Ocean 1989
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Yay, it's summer! Dig out your bathing shorts / suit, jump in the car and head for the beach. And hope you are one of these good-looking sport-types to avoid being laughed about. Or alternatively, hope there are even fatter people than you to keep the attention away from the result of your beer sessions. Hiring some people with visible mutations could also help...

Millenium 1993
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

In contrary to the potential expectations considering the name, Brutal Sports Football does not have very much in common with soccer or football (or even sports). Some elements have been adopted, though. Two teams try to put a ball into the enemy's goal while guarding their own.

Millenium 1994
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 5/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

In contrary to the potential expectations considering the name, Brutal Sports Football does not have very much in common with soccer or football (or even sports). Some elements have been adopted, though. Two teams try to put a ball into the enemy's goal while guarding their own.

Tynesoft 1989
Genre: Action, Sport
Rating: 3/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Summer Games, California Games - you all know these games which consist of somehow sports-related mini games. Then there was was Circus Games - we're already getting a little more obscure here - and later, the same company released Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. And once again, the title says it all, so let's quickly go through the events of this game.

Ocean 1989
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 3/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Chase H.Q., which first got into the arcades in 1988, is a racing game with a twist. Instead of just using the basic 'driving faster than the opponents', it adds another goal: catching another vehicle. The simple background story tells us something about a 'futuristic' police department called 'Chase H.Q.'. The player sits around in his sports car all day until he gets a call from Nancy from the headquarters, telling him about an escaped criminal who has to be caught again.

Sunflowers 1994
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Before certain endlessly running series by a certain publisher on a certain system became common, the popular sports games originated on the Amiga. Just think of Kick Off or Sensible Soccer!

Blue Byte / Ubi Soft 1989
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 5/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

The strangest thing happened with my floppy disk of this game. It would stop loading in the middle of the booting process. I thought it was hopelessly broken - wrong. All I had to do was take the disk out of the drive and put it in again, and it would continue loading as normal. Of course, this happened several times every time I loaded the game, so playing became quite a piece of work. Even with several years of university behind me, I still can't figure out a logical explanation for this behaviour. An unsolved mystery of computer science.

Golden Sector / Hawk 1991
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 2/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

If there is one genre which really screams '8 Bit', it's probably the joystick waggling games. You know, those sports games which actually required you to train your muscles - and which killed your wrists and destroyed your joysticks. International Championship Athletics is a total anachronism: It's an Amiga / Atari ST exclusive, yet it still follows that (by then) ancient gameplay principle.

Archer McLean 1988
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 5/6
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.

U.S. Gold 1990
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 2/6
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.