Futura 1990
Genre: Simulation, Strategy
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Everyone who tries this game will notice the similarity to Silent Service. Graphics, sound and even controls are almost the same. And also the topic differs only slightly: Instead of a sub, you're in charge of a british destroyer in WW2.

Core Design 1994
Genre: Action
Rating: 5/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Banshee is a very late arrival in the genre of shooters. In 1994, the gaming industry started moving everything towards 'three-dimensional' games, and classic concepts like this one slowly died out. Thankfully, this genre (at least the subgenre of 'vertical shooters') got one final hit with this game.

Blue Byte 1991
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 5/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Battle Isle - the game which got two different groups of games into public focus: wargames and German games. Both had had their loyal fan-base before, but both had been small. Tactical wargames turned into a very popular genre following this game. German games stayed a niche market in spite of this game's success.

Sensible Software / Virgin Interactive 1993
Genre: Action, Strategy
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Take the title. Take the slogan 'war has never been so much fun'. It's obvious Cannon Fodder is not a game to be taken seriously. Is war something to make fun of? Well, why not? However, it doesn't make a game automatically good as some people seem to suggest. It's still the game which counts, not the theme. So let's talk about the game.

Blue Byte 1993
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 5/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

British and American games usually keep their names when they're released in Germany - even if it's a translated version. That's good, makes international conversations about them easier. German companies on the other hand sometimes take really silly measures to increase their chance on the international market. Not that it has ever worked, but giving up would be silly, too. One of the effects is that German games have English names - even here. If you can't see anything strange about that, you're probably from the USA. What would you think if a game by an 'American' company would carry a title in Suaheli? To take it one step further: what would you think if a game by a German company was released in your country carrying a German title?

Impressions 1991
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Impressions never had the best reputation with the mainstream gamers. They mainly produced quite inaccessible (granted) strategy titles. Caesar and Cohort are maybe their widest known classic titles. The vast majority of their games completely disappeared though.

Starbyte 1993
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

A German strategy game with decent graphics and intuitive controls? What a novel idea! Ok, there are exceptions - think of Battle Isle and The Settlers. Hannibal can't quite reach that high level, but it comes close enough...

Rauser Advertainment 1993
Genre: Simulation, Action
Rating: 0/6
Licence: Freeware
System: Amiga

I've always had a soft spot for promotial games. With some ironic distance, they're mostly very funny: unvoluntarily humor galore. The uncoolest companies trying to get their useless products into the concious of young people. That's of course not easily done. Medicine against rheumatism suddenly turns hip, politicians become MTV-compatible stars. Or the promoted product doesn't turn up at all. Hilarious!

Lucas Arts 1992
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 6/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Indiana Jones - George Lucas' and Steven Spielberg's tribute to old 'pulp' adventure stories. Or is it the pure commercialism re-using old ideas? Hyper-mega-commercial of course. One thing is for sure though: the movies are highly entertaining, not a very deep story or multi-dimensional characters, but archetype villains fighting against a lone hero who is everything but perfect on the surface, but has a heart of gold and of course the athletic skills necessary to deliver a punch or two.

Lucasfilm Games 1990
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 4/6
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.