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I'm a broken record; sue me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi2nOEjgYl8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZNBOlq1Wgo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHLvcOdp2N4
The Amiga version of Second Samurai is totally different to the Mega Drive version; both are two excellent games tho.
If you want console or arcade style action games, then don't look to Euro computers. From reading so many issues of Retro Gamer, I've seen that Euro devs excelled at simulations, driving games, and general puzzley thinking man's games. Aside from games like Turrican and Wolfchild, they weren't really able to nail the Japanese-esque action style. Plus, they weren't saddled with the best hardware to work with (Spectrum, ST).Quote:
Originally Posted by Gogogadget
european developpers were saddled with the best possible harware. amiga 500 blew ANYTHING away during it's era(c64 before that). european games were also first games to really excell in music. you are right on everything else thoughQuote:
Originally Posted by zetastrike
Quote:
Originally Posted by bultje112
I meant that the ST and Spectrum being popular, best selling hardware, were not good to work with. They did have access to the Amiga, C64, and Amstrad but chose to port games from worse hardware a lot of the time. All the ST and Spectrum did was hold the better hardware back. You're right about the music, forgot about that.
In YOUR opinion. Lots of people think it's an awesome game with excellent gameplay, myself being one. The controls are tight and responsive, and collision detection is spot on. Combined with excellent level design, it's an example of platforming games at their best.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gogogadget
And it was indeed Reflections who made the SotB series, and later the Demolition Derby games that were so popular on the PS1.
Kamahl's list is quite excellent, and yes, Turrican 2 is indeed that good, it's mostly the level design that makes it shine (which is an area where many designers from the time tended to fail miserably), every level plays differently, Manfred Trenz really knocked it out of the park with that one.
Personally, I think Lemmings is the best game on the Amiga, though, it's brilliantly addictive. Too bad it ended up being ported to every system under the sun. ;)
Does anyone know what method Toki uses to draw the parallax? It's a beautiflly vibrant-looking game.
By the way, I always thought most of Core's games were solid, at last pretty much all of them aged better than anything the Bitmap Brothers put out besides The Chaos Engine. ;)
Yeah, my opinion, but it's also the opinion of many others that SotB 1 has aged like bread and is basically run and punch a few enemies before you inevitably just die due to the incredibly high difficulty level.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chilly Willy
Atmosphere and graphics are A+ but a good game does not make.
I really liked SotB III, 2 has those lovely game-breaking puzzles.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bultje112
Look at that. bultje112 is here praising the Amiga computer.Quote:
Originally Posted by bultje112
http://i.imgur.com/CwmLSal.jpg
The huge border is a pretty big hint, it's probably brute forcing it. The game has too many colors to be normal dual playfield mode.Quote:
Originally Posted by magicalsoundshower
I've edited my original statement in order to prevent offending people. My comments were aimed at bad European games, not European developers, and I apologize to anyone who was offended. Also, I've started playing some of the suggestions. Battle Squadron and Turrican are pretty fun! I started with Turrican 2, and it's way different from Mega Turrican. It feels "Metroidey". I've actually played Lotus before, and completely forgot about how much fun it is.
SotB was difficult?Quote:
Originally Posted by Gogogadget
Were we all playing the same game?
Everyone has their own likes and dislikes...Quote:
Originally Posted by Gogogadget
As to the "simplicity" of the game, you could also say Sonic is basically run and bounce on a few enemies before you inevitably die due to the incredibly high difficulty level. ;) :D
SotB wasn't THAT difficult - I could finish it without cheats (after a lot of practice), and I'm not all that good with platform games. My main complaint is that after you know where everything is and the order to get stuff, the game is rather short - maybe 15 minutes (10 if you're REALLY good).
But yes, SotB 3 is the best, even if the graphics are a little more simple. Leander was also a good Amiga platformer. The music was especially good... on par with SotB 2 or 3.
I was under the impression that the Amiga was neck deep in platformers, which I love. Would the Amiga be a good choice for a fan of such games?
Lies.Quote:
Originally Posted by profholt82
A lot of the good stuff has already been mentioned! But as for stuff that hasn't, lemme see...
Theme Park - This may have been superceded a long time ago by Rollercoaster Tycoon, but it still has a fun style of its own. The Amiga version is a hell of a lot better than whatever the thing was that the consoles got.
Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo - Don't laugh. Yes, this is a licensed game of low birth, based off a not particularly well remembered cartoon, starring a character that most people despise. But for what it was, it was one of the best platformers on the entire system. Don't ask me how.
Bombuzal - Has this been mentioned? It should have. Excellent isometric puzzle game involving EXPLOSIONS, and trying not to be killed by them. Also available for the SNES, but this was the original.
Premier Manager 3 - Um...what can I say? I like football management games. Aside from SWOS's 20-year career mode, this is my favourite because it pretty much forces you to go all the way up from the conference, which isn't all that easy...I'm not big into footy management now, but I still like playing this because it's quite fast-paced - Football Manager these days just eludes me with all of the options it has. Ultimate Soccer Manager is also very good! (obviously keep in mind that these games are 20 years old now, so if you need an up-to-date roster then you probably won't be able to find it...)
Football Glory - If you don't want to play Sensible Soccer for whatever reason, you can always play this game that's pretty much exactly like it. Football Glory isn't quite as good, but does feature some neat additions - crazy banana-ball physics, bicycle kicks, zoom-in replays, player-on-ref violence, streakers...that sort of thing. The guys who made this eventually went on to make Serious Sam, of all things.
