originally developed as an arcade game by Nintendo and later ported to every single console available at that time, NES has been the flagship product of Nintendo, and so it's only natural that it was here that the game was most visible. This game not only started the most successful game franchise of all times, it also transformed a 90-years old game cards company into an electronic entertainment behemoth and in the process set one of the most important legal precedents for the gaming industry.

Technos 1990
Genre: Action
Rating: 2/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Ah yeah, I remember the Double Dragon series from my Amiga. We played those games for hours. Now I digged up a PC version of one of those games and happily I started it up. Hm... now what's this? I guess my memory isn't that good anymore. Your fighting options are somewhat limited, kicking, punching and jumping - aaaalright. Let me tell you - forget about the other options, you get along best with only using your kickjump. Mysteriously your player takes off for one of those and then you can let it kick left and right without him landing - although that proved useful I have never EVER seen someone doing this in real life ;)

Technos Japan 1989
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: Japanese, English
Licence: Commercial
System: NES

Your girl has been kidnapped, and obviously it is up to you rescue her, punching, kicking and throwing anybody who gets in your way, while building up for the final match.

This is a fighting game, a side-scrolling one where you advance while a series of enemies comes towards you to be beaten to a pulp, and you do not need to do this alone, as a friend can be with you, adding fun, and danger as you can hit each other. But it is not in the fighting itself where the novelty lies. You techniques are just punching, kicking, grabing unconscious enemies or weapons and jumping, all of this while finding more powerful enemies as you advance. All this is as usual.

SSI 1990
Genre: Action, Simulation
Rating: 4.5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

On board of a dragon you will engage in aerial fights with your lance and your dragon's breath as weapons over three-dimensional, polygonal landscapes.

This, albeit its problems, is one of the few original D&D games, to this helps that there aren't statistics and tedious development levels that are the label's trademark. But, as usual, the main lack is the simplistic story. The game is based in the Dragonlance books, so you will be fighting along the good guys, called in a stroke of originality the good dragons army, against the bad guys, named, surprisingly, the evil dragons.

Firebird 1986
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

Druid is yet another game in Gauntlet style: top-down view, player runs around shooting an endless stream of monsters. Mostly, these games are set in fantasy environments. So is Druid:

Acamantor, some evil sorcerer, has summoned four 'demon princes' to help him rule the country of Belorn. The guild of druids send one of their illustrious members to banish these powerful creatures: Hasrinax. They could have gone all together, and the quest would certainly have been way easier, but then, this game would have been pretty dull. So Hasrinax is on his own.

Firebird 1987
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

103 peaceful years have passed since Acamantor and his Demon Princes have been banished from Belorn. Now the evil is back! And it's up to the last of the druids to stop it.

Other than last time, the evil magic has already spread across the outside world. So our hero doesn't just have to enter a fortress filled with monsters, but they are everywhere. Even in his own village, the dead are literally coming alive. Imagine how it'll look in the surrounding woods...

Westwood / Virgin Interactive 1992
Genre: Strategy, Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English, Francais, Deutsch
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Despite popular beliefs, there is nothing original about Dune II. Except of one thing, which enabled Westwood to become a powerhouse among games developers. As for gameplay, however, the game did not "revolutionarize", "create a new style of gaming" or "became the first of its kind." All it did was to combine several games already out in the market. The developer did this very skillfully, however, creating an unique experience and one of the most entertaining games ever.