Recommend some Amiga games to a noob

[Cynicaster]

I’m in my 40s but I must confess I have never played a single Amiga game - on hardware, emulation, or otherwise - in my entire life.  
 

I got to thinking, maybe it’s time to add some Amiga games to my emulation setup(s).  Any recommendations?  My taste is as follows:

 

- arcade-style games, score-based

- shoot ‘em ups, beat-‘em-ups, run ‘n guns, arcade-y sports games, wrestling games, puzzlers 

- don’t care for: RPGs, one on one fighters, metroidvania, complicated sports games

 

What games should I hunt down?  Thanks

 

 

 

[Daedalus2097]

Okay, since it's emulation the entire library is open to you. Everyone's tastes are different and I find most platformers and shmups on the Amiga to be pretty unmemorable. The Amiga also frequently got poor arcade ports that fell far short of what the machine was capable of. But a couple of games that come to mind include:

 

In the arcadey vein:

- Pac-Mania, as an example of a pretty decent arcade conversion that didn't follow the pattern of a common codebase with other platforms.

- Uridium 2, a decent shmup.

- Banshee, a tough 1942-style shooter that uses the Amiga well

- Zeewolf 2, a close-in 3D helicopter shooter using a Virus/Zarch-alike engine

- Rodland, a cutesy single-screen platformer

- Dynablaster, the renamed port of Bomberman

 

In the more puzzly/strategy arena:

- Lemmings, the classic

- Settlers, the original of the strategy / resource management series

- Cannon Fodder, strategy squad shooter

- Dune 2, the forerunner of Command and Conquer and the RTS genre

- Napalm: Crimson Crisis, a more modern RTS from the later Amiga years

 

In a more action category:

- Desert Strike, isometric helicopter shooter

- Turrican 2, classic platform shooter (not really my thing but people seem to love it). Also available in a recent AGA-enhanced version.

- Xenon 2, classic horizontal shmup

- Payback, a latecomer during the Amiga's decline, excellent GTA clone with a great soundtrack on the CD

- Aladdin, decent platformer tie-in for Disney's film

 

In the multiplayer genre:

- Worms: Directors Cut

- Super Skidmarks

- Sensible World of Soccer

 

And some modern, recent releases that are well work checking out (some may be commercial:

- Turbo Tomato, a fast-paced Psycho Pigs / Butasan-alike

- Reshoot Proxima 3, a visually and technically very impressive shooter that really pushes the hardware

- Cecconoid, a stylistic screen-flipping puzzler/shooter

- Rogue Declan, a high-score-driven twin-stick shooter / roguelike

- Knightmare, a port/remake of the Konami shooter

- Inviyaa, another excellent looking horizontal shmup

 

There are thousands of others, but those are the ones that come to mind within your preferred tastes. Enjoy!

[str0m]

Good list above

 

A few more. Chaos Engine - overhead run and gun. Agony - side scrolling shooter. Pinball Dreams/Fantasies/Illusions.

[+chue]

A couple of my personal favorites:

 

Volfied - Next gen "Qix", I'm unsure if it's a sequel, or a clone of Qix.

Another World / Out of this World - Not sure how to classify this one.  A little bit like Prince of Persia maybe?  One of the great games of all time, IMO

James Pond Robocod - Platformer

3 Stooges - Another one that's difficult to describe.  Storyline: do various tasks as the stooges to save the orphanage 

 

Most if not all of these were released on other platforms.

[+OLD CS1]

Shadow of the Beast, The Killing Gameshow, GODS, Deluxe Pacman, Deluxe Galaga, PacMania, Silkworm, Dune & Dune II, Uropa2, T-Zero, Zool, Sleepwalker, Turbo Sprint, Test Drive 2, Myst, Walker, Baalistix...

 

This guy has some thoughts.

 

[CommodoreDecker]

IMHO, killer games are:

• The Killing Game Show
• Lemmings
• Deluxe Pac-Man
• Deluxe Galaga
• Shadow of the Beast II
• Captain Blood  (okay, this something of a RPG/adventure game, so you might not dig this one)
• Rise of the Dragon (ditto)
• Rick Dangerous
• Rick Dangerous II
• Turrican II (best soundtrack, ever)
• North & Sound
• The Three Stooges

 

For killer demos that are sold as ostensibly being games:

• Shadow of the Beast
• Shadow of the Beast II
• Blood Money
• (or pretty much 95% of any Psygnosis game because those were bloomin' difficult, but sure made any of the competition look like a Pong console's graphical depth by comparison...)