The Settlers - This Euro RTS/town planning series is still kicking around today, and still very highly praised to boot! But the original's still a gem - nice little town planning with competition thrown in. Kind of like Populous except without the god stuff and frankly a hell of a lot better in general.
Base Jumpers - A fairly neat auto-scrolling platformer, with the shock twist that you jump off a building near the end and try to avoid getting killed. Best remembered for its sense of humour as opposed to its gameplay, but it's alright.
One Step Beyond - Almost forgot this - a very good jumping-based puzzle game, starring Colin Curly out of Quavers Crisps. Also available on the SNES, mind you.
Shadow Fighter - Late-period, very solid fighting game - not bad at all for the Amiga. YMMV, but it's worth a look.
Weird Dreams - I don't know what to really say about this one...it's hardly even a good game, but it's kind of one you have to play. If you think Shadow of the Beast is odd, wait until you see this.
Elite - One of the most famous and influential games ever made, but the best version of it is on the Amiga - it's got colours and everything. And some nifty music.
Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker/Archer MacLean's Pool - If you like pool/snooker, definitely consider these as they're still amongst the most in-depth games based on said table sports - while still being fun in the bargain! Whirlwind Snooker is also available on the Mega Drive, but a mouse makes it infinitely more playable.
On Shadow of the Beast...yeah, it's pretty much all about practicing. Endlessly. It's frankly little more than a tech demo, and a highly infuriating one to boot. But you should at least play the first one for historical curiosity - it was quite an insane game at the time, and there was very little like it around. Stay the hell away from 2 - it's beautiful, but it's possibly the most annoying game ever made. I agree with most of the people here that 3 is legitimately really freaking good, and easily the best game of the series...still, Beast 1 is where the memories lie for a lot of people.
EDIT:
Hmm...are you a fan of Euro-style platformers - yer New Zealand Storys (ok it's Japanese but v. influential on said sub-genre), James Ponds and the like? Then yes, definitely. The thing with the Amiga is that it DOES have a lot of platformers, but it has very few great ones. Some of the most famous Amiga platformers like Zool and Zool 2 are frankly rubbish - for every James Pond you get 10 low-rent Sonic rip-offs or just plain shit games. There's certainly lots of stuff to check out on there though!Quote:
I was under the impression that the Amiga was neck deep in platformers, which I love. Would the Amiga be a good choice for a fan of such games?
Well, maybe difficult isn't the right world, but it was rather obtuse. Stuff like having to run to the left at the start even though your character starts out facing to the right, or the way you get your wave attack, or the suddenly occurring, rather random flying stage that you need to prepare for if you don't want to end up underpowered... If you know what you need to do, the game isn't all that hard, but you hardly get any clues about what actually needs to be done. Which, when you play it for the first time, leads to a lot of randomly running around without a clue what to do exactly. So yeah, I can see why many consider the game to be "difficult".Quote:
Originally Posted by spiffyone
Let's see... you got the aforementioned "Great Giana Sisters", "James Pond" 2 and 3, "Zool" and "Zool 2" (which are better in their Amiga incarnations than in their console ports, as the screen is larger, the resoklution's higher and you can actually see where you're going).Quote:
Originally Posted by retro nick
Also already mentioned was Lionheart, which is simply beautiful to look at, even if it can be a bit iffy control-wise at some points. The game never saw a console release (Probably due to the fact that the company who made the game, Thalion, was a very small german outlet that didn't have the ressources or reach to do so).
You've got some games like Chuck Rock or Cool Spot that were ported to virtually every console known to man as well.
Among the more standout titles are games like "Arabian Nights", "Bubble and Squeak", several "Dizzy"-games, GODS (the amiga version plays well better than the console ports), "Hard 'n' Heavy" (by the same guys who made "The Great Giana sisters", but with a slightly worse soundtrack), "Fire & Ice: The Daring Adventures of Cool Coyote", "Mr. Nutz" 1 & 2 (both originated on the Amiga), or the "New Zealand Story". Nothing really groundbreaking, but pretty solid.
So yeah... there are a bunch. There's also a lot of crap, of course, but basically the Amiga was a pretty decent platform for... platformers.
(Check the index on lemonamiga.com, there are more then 280 games listed in that particular category, though many of them are console ports).
/edit: Oh, Kimble was also answering at the same time ;)
Oh lord, this game... Yeah, it has to be seen to be believed. Or rather, experienced may be the better word here. It simply looks beautiful, but gameplay-wise... where to begin? It certainly is weird, and dreamlike - so you never really know what to expect, or what to do, or anything. I mean... just LOOK at it!Quote:
Originally Posted by KimbleJustice
Oh, also, it controls like shit. But it certainly is something...
/edit2: @KimbleJustice: Oh, and I beg to differ: The Amiga-version of "Elite" is pretty good, yeah. But the best one is the port for the rather obscure Acorn Archimedes: More colors, more ships, more missions, more everything. It's just that hardly anyone knows of that computer. :p
Speaking of Elite, Frontier: Elite II also has its fans, particularly the Amiga version. It's an...acquired taste, let's put it that way. It's a hardcore space sim, it has some rather nasty bugs, and it's probably better played on the A1200, as the Framerate on the A500 and A500+ computers is rather horrendous. But the engine itself is rather impressive for its time, and the game is friggin' HUGE. Just don't expect much action; there are some space battles, but it's mostly intended to be a simulation, so it often feels trudgy and slow. If you're a fan of space, or a hardcore astrophysicist, you may find it has some charm, though.